Émile Aillaud's Tours Nuages in Nanterre
The Tours Nuages (Cloud Towers) in Nanterre's Pablo-Picasso district, by Émile Aillaud (1973-1981): Fabio Rieti's mosaics, round and teardrop windows, painted by Dinelli.
In the Pablo-Picasso district of Nanterre, west of Paris, eighteen towers of 7 to 38 storeys form one of the most unusual estates in the Paris region. The Tours Nuages (Cloud Towers), designed by architect Émile Aillaud, were built from 1973 to 1981 and hold around 1,600 homes.
Sky-coloured façades
Their façades are covered in glass-paste mosaics whose colours were designed by the painter Fabio Rieti: blues, greys and greens that echo the sky and the foliage. The windows are square, round or teardrop-shaped. The estate received the Patrimoine du XXe siècle label in 2008, then the Architecture contemporaine remarquable label in 2017.
Dinelli's canvas
Tours Nuages – Pablo Picasso takes up these mosaic façades and their teardrop windows. The crumpled canvas is shown in a plexiglass box, which holds the relief at a distance like a display case.
Nanterre returns elsewhere in her work, with Nanterre Nord, crossed by yellow cords, and Nanterre Sud.
These canvases belong to the Habitats collection.
Text: Dinelli studio. Quotations: the artist's own writings.
New works
An occasional letter, when a new series or an exhibition is coming. Nothing else.