Pascal Dombis and Gil Percal ‘permanent artwork, Ligne-Flux, is a large printed glass under-face of a footbridge, linking 2 buildings of the newly National School of Architecture in Strasbourg (France). The printed pattern is a proliferation of thousands of line-curve shapes, through the use of an organic growth algorithm which makes the line-curve proliferate endlessly and at various scales. It employs randomness in color, so that each line-curve has a unique color, producing a vibrant visual effect as one walks under the bridge. The artworkLigne-Flux creates dynamic spaces that offer another kind of mapping in which networks, connections and flows come into play.

Ligne-Flux operates visually as the virtual energy center of the newly National School of Architecture whose energy flow symbolically radiates on all the surrounding urban space. To echo this flow, the artist Pascal Dombis employed a line-curve shape as the main geometric element. It is based on the excessive stretching of a line similar to the stretching of a bow string and it pushes the principle of false straight lines and genuine curves to its utter limits. This simple element connects with many items in art and philosophy history, like Lucretius clinamen, Leibniz baroque, Einstein curved space or the latest string theory…

The artist Pascal Dombis and the architect Gil Percal collaborates regularly on Public Art projects. Ligne-Flux was commissioned by the French Ministry of Culture, part of the 1% scheme under which 1% of any new public building construction budget have to be set for a public artwork creation.

Location: National School of Architecture, Strasbourg (France) – Architect : Marc Mimram

Artists’ team: Pascal Dombis (artist) and Gil Percal (architect)

Technique and size: Foot-bridge under face, digital ceramic ink print on 3-componant glass panels, 9.00 x 2.50 m (total size with 7 panels)