While architects and artists are always ones for turning conventional wisdom on its head, it's pretty rare (though not entirely unheard of) for them to do so literally. But that's exactly what French artist Jean-François Fourtou does with "Tombée du Ciel"—or "Fallen from the Sky"—a series of homes he designed to be completely upside down. The original installation, plopped in the middle of a field on the artist's property in Marrakech, Morocco, looks very much like it underwent the fate of Dorothy's house in Wizard of Oz, with its foundations askew and each domestic detail accounted for. Indeed, it's Fourtou's commitment to the little things, like clocks on the mantel and artwork on the walls, that makes the work, a re-imagining of his grandparents' home, seem particularly authentic.
Visitors enter the bottoms-up abode through the second-floor window and are immediately in a contorted, if acutely familiar, scene. See, the entryway is actually the kitchen, which is complete with traditional checked floors, a hanging sack filled with heads of garlic, and a table set for dinner (looks like they're having bisque). Seeing Fourtou pose with stoves and bathtubs overhead will bend the mind, particularly because shuttered windows open up to the real-world landscape. It's all undeniably impressive, but there's still a few questions left unanswered, like how the heck did that soup to stay in the tureen after the home's supposed descent from the clouds?
· Jean-François Fourtou: Tombée du Ciel [Collabcubed via Architizer]
· Come Take a Tour of This Crazy Upside-Down House [Curbed National]
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