Currently on at Tate Modern is an exhibition, Celebration Park, by French artist Pierre Huyghe.
A strange mixture of images, neon signs, and films, it is an eclectic collection of a fertile imagination.
One of the most captivating parts of the exhibition is a filmed puppet show This is not a time for dreaming, featuring a tale of Le Corbusier dreaming into being the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts at Harvard University.
Here are a collection of screenshots from the film, viewable on the website:
From the accompanying text by Vincent Honoré:
"This is not a time for dreaming tells two parallel stories, one historical and one contemporary, which unfold together as a single puppet show. The first begins in 1959, when Harvard University commissioned the modernist architect Le Corbusier to design a building for their visual arts department. The aim of the project was to create a symbol of the aesthetic and intellectual aspirations of the University, but the project was marred by protracted negotiations between the architect and the University's administration. The Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts was completed in 1963, after the architect's death."
"In 2003, Huyghe was invited to create a work that would celebrate the building's 40th anniversary. The architect's misadventures became his starting point: Huyghe found that the difficulties inherent in trying to realise a complex, site-specific project that would satisfy both the artist and the University were similar to Le Corbusier's experience. Le Corbusier and Huyghe appear as characters in the puppet show, alongside the commissioners of both projects and portrayed as a black, spectral character, Mr. Harvard, dean of deans."
It's a strange tale, but beautifully crafted and shot, and something to make you think about the creative process.
Celebration Park is on at Tate Modern until 17th September.