BÉTON DE MARSEILLE

I made an unexpected discovery on my way back from the Cité Radieuse. The small stones scattered beneath the iconic building were not mere gravel, but fragments of the structure itself.

As I picked one up, I realized I was holding a piece of Le Corbusier’s architectural legacy. This small fragment of raw concrete—synonymous with the Brutalist movement he championed—had weathered over 70 years in Marseille, collecting dirt, humidity, and enduring the relentless mistral winds. Poured in front of Le Corbusier’s own eyes, this piece now rested in my hand.

What began as simple fascination quickly deepened into a realization of the inevitable disappearance of even the most enduring structures. Yet, with this disappearance, what truly remains is the idea—an idea that lives on, embedded in new concepts and creations, forever and ever.

With my pockets full of Le Corbusier, a new concept for a sculpture began to take shape. The convergence of themes—disappearance, Marseille, Le Corbusier’s legacy, my humor, and my love affair with France—brought forth the idea of soap. 

Soap, much like buildings, gradually disappears with use, albeit on a vastly different timescale. Marseille, with its centuries-old soap-making tradition, provided the perfect context for this connection. The metaphor was clear: just as a building slowly fades away, leaving behind its influence, so too does soap dissolve, embodying the transient nature of materiality and the lasting power of ideas, transforming tangible into intangible.

sculpture
artwork: “BÉTON DE MARSEILLE”
author: Peter Baran
material: custom concrete mixture + fragment of Cité Radieuse
dimensions: 6.8×6.8×6.8cm (1:1 with 300g Marseille cube soap)

year: 2024

limited to 20 pieces