- En savoir plus
- Les auteurs
- 23 x 28.5 cm
- 224 pages
- 300 black and white and color illustrations
- ISBN: 978-2-9092-8390-6
- Text in French only
It's hard to imagine living without electricity. Invisible, this source of energy has been omnipresent in our lives for a hundred years. At first a mysterious power, it was tamed and staged in Munich in 1882, in Frankfurt, in Marseille, then at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900. The neo-medieval-inspired electric traction factory, built on Boulevard Bourdon in 1911 by Paul Friesé, is compared by critics to a brick cathedral, a piece of architecture where strength and beauty combine to showcase recently mastered energy; an aesthetic of power which is expressed in the construction of gigantic hydroelectric dams. Soon, the housework fairy and the advertising fairy collaborated to bring about the creation of electrical objects intended to liberate women, promoting the creation and development of design. Glorified by Dufy, electricity is finally consecrated as a mode of artistic expression in scintillating scenographies which transfigure urban space, as well as in totally minimalist works.