At the Château de Tournon-sur-Rhône, Mengzhi Zheng unveils his anti-architectures

Unexpected exhibition in an unexpected place: Mengzhi Zheng, who was born in Ruian (China) in 1983, but has lived in France since 2000, takes possession of several rooms in the Château de Tournon-sur-Rhône (Ardèche). This one, begun in the XIV^e century in fortress style, was later modified for more lightness and windows opened in its walls in the XVI^e century. If we specify these points of architecture, it is because this is the main subject of Mengzhi Zheng’s works and because those he presents in the towers and rooms correspond to the spaces that receive them. These are constructions, the dimensions of which range from models to monumental in situ installations, and suites of collages, etchings and serigraphs that resonate with them.

The “buildings” of Mengzhi Zheng, if that word is appropriate here, are sometimes absurdly incomplete, sometimes much too fragile, sometimes still impenetrable.

In accordance with the habits of architecture, they are determined by geometry, parallel lines, right angles, symmetry and sometimes admit the circle and the curve. Cardboard, polycarbonate and wood are the materials. Thus are materialized the plans and structures of these constructions. But what appears first, even before knowing that a series is called Inhabitats and another Abandoned modelsis that these proposals cannot be reasonably realized, because they are unusable from a practical point of view.

The “buildings” of Mengzhi Zheng, if this word is appropriate here, are sometimes absurdly incomplete, sometimes much too fragile, sometimes still impenetrable. What would be a frame is suddenly interrupted and what would be a ridge beam juts out into the void, useless. Surfaces that would be roofs and walls do not meet or are missing and the gaze passes through a house spectrum as it would through a ruin. Or, conversely, we come up against compact and hermetic volumes: beautiful models of blockhouses, which would be attractive if they were not fortifications intended to kill.

Sense of derision

These sculptures-assemblies-constructions cannot be viewed without attaching references and stories to them. For bunkers, it’s immediate: wars, from the First World War to today. For the most fragile montages of falling boards and debris, it is just as immediate: slums, favelas and refugee camps, all over the world, accumulate such improvised and unsanitary salvage huts. The cleanest models, by their whiteness and neatness, are reminiscent of advertisements seeking to sell standardized housing for new towns and the film The Witness Couple in which, in 1977, William Klein already parodied this industry.

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