Hans-Walter Müller: Volux and Topoprojections

Hans-Walter Müller graduates in architecture and engineering from the Technical University of Darmstadt in 1961, then moves to Paris to continue his studies. He exhibits ‘Volux’ (a neologism he creates from the words “volume” and “lumière” [Ndlt: light]) for the first large exhibition of kinetic art in France: Lumière et mouvement [Ndlt: light and movement], presented at the MAMVP from 2 May to 31 August 1967. Famous for his pneumatic and often translucent architectures, Müller has been interested in inflatables from the very start, as a surface for light projection. In “Pourquoi le gonflable?” [Ndlt: why inflatables?] (1975) for the magazine Techniques et architectures no. 304, he writes:

“Fascinated by our century, I have played with bulbs and lenses. I create a world with artificial light, my kinetic machine, ‘Genèse 63’. Making architecture with light, forming a space through projections, being in the light, remaining aware that there is still light behind you, not watching a screen like at school. Being able to watch or not, as you wish. That is what my inflatables offer. In order for there to be no more screens, it is the architecture itself that becomes the screen. The volume becomes an infinite screen and can even transform the image. And why not enter these volume screens, these volux? (volumes + lumière = volux)”

This volumetric approach to the projected image leads Hans-Walter Müller to develop a process that he dubs “topoprojections” (another neologism, from the Greek “topos”, meaning “place”). In 1979, two years after its foundation by Albert Plécy, La Cathédrale d’Image will call on Müller for the illumination of the quarries in Les Baux-de-Provence. This series of topoprojections will extend over the following years, applied to different monuments: Troyes Cathedral in 1981, the foundations of the Louvre in 1992, the Citadel in Calvi in 1997. Hans-Walter Müller used slide projectors. For many people, he was the first artist to use the projector to highlight the geometry of a real volume.