21th of March, 2021. The International Day of Colour and the first Colour Talk of ICA-Belgium. It was a great pleasure to have the artist/architect Philip Leblanc as one of the first speakers.

Philip Leblanc is a Belgian artist sensitive to rationality and the purity of forms and to the changing qualities of light. Philippe finds inspiration in mathematics, famous series like Fibonacci’s, conical shapes and emblematic numbers such as the golden number, Pi, and root of two.

His works include wall sculptures, light boxes, hanging mobiles, motorized carousels or raised puzzles, all sharing the same geometric language. The colors, the minimality of white, the non-materiality of mirrors, cut-outs and translucent pieces, reinforce a play with light as well as a notion of spectrum or series while evoking the memory of the underlying writing. Philip Leblanc talked about the process and ideas behind his mysterious, enigmatic work. You find his talk on the YouTube channel of ICA-Belgium – ColourDay2021.

After the Colour Talk, followed an invitation to visit Philip in his studio in Brussels. There the artwork could be seen on display and the explanation of how the artwork was created. Phillipe was a wonderful host. It was great to finally be able to see the artworks in person.

Philip, explaining Fibonacci’s mathematical series, where each element is worth the sum of the two preceding ones (1, 1, 2,3,5, …).

This impressive artwork represents the calendar of the year 2080, a leap year for which January 1 is a Monday. At a height of 24 meters, a steel circle 60 cm in diameter features 12 holes, just like a clock. Months are represented by cables threaded through each hole, together creating a cylinder.

Stainless-steel ellipses stand for days, a mirror on one side, lacquer on the other. Ellipses are 12 x 24 cm, recalling the duration of the day as the Earth turns on its axis. Suspended at over 24 meters, a steel disk features 12 perforations, just like a clock. Months are represented by cables threaded through each hole, forming a vertical cylinder.

Stainless-steel ellipses, fixed on the cables at regular intervals, stand for days. Their dimensions recall time units, and their shape the rotation units of the earth around the sun.

Colors are assigned to each day of the week: Yellow for Mondays, Yellow-Orange for Tuesdays, Orange for Wednesday, and so on till Sunday’s which are Purple.

Find out more about this impressive and other work on https://www.philippeleblanc.net/