To produce a non-thematic space, a terrain for walking freely through the world of art without being satisfied with "just having the art works admired", the curators' project implied an explicit artistic approach, using the space both as a neutral mediator and as the vector of artistic emotion.

A place needed to be invented that would be appropriate in a new way, exhibiting without encumbering with meaning nor framing with a reading of the works; rather, simply directly putting the artwork and its public in each other's presence. This ambition resulted in the "natural landscape", a neutral and objective backdrop, stripped of meaning, favouring the discovery of which the conception and completion was entrusted to architect and exhibition designer Philippe Rahm.

Inspired by the Nave of the Grand Palais, an immense artificial bubble, an atmospheric volume re-created in the manner of Jules Verne’s imaginary cities, Philippe Rahm conceived the space for LA FORCE DE L’ART 02 as a new atmosphere inserted inside the first, a bare ecosystem without colour or variety, without mineralization. An entirely white abstract landscape, a micro-climate without wind nor heat nor rain, reduced to the sole element of light falling in the Nave and becoming virtually solid as it meets the contours of a cold white geology; time is suspended in a calm expectation, given only to the lively and colourful efflorescence of the art works.

The power of the works is freed in this way; and maybe some forces constructing the dimensionality of a fantasy world. Instead of a prebuilt receptacle to receive the art works, the objective conditions of the exhibition provide forms that, by shaping the mouldings into the three dimensions of the space, leave a trace of their own reliefs. Within this White Geology, in each artwork or group of works, each installation, each artistic initiative occupies a volume adapted to its objective characteristics.

Sculpted in response to the intrinsic needs for the presentation of the works, this architectural environment, halfway between village and landscape, offers the visitor conditions for a direct and always singular poetic experience, the chance to discover the creative power of art. Going from one site to another, without any other rule than that of objective serendipity generated between the works by their tectonic power, freely following an undefined circuit of multiple paths and entrances, the visitor goes from astonishment to surprise, from free associations to revelations.

"White Geology" described by Philippe Rahm

"More than an architectural project, we are offering a geological process generated by the force of the artworks themselves. It is first a volume in the space, a certain quantity of substance, a certain rate of reverberation. Our project sets up a process: starting with a parallelogram measuring 160 m by 25 m and of a certain thickness, functioning like a paste which will begin to become deformed, to develop hollows, to swell in accordance with the play of forces which assume a geological language shaping the landscape with tectonic movements, deformations, pressures and depressions, folds. Yet there is no naturalism here; these are abstract forces which are at the origin of the movements and deformations shaping this territory, that of the artworks themselves.

At first each artwork is given the same space and volume. And then, depending on their dimensions and the necessary distance between them and the observer, they will begin to push against each other in a movement similar to that of tectonic plates. Depending on their weight and the amount of light required, they will then deform the surface, create hollows, swell it, raise up heights. A white landscape appears, the "white cube" opens up, against which the shapes, textures and substances of the artworks will stand out and be showcased. It is therefore a reversed exhibition space proposed here; it is not the artwork which adapts to the architecture, but the architecture which folds and changes its shape to respond to the demands of the artwork. In this way the artworks are together in a play of mutual pushing and pulling, simultaneous and reciprocal balances, giving rise to the surging forth of the landscape. "