Commissions have poured in from galleries, museums, private collectors, and municipalities. His large scale projects have seen discs hopping over roofs and façades in Provence (2013) and ellipses looping over the rooftops of Hasselt, Belgium (2014). While most projects have been temporary, there have been permanent ones too. Among these are such diverse places as Cardiff Bay in Wales; a square in Paris; a plaza in New Haven, USA; Aichi Commemorative Park in Nagoya, and Sapporo Dome, both in Japan. The largest project is a suite of zigzagging triangles spanning a horizontal line 2km in length, along the Saint Nazaire port in Nantes, France. Does Varini ever feel any nostalgia when he returns to a place where one of his works used to be? “My works aren’t less ephemeral than a painting, even if they’re taken away after two months, because the certificate remains”, he says. “It’s comparable to a piece of music or a play – the work can be reactivated in the same place or in a different place, but the details of my certificate must be respected.” Rather than looking backwards, Varini is forward-looking. In September he is going to Perth, Australia to find ideas for a project in Fremantle Port that will be realised next year. Another project is planned for a 12th-century abbey in Ardèche, south-central France. He also has a private commission in San Francisco and an exhibition planned for an art centre in Beauvais, near Paris. “I defined my working rule in 1978, and what interested me was finding an independence”, Varini recalls. “Today, I still construct by this rule.” Isn’t there an inherent paradox in how independence is demarcated by architecture? “Reality is always paradoxical, but the architecture is more of a reality than a constraint”, he replies. In the case of MAMO, Le Corbusier’s architecture is a heritage-reality upon which Varini’s joyful work sings to the heavens. À ciel ouvert was at MAMO in Marseille until 02 October 2016. An exhibition on Felice Varini will take place at the Quadrilatère, Beauvais, France, 21 January – 02 April 2017. Felice Varini: Place by Place is published by Lars Müller Publishers.
