Marie-Thérèse Vacossin

The central theme of the works of Marie-Thérèse Vacossin (*1929 Paris, FR) is colour and its perception. This is reflected in Prismus, a work commissioned for two stairwells in the Bayerstraße building. The title of the work calls to mind the term prism, which denotes a geometric shape from the fields of geometry and optics. In optics, a prism splits a ray of light into a fan of spectral colours. Vacossin employs this phenomenon associatively in her two orientation systems, which differ only in the warmth of the colours used, not in terms of concept. While the white Perspex rods indicate the floor where the viewer is standing, the coloured rods that follow the line of the landing’s corners are colour-coded as a further orientation aid based on the warmth that rises up the stairwell: violet, dark blue, light blue, green (cold) or violet, red, orange, yellow (warm). The position of the coloured strips and the angle shape the light falling on the various coloured rods, producing reflectance and mirroring effects, which can be influenced even by the stance of the viewer.