Selenite Dreams: A Plaster-Driven Journey Through Space, Myth, and Materiality

In the heart of Le Brassus, Switzerland, BUREAU's temporary exhibition Selenite Dreams unfolds as an immersive installation that redefines material perception and architectural atmosphere. Designed by Daniel Zamarbide, Carine Pimenta, and Galliane Zamarbide, the 24-square-meter space is a poetic homage to plaster as a medium of transformation, drawing connections between ancient mythology, modernist provocation, and contemporary material discourse.

Plaster as a Philosophical Medium

At its core, Selenite Dreams engages with plaster not just as a construction material, but as a metaphor for the elasticity of architectural thought. The installation echoes the ideas of “minor architecture,” inspired by Jill Stoner’s critique of architectural hierarchy. The use of plaster—derived from gypsum, or selenite—evokes fragility, transience, and versatility. Historically relegated to prefiguring masterpieces in sculpture galleries, plaster here steps into the foreground, reclaiming narrative and presence.

Mythology Meets Material

The title "Selenite" refers to the moon-like luminescence of gypsum, conjuring images of Selene, the Greek goddess of the moon. This mystical association is grounded in real-world wonders like the Cueva de los Cristales in Naica, Mexico, where massive selenite crystals inspire surreal reverie. This dreamlike quality becomes central to the spatial narrative, as viewers wander through the exhibition’s white grotto, a cocoon-like void that dissolves the boundaries between space and sculpture.

Surrealist Influences and Historical Echoes

The installation pays subtle tribute to Salvador Dalí’s 1939 “Dream of Venus” pavilion, a surrealist counterpoint to modernist utopias at the New York World’s Fair. Like Dalí’s plaster-laden dreamscape, Selenite Dreams offers a Gesamtkunstwerk—a total artwork where architecture, material, light, and myth entwine.

From Healing to Hallucination

Beyond its aesthetic value, plaster is explored for its medicinal and emotional connotations. Frequently used in orthopedics, the material symbolizes healing, immobilization, and rest. Here, those associations transform into spatial and psychic calm—an invitation to pause, reflect, and explore the material as both physical form and mental scape.

Spatial Alchemy and Artistic Collaboration

Set within a refined space originally conceived by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the exhibition reconfigures a corporate-modernist backdrop into a delicate terrain. Artworks by Nina Beier, Latifa Echakhch, Raphael Hefti, Olivier Laric, and Christodoulos Panayiotou, among others, are nestled within this sensory landscape. Walls curve, vaults arch, and plaster melts into undefined contours—echoes of Dalí’s distorted dream logic.

The result is an architectural space that sheds the rigidity of the traditional white cube. Instead, it fosters a topological fluidity, allowing art and architecture to merge into a seamless dreamscape.

All Photographs are works of Dylan Perrenoud