ADF ‘In Praxis’ Interviews

François Halard  – A Recollection of Symi 

Enveloped by towering pines and cypress, the restored neoclassical home of photographer François Halard and Isabelle Dupuy Chavanat in Symi is bathed with afternoon light. Faded frescoes and moulding act as a prominent scenography while elements found by Halard infuse the home with an essence of place. Windows become protagonists, bringing far vistas into the domestic space. As if the journals of Christian Zervos became built structure, Halard’s assemblage of interior objects mirrors the aesthetic crossroads of antiquity and contemporary art envisioned by the early founder of Cahiers d’Art (1926–1960). For, as a child, it was these values that shaped the mind of Halard - having encountered Zervos’ principles in the library of his parents, esteemed French interior designers. 

As a photographer, a messenger, Halard’s world in Symi unfolds with a rolling momentum – corners provide isolated instances of repose and the details of place-making become choreographic. Upon the release of Halard’s Greece, published by Louis Vuitton, Athens Design Forum founder Katerina Papanikolopoulos speaks to Halard, unveiling the central role of Greek heritage in his life and practice.

Symi’s illustrious legacy is informed by the diverse hands of its occupying powers, including Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, and British rule. This tumultuous history enriched the island’s architectural precedents, producing a rare cosmopolitanism. In the early nineties, French-born Halard traveled to Rhodes to document the influence of Italian architecture in the Dodecanese. Years later, that journey would extend to the islands of Patmos and Lindos. It was evidently Symi that proved a beloved destination, and the ultimate chosen location for a home that traverses territories, continents, and histories.

Halard’s selection of interior elements in Symi can be traced to his earlier neoclassical townhouse from New York City. An American empire sofa, with provenance from Fred Hughes [an alumnus of the Andy Warhol Factory], sits comfortably in the high-ceiling living room, its colors softening and diffusing under the sharp afternoon light.

A glass-paneled door with Homeric scenes, belonging to Halard’s neighbor, at once propels design into a means for reconciliation with the past. The joyful naivety of the scenes marks a passage of space, forever linked to the action of opening a door.

Books such as The Iliad serve as principal reminders of the region’s history, taking center stage in the ecosystem of the home.  

Collections of objects atop tables - dried, isolated pinecones, ceramic tiles, and stone mortars blend into the rich and expansive blue of the wall. The outdoor world vividly seeps into the interior, consciously and intentionally.

Halard insists, “The house is also an homage to artists I admire...the color of the walls are based on Brice Marden's monochrome painting from the seventies, inspired by his house in Hydra.” American Artist Cy Twombly’s series of etchings with the five Greek poets and philosophers act as a reference for the home, gaining further significance as Twombly is noted as a mentor of Halard. 

In the mysticism of a Greek summer, the house is ever-changing, at the hand of light. First acknowledging Greece through the companionship of friends including Patrick Leigh Fermor and Bruce Chatwin, Halard’s Greece began as a recollection of antiquity and evidently transformed into the locus of modernity. The home, in its body and stature, embodies this movement. A century after Boissonas’ L’Image de la Grèce [The Image of Greece, 1914] was published, Halard’s Greece transports and transcends - we no longer see the gaze of an outsider, but of a man who bears witness to Greek landscapes and ecologies that speak to him. A man who has internalized the immortal values of Greece learned through observation - through close study and reverence.

The selection of images presented may be found in Francois Halard’s Fashion Eye: Greece, published by Louis Vuitton.