Galerie du Canon, TPM

Gilbert Louage, Henri Pertus, Jean-Gérard Mattio, Willy Maywald Olivier Amsellem, Joël Tettamanti, Camille Vivier
Tapestry, plans, archives, photography, ceramics

Three major works created for the Toulon headquarters of the Caisse d’Épargne in the 1960s will be reunited for the first time, in the Galerie du Canon.
Toulon de l’Antiquité à nos jours, a large tapestry by Henri Pertus and Les saisons by Gilbert Louage, presented next to a decorative ceramic panel by Jean-Gérard Mattio and Christiane Carielle, will serve as the starting point for a rediscovery of Toulon’s post-war heritage structured around five emblematic buildings from this period of reconstruction.

In addition to the Caisse d’Épargne (1969) by Alfred Henry, Jacques Chapon, Jean Beauregard and Émile David, the apartment block Frontale du port (1950-1954) by Jean de Mailly and Serge Mikélian was a prize winner at the Triennale Milano in 1952 and a modernist setting for the great names in the decorative arts, allowing them to grasp a new conception of living and town planning after the war. The reconstruction of the port — which was heavily affected by bombings — was therefore joined by a new Hôtel de ville (Jean de Mailly, 1962-1967) that was the symbol of an ambitious public commission. Jean-Gérard Mattio, was once again the interior designer for Alfred Henry at the piscine du Port Marchand (1970-1972), but he was also responsible in the role of architect for the chapelle de la Transfiguration (1967-1968), built with concrete panels, like Le Corbusier’s The Modulor.

Archive documents (plans, pre-projects, scale models) will mingle with period photographs, including Willy Maywald’s precious shots documenting all of the stages of the port’s reconstruction. Photographic commissions by the villa Noailles to Olivier Amsellem, Camille Vivier, Joël Tettamanti and Léopold Trouillas will place a modern perspective upon this exceptional effervescence of post-war architecture and decorative arts.