Books published by Editions Skira Paris

Two-dimensional Plensa Jaume Plensa is one of the major figures of contemporary sculpture, best known for his large-scale human figures in stainless steel. This monography presents the artist from another angle, showing his graphic works. The book offers an intimate insight into Plensäs universe. Characterised by a greater freedom, as they are not made to order and do not require assistants¿ help, the drawings are a form of reflexion and experimentation for Plensa. He works with various materials, such as plastic sheets, or thick glue on paper or Plexiglas, which allows him to play with light and transparency and gives his works an impression of volume. As in the case of the sculptures, the artist focuses on the human, representing a variety of figures, which he assembles with elements such as photos, letters from different alphabets or numbers. This monography brings to light the diversity of Plensäs creation and the richness of his artistic language. Far from being reduced to preparatory works, Plensa's drawings, often of very large dimensions, function as artworks in their own right, showing the diversity of Plensäs ideas.

Slimen El Kamel was born in 1983 in Mazouna in the region of Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia. Nourished by popular stories, his childhood was shaped by the imagination of the rural environment where the tradition of storytelling and popular poetry flourished. His studies at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Tunis allowed him to crystallize this literary and intellectual heritage into a singular plastic practice. A practice whose genesis opens through a writing and draws its resources in his texts, sometimes poetic or literary, sometimes memorial or improvised. The daily scriptural exercise, as much as it circumscribes, extends the horizons of his plastic universe. Not far from the free figuration, the artist questions the relation of the real and the imaginary by the dramatization of the constellated image. The figure of a reality levitates in the space of an imagination and a proliferating abundance where a transfiguration of the social and popular fact in a surrealist vision is played. Images of the memory, images of a reality taken on the supports of the everyday life cross in a pictorial field where, to flower of painting, the rustle of a dialogue begins without end, not for the account of a fact, but for a festival of the accounts.

The immersive exhibition Imagine Picasso makes it possible to discover Pablo Picasso's work from new, innovative angles. Each visitor is invited to wander through a mosaic of emblematic paintings, removed from their frames and projected on a huge origami-like forms. Penetrating the mesmerizing world of unusual compositions of large-scale artworks gives the opportunity to explore the richness of details of Picasso's art. The album offers the possibility to relive the immersive experience through multiple photos from the exhibition. They are accompanied by texts by Androula Michael which provide clear descriptions of different Picasso's periods and of subjects that were dear to him. The reader can discover Picasso's art from the early years, through blue and pink period, cubism, "neoclassical" period, surrealism, up to his final years. Les demoiselles d'Avignon, Portrait of Dora Maar, Guernica and many more are to be explored in this book that offers a new way of looking at the work of this genius of modern art.

From the first pages, we are immersed into the history of the creation of Fairmont. Echoing the wonderful endeavor of railway, the flourishing of Fairmont palaces and Chateaux-hotels in North America results from a succesful combination between Luxury and Nature. The constant attention to surroundings hows Fairmont's strong concern in sustainability and wildlife preservation. Focusing on Architecture, the book presents the historic hotels along with the most recent yet iconic hotels ever built. Through architectural and design innovations, the Fairmont hotels managed throughout time to stand out in hospitality Architecture. Traveling from San Francisco to Singapore, one discovers the magnificent locations where Fairmont hotels stand across the world. While exploring the resorts built in heavenly places, one can only wonder at the unlimited solutions used by Fairmont to renew the typology. Praised by international and prestigious guests, the Fairmont hotels has a long experience hosting royal members, actors, singers and politics. The book is illustrated with rare pictures of famous guests while staying at Fairmont hotels. The best of Fashion can be appreciated along with a real enthusiasm for themed balls and parties. This unique material reenacts the wonderful atmosphere that can only be experienced at Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. ¿ Luxury hotels throughout the world ¿ Iconic architecture ¿ Historical guests Starting with a foreword written by Fairmont ambassador and Award winning actress Susan Sarandon, this book celebrates the long history of Fairmont through three chapters (Origins, Architecture and Soul) and rich archival material. The book recreates the unique experience given to Fairmont's customers and makes the reader part of its grand and stupendous history. Accor Group is one of the world leading company in the hospitality industry.

Renowned architect Hala Wardé designed "A Roof for Silence" for the Lebanese Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia. The design of the work was based on a poem-in-paint by Etel Adnan, as well as on the Antiforms of Paul Virilio, hung facing a series of sixteen ancient trees of Lebanon that were photographed in daylight by Fouad Elkoury, then plunged into darkness by Alain Fleischer, who filmed them in their sleep, with the musical accompaniment of the Soundwalk Collective. The Lebanese Pavilion is conceived as a musical score, resonating disciplines, shapes, and periods to provoke the sensory experience of a thought, articulated around the notions of emptiness and silence, as temporal and spatial conditions of architecture. Treated as a manifesto for a new form of architecture, Hala Wardé's project is based on the cryptic shapes of a group of sixteen olive trees that are a thousand years old in Lebanon. These legendary trees, whose hollowed forms are home to various species, are the tutelary figure of the Lebanese Pavilion. They are places of recollection or gathering, where peasants have convened for generations to decide on village affairs or to celebrate weddings. This book tells the story of the Lebanese Pavilion and explains, through plans, sketches and models, the intentions, and concepts behind the spatial organization of the exhibition.

Political geography and personal encouters

The first catalogue raisonné of a leading artist of the Cubist movement.Raymond Duchamp-Villon (1876-1918) was born in Eure, in the Haute-Normandie region of France. He was the brother of the artists Jacques Villon, Marcel Duchamp, and Suzanne Duchamp-Crotti.In 1894 Duchamp-Villon started a career in medicine at the Sorbonne. However rheumatic fever forced him to abandon his studies in 1898 and he began to pursue an interest in sculpture.He soon achieved a high level of mastery and acumen. In 1902 and 1903, he exhibited at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.He exhibited his work at the Salon d'Automne in 1905 and he was made a member of the jury of the sculpture section in 1907, becoming instrumental in promoting the Cubist movement.He participated in major salons in Paris and in 1912 he exhibited at the important Armory Show in New York City.During World War I Duchamp-Villon served in the French army in a medical capacity, but still participated in exhibitions and completed his major cubist sculpture, The Large Horse. In late 1916, Raymond Duchamp-Villon contracted typhoid fever and diedin a military hospital at Cannes.In 1967, in Rouen, his last surviving artist brother Marcel helped organize an exhibition called Les Duchamp: Jacques Villon, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Marcel Duchamp, Suzanne Duchamp. Some of this family exhibition was later shown at the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris.

Wilmotte & Associés is a multi-disciplinary architecture firm.The firm takes on an impressive range and scale of projects from large plants, stadiums, high-rise buildings, hospitals, hotels, theatres, museums, congress centres, and shoppingmalls to private residences.Some of the greatest museums have enlisted the services of Jean-Michel Wilmotte and his team, including the Louvre (Paris), the Chiado Museum (Lisbon), the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar (Doha), the Museum d'Orsay (Paris), and the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam).Jean-Michel Wilmotte's architecture is characterised by great care given to a building's integration within the site it occupies, to clean lines, quality of materials, and attention to detail.Wilmotte & Associés exerts true expertise in developing museums and exhibition scenography. Whether dealing with an old building or a new build, it is a question of cultivating deep connections between three distinct axes: art, space, and the visitor. The result of this work is ultimately a culmination in a real sensation of ease and comfort for the visitor. Following an interview with Jean-Michel Wilmotte and an essay on museography, this book will present in detail the major projects designed by the architecture firm for museums, artists' studios and galleries.

Between the desert and the sea, in the cultural district of the island of Saadiyat, sits the architectural masterpiece by Jean Nouvel.The choice of Jean Nouvel as architect of the future Louvre Abu Dhabi did not come as a surprise. He is the most renowned French architect of our time.From the first sketch of the project, drawn by Jean Nouvel in 2006, the Louvre Abu Dhabi was conveived as we know it today. From its majestic dome, which has become the symbol of this new museum, to the grand vestibule, the exhibition halls and the children's museum, this album takes us in an intellectual stroll through the most beautiful museum in the world.Exploring each element of the building from its conception, the inspirations, the first drawings, the virtual project, until the construction of the building, with this book we discover each phase of the project, the different objectives and experiments that made the museum what it is today.

Louvre Abu Dhabi is a comprehensive exploration of Jean Nouvel's latestmasterpiece, from the first sketches and through each phase of its conceptionand construction. From the majestic, novel dome to the exhibition halls, thisedition walks the reader through this architectural jewel.

The Majlis, Cultures in dialogue is comprised of objects that tell stories. Stories about a long history of exchanges and dialogue in the Arabian Peninsula and beyond. Stories that one might hear in a majlis, the space present in every Arab home where people gather to talk and socialize. Stories that recall the mutual - and often forgotten - influences between the Islamic civilization, Europe, India and the Far East. Stories at the core of an ambitious project initiated by the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum: a multifaceted forum for respectful yet incisive dialogue that connects people, beliefs and cultures. This catalogue gathers some forty artworks from the collection of the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum, chosen to showcase these existing interrelationships between artists and craftsmen around the world and how they influenced style and culture across country borders.

This album of the Louvre Abu Dhabi collection of works allows readers to fully enjoy what the museum offers its visitors: an encounter with the universal across epochs, cultures and civilisations. The discovery - or rediscovery - of the works exhibited in the Louvre Abu Dhabi is a unique experience: on one hand because they are seen in a new light, that of Abu Dhabi filtered through the dome designed by Jean Nouvel, and on the other because their dialogue with works with which they are not usually presented increases their polysemy. This album provides a key to understanding the characteristics common to all humanity and the elements that constitute and form our distinct identity filtered through the prism of time, culture and history. The collection of the Louvre Abu Dhabi is universal in its scope: from prehistory to the latest contemporary commissions. Artists Giuseppe Penone and Jenny Holzer have created new works in direct response to the museum's unique architecture and spirit. The very first purchase was made in 2009: a seminal painting by abstract pioneer Piet Mondrian. Since then, the collection has expanded to over 600 pieces. The diversity of masterpieces is astonishing. Highlights include an incredibly rare Bactrian princess from the 3rd millennium BCE; a 3000-year-old Middle-Eastern gold bracelet; and a magnificent monumental bronze lion from Andalusia from the 11-12th century. Alongside these are works by some of the great European masters of the 19th and 20th centuries: Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee and René Magritte. A series of nine canvases by Cy Twombly produced in Italy just three years before the artist's death in 2011 is also on show. Together, such works, and many more, represent the human desire for artistic expression in its entirety.