How to Save a Biosphere?

 

This photo exhibition focuses on my 10 years (1983-1993) of interventions for the preservation of the geodesic dome of Montreal.

Designed by Buckminster Fuller to serve as the United States pavilion at Expo 67, this dome was then abandoned, then renamed “Biosphere” when it was renovated into a museum.

This exhibition relates my journey as a committed artist, inspired by a revolutionary structure and a visionary architect. It is the story of a fight, that of art in the service of architecture, conservation and heritage.

My documentary work and my artistic actions begin in Montreal and aim to raise awareness in the cultural and political milieu of the time about the agony of a world-famous architectural icon.

My approach then leads me to review or discover Fuller’s other great prototypes in North America. In doing so, I was able to observe and document the slow death of other exceptional structures.

How to save a biosphere? While the symbolism and metaphor are obvious, they raise many questions and challenges:

• Is it possible to save the small Biosphere? Can we save the large Biosphere?
• Does the Biosphere have a voice, an ambassador, a representative?
• Can an individual (artist) make a difference on their own?
• “Think globally, but act locally.” How can we put this quote from B. Fuller into practice?
• What qualities are required to save the planet?
• Are there any other options than utopia or oblivion? (Utopia or Oblivion by B. Fuller, 1969.)
• At what price indifference and oblivion?

The content of the exhibition comes from my archives and constitutes a largely unpublished portfolio. Each print is signed by me.

Chronology

This is the sequence of my artistic interventions about the safeguard of the Montreal geodesic dome, later named Biosphere, created and built by Buckminster Fuller and Shoji Sadao for Expo 67. Here are the main (dominant) lines of my involvement that lasted 10 years and more, from 1983 to 1993.

During this decade-long period, I would go to the Biosphere regularly, camera in hand, to take note of the abandonment, deterioration and vandalism. In other words, documenting the slow death of this unique landmark.

During this period the site also became my creative studio. From the very beginning of my interventions, I am in regular contact with Fuller’s closest collaborators, associates and family members. Allegra Fuller Snyder, Fuller’s daughter, was constantly encouraging me to continue my artistic and documentary actions in Montreal and elsewhere, in order to make Fuller’s major landmark structures better known.

1983–84
Initial photo documentation of the interior and exterior of the geodesic dome and the collecting of various objects found on the site.

1985
Production of a video interview (transcript), combined with a visit to the site, with Shoji Sadao, principal architect of the Biosphere with Fuller. The video was made possible by a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.

1986
Exhibition: “The Dome Project, Exploring a Remnant of the Modernist Era,” Galerie P.R.I.M., Montreal. A multimedia installation, incorporating found objects, large format rubbings, photographs and the presentation of the video interview with Shoji Sadao. See The Dome Project.

1987
Exhibition: “Synergetic Pressure Prints,” Concordia University Art Gallery, Montreal. A body of work based on Fuller’s theories in synergetic geometry. See Synergetic Pressure Prints.

1989
Artistic action: exhibition and occupation of the Montreal Biosphere for two weeks with an installation of large size paintings describing the origins of this architectural monument. See Large Paintings.

1990
Dome trip in North America to locate and document the other large-scale structures of Fuller. The goal is to update their state of being and to rediscover the origins of the Montreal Biosphere. See Other Domes by Buckminster Fuller.

1991
Cleaning and painting of the geodesic membrane of the Biosphere. This is the first concrete “gesture” in more than 20 years that the City of Montreal has taken to protect the structure. The City also invites Canadian architects to present feasibility projects regarding the transformation of the place into an environmental museum.

1992
Demolition of the lower-level platforms, floors, office spaces and structures inside the Biosphere.

Travel to Kansas to make a visual record of the slow and methodical deconstruction (piece by piece) of the Dymaxion house (or Dymaxion Dwelling Machine, 1945–46). It has finally found a new home at the Ford Museum and will be rebuilt on the museum’s site in Dearborn, Michigan. See Dymaxion Dwelling Machine.

Exhibition: “Buckminster Fullers’ Dymaxion Dwelling Machine,” Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, Kansas. Multimedia installation of objects, photos and videos.

1993
Photo documentation of the reconstruction of the platforms and the new exhibition spaces of the Biosphere.

Video interview (Part 1, Part 2 and transcript) and portrait session with Ed Applewhite, co-author with Fuller of Synergetics.

Meeting and portrait session with Kiyoshi Kuromiya, co-author with Fuller of Cosmography: A Posthumous Scenario for the Future of Humanity.