What is this strange construction, whose skeletal structure suggests the volumes of a dwelling? Closer to a design than to a building, the installation proposed by the artist Mengzhi Zheng questions the very nature of inhabited space. With a view of the water and of the grass, the module that he installed on a vacant plot of the Hortillonnages was only habitable for a moment. Its construction logic, minimal, rests on simple lines, reminiscent of the architect’s plans – without interior or exterior, its framework made of multicolored features remains largely open on the outside, come rain or shine. The only piece of furniture is a seat that crosses the outline of building, inviting the walker to sit and contemplate the countryside. Playing on the void and at the same time on the omnipresence, this coloured object questions this territory marked by human activities that have become precarious and unstable, in a place where man has always wanted to live.

Born in 1983 in China, artist Mengzhi Zheng studied at the Villa Arson in Nice before developing an approach that challenges our conception of space and habitat. Through his models and drawings, he questions the contemporary practices of architecture, imagining other non-functional spaces which carry a different view of the world.