The Evomobil. Ora-ïto Collaborates With Citroën For An Imaginative Vehicle.









above photos by Romina Shama

Evo Citroën - The Evomobil


Paris, France, April 2011 — Cit­roën has al­ways been con­sid­ered as the most in­­no­­vat­ing brand of the car in­­­dus­try. The brand has cre­at­ed some of the most sym­bolic cars be­­come the clas­sics as the DS. The lo­­go is al­­so an in­­sti­­tu­­tion.



Af­ter more than 3 years of col­lab­o­ra­­tion with Cit­roën on the de­vel­op­­ment of ar­chi­tec­­tu­ral pro­­jects, Ora-ïto turned to the man­u­­fac­­tur­er to de­vel­op his first ar­tis­tic pro­­ject. The icon­o­­clas­tic artist wasn’t dream­ing about another con­­cept car but a ge­net­ic tran­s­­for­­ma­­tion. An un­u­­su­al cre­a­­tion re­u­nit­ing more than 400 years of his­­to­ry, a re­flec­­tion on the evo­lu­­tion of the mo­­bil­i­­ty and the le­g­endary know-how of Cit­roën.



The ge­net­ic tran­s­­for­­ma­­tion is a fact re­­sult­ing from er­rors of copies dur­ing the cel­lu­lar di­vi­­sion. When they are caused by in­­ter­ven­­tions, they be­­come ex­tre­me­­ly rare. The monu­­men­­tal sculp­­ture cre­at­ed by Ora-ïto is the cross­ing of two ty­polo­­gies, a ma­­chine of the past and a cur­rent car, a sub­­­tle his­­toric and so­­ci­o­log­i­­cal tes­ti­­mony on the func­­tio­n­al mo­­bil­i­­ty of the XVI Th cen­­tu­ry mixed to the mod­­ern world.



On the edge of the hy­poth­e­­sis and the con­tem­po­rary art, this hy­brid ob­­ject is based on the ful­­fil­l­­ment of child’s dream with an ob­vi­ous com­mit­­ment for the ecol­o­­gy. In the vo­­cab­u­lary of Ora-ïto, we find a re­al as­ser­­tion ex­­press­ing and re­al­iz­ing the imag­i­­na­­tion.



This cre­a­­tion be­­comes by de­f­i­ni­­tion a vi­­sion in op­po­si­­tion with the ag­­gres­­sive uni­­verse of the car in­­­dus­try. In­­spired by the first Cit­roën car and based on his de­sign­er’s com­pe­­tences, Ora-ïto won­ders about the er­­go­­nomics of the in­­te­ri­or of the first mo­­bile mo­d­ule. He has worked on the codes, the DNA and the phi­lo­­so­­phy of this in­­­dus­try to mod­­ern­ize it with the pos­si­­bil­i­ties and the ex­ist­ing tech­nolo­­gies. As­­so­­ci­at­ed to the re­search and in­­no­­va­­tion de­­part­­ment of the dy­­nas­tic Cit­roën, he has de­vel­oped a sur­pris­ing and un­ex­pec­t­ed sculp­­ture join­ing all the pa­ram­e­ters and the tech­nolo­­gies ap­pro­pri­ate for the uni­­verse car man­u­­fac­­tur­ers, part­n­er of the in­­ter­­na­­tio­n­al fair of con­tem­po­rary art of Paris (FI­AC).





Bap­­tized “Evo­­mo­­bil” he cre­ates a mono­­typ­ic kind, which pos­sess­es on­­ly sin­­gle spe­­cie. The term “ge­net­ic tran­s­­for­­ma­­tion” is used to in­­di­­cate an ir­re­v­er­si­ble mod­­i­­fi­­ca­­tion of the ge­net­ic and hered­i­­tary in­­­for­­ma­­tion. If the tran­s­­for­­ma­­tion ar­rives up to cells then, it is passed on to the de­s­­cen­­dants of the mu­­tant in­­di­vi­d­u­al. This change can get a se­lec­­tive ad­­van­­tage. This is the base of the pro­cess of the evo­lu­­tion.




Ora-ïto has na­t­u­ral­­ly imagined others mo­d­ules to join the in­i­­tial pro­­ject. A con­t­i­nu­i­­ty of the imag­i­­na­­tion al­low­ing to mul­ti­p­­ly new ac­­tions and us­es of “Evo­­mo­­bil” as car op­­tions. He has named this “plugs” which are in­­de­pen­­dent and can be con­nec­t­ed on the front and the back of the ve­hi­­cle. In case, sev­er­al ge­net­ic tran­s­­for­­ma­­tions com­bine, we can say they share a com­­mon an­ces­­tral ge­net­ic pool. Ev­ery pod is orig­i­­nal and unique as a sculp­­ture that al­lies the dream to the for­­mal, the past to the tech­nol­o­­gy. The idea to work sev­er­al en­ti­ties al­lows all the “ge­net­ic tran­s­­for­­ma­­tions “ to spread an uni­ver­sal mes­sage on the evo­lu­­tion of the mo­­bil­i­­ty and gives to the car in­­­dus­try new di­rec­­tions nev­er in­­vesti­­gat­ed.


above: ORA-ÏTO is the la­bel and the name of the French de­sign­er who cre­at­ed, at the age of 19 the very first vir­tu­al brand.

Ora-Ito
Citroen