Charlie Warde Light box selfie, courtesy of the artist
Challenging the heritage of Brutalist London architecture (Ernö Goldfinger) the british artist based in Marseille, Charlie Warde, found a continuum to his experimentations with Le Corbusier Cité Radieuse. The vibrations of the Mediterranean city and DIY spirit offers a lot of potential he explains, under the flagship of Art-o-rama which plays a major role in his audience and development. This year Charlie is part of the fair VIP program and his gallery, Cable Depot (London) in association with PUNTA y POSTA (Sofia) is participating for the 3rd time (Edition & Design). Charlie gives us keys to figure out his creative process and influences from Rembrandt X-rays to Le Corbusier ‘s Modulor tools along with his decisive meetings and supports in Marseille from Fraeme, Triangle-Astérides, to Frac Sud, and many others, all starting with Manifesta 13 at Beaux-arts Luminy. Charlie’s next projects are : Artissima fair and a large performance painting in Quartiers Nord ‘ housing units scheduled for demolition
Marie de la Fresnaye. You have an obsession for London Brutalist architecture and are based in Marseille, the city of Le Corbusier : is this pure coincidence ?
Charlie Warde. Indeed. It’s a strange coincidence. The Cité Radieuse is the mothership of modernism. It has informed every social housing project built since it’s completion, so even if my area of interest was Brutalism in London, a path has inevitably led me to this building. The first night I ever spent at Marseille was at the Unité d’habitation at the hotel, which Le Corbusier designed into the scheme as overflow for the inhabitants’ guests since many of the apartments were small units. I was in Marseille because of an exhibition linked to Art-o-rama taking place at Wilfrid Almendra’s studio and Adelaide project space on rue du Chevalier Rose by my friend Nick Devereux. After the diner we all shared together, I retired for the night and checked into my room at Cité Radieuse.
I originally moved to Marseille for Manifesta 13 since I was part of the “White Mountain College” residency at Beaux-arts in Luminy. My family and I moved here initially for 6 months. Then Covid happened which kept us here and the shitty reality of Brexit kicked in as we gradually felt deeper and deeper in love with Marseille ! I still gravitate around the Cité Radieuse as a landmark and inspiration; I use tools designed by Le Corbusier – his Modulor Rule scale of measurement and his system of 63 colours (Architectural Polychromy).
Charlie Warde, There is Nothing to See Here, Move Along courtesy of the artist
MdF. How would you describe your creative process and influences ?
CW. My creative processs is born out of research and many years of experience and my training as a portrait painter. In 2013, the year after I graduated from artschool, I had a residency at 2 Willow Road, Ernö Goldfinger’s London house, now a museum. That enabled me to spend several months ploughing through the RIBA archives kept in the Victoria & Albert Museum for a series of radio programs I subsequently coproduced. In these archives I found the recipes for his concrete mixtures for different parts of his different buildings. There was even information about the quarries from which the aggregates derived. Mad detail – Goldfinger was a holder of information ! Since I had a studio in one of his buildings, I could examine the concrete and collect samples, using magnified glasses to understand their pigmentation and properties. Using artist pigments and acrylic mediums I recreated fragments of the building, beginning with the concrete and it’s aggregates (sand and stones) to the subsequent layers of overpaint, graffiti, rain and pollution damage. I made identical paintings, hyperreal facsimiles – artefacts of sections of his buildings – of the areas that were scheduled for demolition.
I learned to make paint when I studied portrait painting at an atelier in Florence, Italy. There I assisted Richard Serrin, who taught me to make oil paint and mediums. He gave me a deep understanding of paint and its possibilities. Richard was obsessed by Rembrant – he had an archive of X rays of Rembrant’s paintings. We would spend hours looking at them, trying to understand how he developed his underpainting, altered compositions and constructed layers of impasto, scumbling, wet on wet and glazes. You could say that my technique derives from the old masters and the masters of modernist architecture – a mash-up of my experiences in a renaissance city and the gritty urbanism of London’s postwar architecture.
My influences are painter’s painters: Titian, Rembrandt, Cézanne, Freud, the usual suspects. In terms of contemporary painters, my hero is Amikam Toren. No one has pushed painting further since the 1970s.
Charlie Warde Ley Lines, courtesy of the artist
MdF. According to you why is Marseille art scene so appealing ?
CW. Because there are so many interesting artists here doing interesting stuff. Marseille has got this Punk, experimental DIY thing going on, which is perhaps due to a lack of studios provided by the city, a lack of commercial galleries here (aside from the excellent Nendo and Double V) and a lack of real private patronage. There is this experimental energy powered by artists and artist and curator run project-spaces. This is in tandem with the tireless support of structures like Fonds Carta on a local level and Fraeme and Triangles-Astérides that bring a crucial national and international scope to the Marseille energy. The Frac under the directorship of Muriel Enjalran is marvellous and Art o rama as you know is crucial. Art-O-Rama is to art what fashion is to Pitti Immagine Uomo in Florence ; for a week the world descends upon the city, gravitating around the fair to all the satellite events and spaces; there’s so much to discover – including my studio !
Charlie Warde, Slab 6 (Trellick Tower) 2016 courtesy of the artist, pic. Andy Anderinto
MdF. What could make this energy more economically profitable ?
CW. We cannot rely on energy and goodwill alone – Marseille collectors need to really get behind the art scene by supporting the galleries, the project spaces and the artists. This can only be done by buying work. If this happens, Marseille has the potential to flourish. Look what’s happened to the food scene here, it’s exploded !
MdF. You have strong connections with Art-o-rama : what impact has the fair on your career ?
CW. It’s been important; Art o rama has introduced me to a French audience. I had a solo presentation with Cable Depot in 2022. It was a challenging and experimental booth involving a program of performances by artists, curators, collectors and architects, some using a lot of equipment and props. Art o rama was very supportive; they gave us a big booth and published the program. I don’t know of many art fairs that would support and encourage such a challenging booth. It all sold too! Art o rama has been instrumental for the emergence of my gallery and it will be their 3rd collaboration with the fair. Jérôme (Pantalacci, director) Véronique (Collard Bovy) and Sasha (Vales, Fraeme) and the rest of the team really make things happen; they have enough energy to power the sun !
MdF. What are your next projects and challenges ?
CW. My next big show is a diologue presented by Jacuzzi (Cable Depot’s new Sofia based enterprise) at Artissima in Turin with Amikam Toren. To be showing with one of all-time heroes and art school tutors is a dream come true. There is a solo show being planned in Bulgaria and various group shows including Interfaces, curated by Atopos during Art-O-Rama (31/08 – 07/09, 41 Cours Lieutaud, 13006).
As for challenges, I’m looking forward to starting on a big project based on Housing projects scheduled for demolition in the Quartiers Nord, here in Marseille. This will involve extensive research and meetings with the inhabitants to produce a largescale performance painting that can be activated by them. The idea is to empower the community by giving them some sort of control of their destiny and sense of place. I am currently looking for partners for the project.
Practical Info :
Art-o-rama
Hours
August 30 11 – 21 August 31 14 – 19 September 1st 14– 19
Tickets
Ticket Art-o-rama + all exhibitions la Friche
Full – 12 € Reduced– 8 €
Location
La Tour 3ème étage, La Cartonnerie, le Petit Plateau
Friche la Belle de Mai
https://art-o-rama.fr/fr
Art – o-rama VIP program/Parcours privé
Charlie’s Studio visit August 31
https://art-o-rama.fr/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Parcours-Prive-2024-ENFR.pdf
Group show during the fair : Interfaces curated by Atopos
31/08 – 07/09, 41 Cours Lieutaud, 13006
Next fair/projects :
Artissima with Jacuzzi (Cable Depot’s new Sofia based enterprise)
To listen Charlie’s radio show program,
a four part sonic exploration of modernist architect ernö goldfinger’s utopian drive to build for a better world. featuring architects, historians, artists, and residents of his social housing schemes …
