Everyone will soon be clamouring to know Ben Clement, 27, and his partner in art and architecture, Sebastian de la Cour, 28, who have won the newly-established Politiken Talent Prize for 2008. The Copenhagen Post was quick to recognise Ben Clements’ artistic skills - he has been the art editor on the In & Out Guide for some time.
But to win this new prize from amongst 114 exciting art exhibits in Charlottenborg art gallery’s Spring Exhibition, is a real feather in the caps of the two young architects/artists.
Their piece was chosen as one of ten from the exhibition to take part in the Politiken Talent prize. After the jury, which comprised both senior art critics and journalists, had made their selection the public were given the chance to select their favourite piece and vote on the internet.
‘The City of the (Re)orientated’ is both an architectural model and a sculpture, says Clement. ‘It proposes a future city where maps are redundant and it is no longer solely visual landmarks and street names that guide us around.
As we become increasingly reliant on GPS, wireless connections and 24/7 internet for human interrelation, our cities are likely to become increasingly chaotic,’ he explains.
Ben and Sebastian’s model is chaotic, dirty (even the sticks and chips they used to build the model are soiled and dusty in places) but it has the charm and fascination of a city from the Middle Ages which has just grown organically - at random.
Stairways lead nowhere in particular, labyrinthine streets meander or simply come to a stop, the city does not appear to have any orientation - which is probably its fascination to over one third of the voters.
The two-man team is international and complementary. Ben Clement is from Oxfordshire in England, where there are many examples of cities which originally evolved without structure or design. Sebastian de la Cour is from Lyngby in Denmark, a country of clean lines, structure, regional planning and symmetry.
Ben studied architecture at Cambridge University and the two met doing their post-graduate degrees at the famous design school attached to University College London, called The Bartlett.
They now work together in Denmark and apart from the prize money of 50,000 kroner they will share exciting new projects which have already begun to roll in.
Art in architecture is their passion, and perhaps the dynamic duo are on their way to creating a new concept: perhaps it could be called Artist-tecture?
