For most of us architecture is just the set-design in our everyday lives. But for Jean-Baptiste Monnin it’s the leading star. When he looks at buildings he sees the small architectural details that many of us just pass by. For him, architecture is never static; it’s the backbone of his art.
It’s a typical grey morning in January when Artconnect enters Jean-Baptiste Monnin’s apartment in Schöneberg. The style of his home is a mirror of his drawings. It’s precise and in order; every object has its place. The difference though, is that the cat Bisou doesn’t run around in his artworks. It makes sense that a person who builds impressive abstract architectural drawings with thousands and thousands of exact lines is a person who also orders his succulents by size.
We ask him to draw for us and the vibe in the room immediately changes. His pen dances over the canvas to the sound of a track from Pink Floyd’s album Dark Side of The Moon. It’s a soothing thing to watch. By spending hours standing still and making repetitive hand movements in pursuit of the ranging shades of grey, typical for his drawings, Jean-Baptiste tells us that he comes close to a meditative state. “In a way, I even become a part of the art” he says leaning over the big canvas.
