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INTERVIEW / FRANÇOIS MIGEON
MEET EL PRESIDENTE ... (PT4)
As well as founding the agency ‘Grandeur Nature’ in 1983 and co-creating (alongside Georges Berne) the 8’8” agency in 2008, François Migeon has, for the last three years, been President of the ACE - the Association des Concepteurs lumière et Eclairagistes (the French Association of Lighting Designers and Engineers). Vincent Laganier met with François to learn his views on the nature of light
“MY IDEA CAME FROM LIGHTING THE CHATEAU D’EAU IN CHAVAGNES-LES-EAUX IN 1998. FOR ME, THIS WAS WHEN I FIRST BECAME AWARE OF THE ROLE OF LIGHT.“
As a Plasticien artist concerned with his surroundings, François Migeon began by painting murals. “A wall exists as a surface, rather than being recognised as a building block of the city. It can be brought to life in an instant. We perceive it very precisely in the dense city fabric. It’s like a blank page on which to tell a story.
“For me, the work of Plasticien artists is very important, as it is what provided me with my inspiration. I worked in the city for 15 years and I was put in touch with architects and city planners. Then I decided to propel myself into the three dimensional world. In 3D, you begin to create move- ments in an entirely different respect. You can effectively bring new perspectives to the city, by constructing a sculpture you’re proposing your own interpretation of the space.”
The agency ‘Grandeur Nature’ was founded in 1983. François Migeon worked in the urban art genre, teaming up with Michelle Salmon up until 2003. “The scale is the referent for the project, the perception of the work only exists in relation to the scale
of the city,” he says.
“I feel that lighting design was developed through urban art. I found myself immedi- ately wanting to light up my sculptures. And by lighting up I mean physically lighting up. Bit by bit, the material weathered away, and all that was left was the light. I forgot about the daytime, and penetrated the night instead.
“Also around that time, I made a significant acquaintance called Georges Berne, when I was a student at Arts Appliqués [Applied Arts college]. We used to study together. While developing my ability, I would watch my friend developing in the light; this was a real starting point for the lighting design profession.”
The experience and the views of Georges Berne seduced Migeon: “When I was working on one of my first sculptures, I asked him: How can I light it up? Immediately, he asked me to help with a small project he was working on. I helped him with the Picasso Museum. I was his minature workforce. He developed a responsiveness to light within me.”
Georges Berne is a leading museum special- ist. François Migeon is, above all, a city spe- cialist. The 8’18” agency was developed in 2008 to allow the two of them uniting over lighting design. “8’8” is the time it takes for a photon to travel to the sun and back,” says Migeon. “Our aim was to create an agency that could, in terms of its capability, provide development possibilities for the lighting design profession.
“The French lighting designers themselves are not well-known abroad, yet their ac- complishements are. Many architects have taken us with them around the world, we think it’s brilliant.
“On the whole, we run an agency under the umbrella term of lighting design, but also, as President of the ACE, I believe that the profession has to restructure and modify itself to be able to confront both the research departments in the sector who only have technical knowledge, and the lighting design agencies of the world. Agencies like Speirs and Major, for example, and other European agencies like them have the capacity to take on large million euro
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