“From my interest in volumes arose the need to make a clean slate of the past. I focused on forgetting everything about graphics so as to avoid having, in space, the same reflexes that I might have on paper or on a computer screen.”

Mengzhi Zheng conceives architectural volumes whose purpose is not to be produced on a human scale. In Pli/Dépli, the volume has been created by simple folds. In opposition to the general chaos of Halle Girard, this origami-inspired sculpture uses large, plain leaves of slatted wood instead of the usual paper. “Just because the room is large doesn’t mean that the work has to be heavy or imposing.” For this reason, Mengzhi Zheng has scattered the exhibition space with a series of abandoned mock-ups. These light improvisations are reminiscent of basic constructions, “well or poorly made shelters that shelter next to nothing”. By misappropriating the architecture model, Mengzhi Zheng offers more than just a questioning of our relationship with living spaces: he transforms a practical prototype into a medium for mental projection, or “an invitation to cross over”.

Mengzhi Zheng was born in Ruian, China. He arrived in France at the age of seven, and is a graduate of the École nationale supérieure d’art, Villa Arson, Nice.