« Construction becomes a metalanguage. »
Marc Leschelier (born in 1984) is a French architect and sculptor based in Paris. Trained at the École nationale supérieure d’architecture Paris-Malaquais, he has developed a practice at the intersection of architecture, sculpture, and performance. For several years, he has been designing “pre-architectures”: functional-less constructions that question the very foundations of architecture by diverting traditional building materials and techniques. A resident of the Villa Medici in 2017–2018, Marc Leschelier has presented his work at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Salone del Mobile in Milan, Design Miami Paris, Art Brussels, and Villa Noailles. Galerie Ketabi Bourdet supports this research by presenting his most recent pavilions, sculptures, and architectural experiments.
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Pavillon X
Marc Leschelier (born in 1984 in Paris) is a French architect, sculptor, and teacher whose practice challenges the very foundations of architecture. A graduate of the École nationale supérieure d’architecture Paris-Malaquais, he developed an early interest in the limits of his discipline and in the possibility of an architecture freed from function, programme, and regulatory constraints.
After collaborating with several international practices, he pursued an independent research practice informed by radical architecture, performance, vernacular practices, and contemporary sculpture. A resident of the Villa Medici in 2017–2018, he further developed an approach that gradually led him to formulate the concept of pre-architecture, an architectural subgenre of which he is now its principal theorist.
Marc Leschelier’s pre-architectures take the form of pavilions, structures, or self-supporting constructions that reject any predetermined function. Built in sculpture parks, open landscapes, or exhibition contexts, they shift architecture from the realm of use towards that of experience. Industrial materials — aluminium, steel, concrete, cement fabric, or wood — are employed against their conventional purpose in order to reveal their sculptural qualities rather than their constructive efficiency.
The act of construction occupies a central place in his practice. Rejecting the traditional separation between design and execution, Marc Leschelier builds his works himself, favouring a direct relationship with materials and the building site. This approach gives his works a performative dimension in which the act of building becomes a form of writing. Architecture thus ceases to be a response to a need and becomes an autonomous language, capable of producing forms open to interpretation.
His works have been presented at numerous international institutions and events, including the Venice Architecture Biennale, Salone del Mobile in Milan, Art Brussels, Design Miami Paris, Villa Noailles, and several sculpture parks across Europe.
In 2023, Pavillon X, presented by Galerie Ketabi Bourdet at Design Miami Paris, marked an important stage in his career, proposing a demountable architecture in which a metal structure engages with crumpled cement fabric, blurring the boundaries between sculpture and building.
Galerie Ketabi Bourdet supports Marc Leschelier in the development of this experimental practice, presenting his works within a context where architecture, sculpture, and collectible design converge. This collaboration contributes to bringing visibility to a practice that profoundly rethinks the way the architectural object can be conceived today.
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Partition classique pour Design Miami/Paris
Le salon de design s'installe dans la capitale au sein d'un somptueux hôtel particulier, proposant du mobilier de haut calibre visant le public de Paris + par Art Basel.Alexandre Crochet, The Art Newspaper, 19 October 2023 -
Le Paris de l'art en quatre outsiders
Dans le sillage de Paris + par Art Basel, qui se tient au Grand Palais Ephémère, les foires parallèles, d'Asia Now à Offscreen, de Design Miami Paris à Paris Internationale, multiplient les propositions.Valérie Duponchelle et Béatrice de Rochebouët, Le Figaro, 20 October 2023 -
Crumpled cement drapes over function-free pavilion X in Paris
Pavilion X's Dynamic dance with MaterialityChristina Petridou, Designboom, 14 November 2023 -
Marc Leschelier's exploration of architecture as a metalanguage, with Pavilion X
The Paris-based architect and sculptor built Pavilion X, a demountable structure that exists at the intersection of sculpture and architecture, which is a structure sans function.Almas Sadique, Stir world, 3 December 2023
Selected Bibliography
- Designboom – Pavilion X's Dynamic Dance with Materiality.
- Stir World – Architecture as a Metalanguage.
- The Art Newspaper – Design Miami Paris.
- Le Figaro – Design Miami Paris.
- Villa Médicis – Biographie.
Collections / Installations
- Parc de sculptures du Château du Feÿ
- Piacé le Radieux
- Public works in France and Belgium