“ARCHITECTURES” (1921) E “EUPALINOS OU L’ARCHITECTE”. Note sulla Compagnie des Arts Français, un testo di Paul Valéry e un ʻrecueilʼ curato da Louis Süe e André Mare

Architectures is the most relevant publication edited by Louis Süe (1875-1968) and André Mare (1885-1932) and published in 1921 by the Éditions de la Nouvelle revue française. It is the main presentation of the Compagnie des Arts Français, a group of artists – painters, architects, decorators – which played a key role in the debate and promotion of decorative arts in France during the Twenties. It shows their works, principally interior design works, with illustrations, brief descriptions and with an articulated presentation done with a mix of illustrations – principally reproductions of paintings – and a long text. For the last one Süe and Mare asked Paul Valéry (1871-1945) to compose a new text for Architectures and, by this occasion, he wrote the dialogue Eupalinos ou l’architecte - Dialogue des morts. While Süe and Mare’s work was forgotten by the historiography of architecture, obscured by the masters of Modern Movement who worked in France during the Twenties, Eupalinos became a masterpiece and a fixed and cross-reference for the architectural culture from Le Corbusier (1887-1965) to Auguste Perret (1874-1954), from Jean Badovici (1893-1956) to Süe and Mare’s following works. Starting from this historiographical disequilibrium – the oblivion of Süe and Mare’s work and the celebrity of Valéry’s dialogue – this research wants to rebuild and demonstrate strong links which connect these works.