Overlapping Narratives of Domestic Space 6.10 Carefully composed shot of living room of the Penthouse from the Œuvre Complète.
6.13 Another fireplace composition in the “Exhibition of Art So Called ‘Primitive’” (1935) held in the Penthouse from the Œuvre Complète.
across the frame, past a vast stone from a British beach, extending towards an ancient Greek statue of a woman
( Fig. 6.13).
It occupies the foreground, disturbing the delicate balance of near and far in this place.
Games are played in the distribution of artefacts within Le Corbusier’s own home, not only to alter our perception of space, but this time to collapse our sense of time – the many centuries that separate the ancient statue and that of Laurens, and of culture, the many miles travelled by the Benin figurine. The exhibition seems to encapsulate the belief, mentioned in chapter 4, that it is the job of the poet to transcend limitations of time. Although a concrete-framed building with minimal non-load bearing partitions, the flat, described by Peter Carl as a “museum cave”, feels anything but flimsy.12 Close inspection of the thresholds between the key spaces reveals why this is the case. The frames of the vast doors, often surmounted by a shelf, are given a depth quite disproportionate to the lightweight walls that they inhabit, as they mark the points between
12 P. Carl, “Le Corbusier’s Penthouse in Paris: 24 Rue Nungesser et Coli”, Daidalos, 28 (1988), pp.65–75.
135