PAX AEDIFICANTES - Artisans of Peace

PAX AEDIFICANTES - Artisans of Peace is travelling artistic project by Marc Brousse exploring memory, architecture and transmission

Team:

Artist: Marc Brousse

Curator of project: Raffaella Matrone

Art historian: Alice Ros

Composer / violin / piano: David Atria

Partners:

iGuzzini (architectural lighting)

Pierre Bleue Belge

LazerOpoint

First exhibition, documentation below:

24.07.2026 to 27.09.2026
Basilique St Vicent, Metz, France

Exhibition design: Marc Brousse
Image credit (Cover, top photo and gallery below): Nicolas Jouve, iGuzzini

“Architecture is an expression of culture and history; it is what brings people together. I propose to build for eternity.”
Filippo Brunelleschi

The artist and architect Marc Brousse presents PAX AEDIFICANTES – The Artisans of Peace, a travelling exhibition project exploring the connections between memory, architecture and humanity through an immersive sculptural installation. Conceived as a journey of “mental prayer” and transmission, the project draws upon a contemporary reinterpretation of the Mourners (Pleurants) from the tombs of the Dukes of Burgundy, extending their symbolic significance into a reflection on the present and the future.

Designed to be hosted in different heritage or cultural sites steeped in history, the installation unfolds as a cohort of 56 sculptures derived from the artist’s original drawings, faithfully preserving the postures and drapery of the original Mourners. His drawings are three-dimensionally engraved into backlit crystal blocks and displayed on charred-wood stelae, conceived as urban artefacts, mounted on pedestals made of Soignies Blue Stone. Through this transition from drawing to material form, Marc Brousse situates his artistic gesture within an ancient continuum linking sketching, carving and construction, bringing the graphic work, sculpture and architectural space into dialogue.

At the heart of the work lies a reflection on Architecture as a sensitive expression of civilizations. Inspired by the medieval funerary figures of the Mourners, the artist creates a series of surreal drawings depicting architectural faces, combining the representation of the human body with that of the built environment. This approach gives rise to a meditation on the relationships between humanity, the forms we construct and the values we transmit. The project is rooted in a conception of architecture as described by Paul Valéry, in which cultural, moral and symbolic language can carry collective memory and make visible a particular understanding of humanity.

With PAX AEDIFICANTES, Marc Brousse pays tribute to all those who, throughout history, have contributed to building spaces for life, thought and coexistence. The series evokes, through a poetic and transhistorical vision, figures of builders associated with the foundations of civilizations. Each work therefore presents architecture not merely as a setting or formal reference, but as a sign of human presence, heritage and commitment. Through this cohort, the project asserts that peace is also something that must be built — founded upon recognition of the other, the transmission of knowledge and the sharing of a built environment conceived for everyone, across the dimension of time.

The installation is structured around a scenography with a strong symbolic and sensory dimension. Through the principles of reverse perspective, the observer becomes an active participant in the overall work and brings the Mourners to life. As the viewer moves, the artisan — embodied by the drawing — turns towards the following figure, creating a shifting sequence of gazes through which their collective memory is shared.

At the end of the cohort stands Le Germe (The Seed), an ostrich egg conceived as a symbolic synthesis of the ideas that give birth to life and cities. Engraved with fragments of architectural territories, this central element embodies the symbolism of life, death and rebirth, while expressing the idea of a world that is increasingly fragile and must be rebuilt within a horizon of peace.

Beyond its sculptural form, PAX AEDIFICANTES is conceived as a humanist project, with part of the proceeds intended to generate funds dedicated to the preservation of world heritage, through organizations such as the World Monuments Fund.

The travelling nature of the project is one of its fundamental principles. It is conceived as an artistic pilgrimage for peace, intended to travel through a series of historic buildings and sacred sites in Europe and beyond, resonating with the history, vocation and architecture of each host location.