monumental candle sculptures by sterling ruby adorn MAMO at le corbusier's la cité radieuse

Sterling Ruby’s works land at MaMo by Ora Ïto

Since the end of June 2025, the rooftop of Le Corbusier’s iconic Cité Radieuse in Marseille becomes the stage for a new presentation by American artist Sterling Ruby. Hosted by MAMO, the contemporary art center founded by Ora Ïto, the exhibition features DOUBLE CANDLE (2018), a monumental bronze sculpture, and WALL (2017), the artist’s largest spray painting to date. Installed atop one of the 20th century’s most visionary architectural landmarks, the show, organized in collaboration with Gagosian and made possible thanks to the generous support of Zara Home, runs through September 28th, 2025, and forms a compelling dialogue between form, memory, and modernist space. 

Sterling Ruby, installation view, 2025 © Sterling Ruby; © F.L.C. / Adagp, Paris, 2025 | photo: Thomas Lannes courtesy Gagosian

DOUBLE CANDLE and WALL spark Dialogue with la Cité Radieuse

On the rooftop of Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse in Marseille, Sterling Ruby presents DOUBLE CANDLE and WALL in a rare European showing that places two of his most ambitious works into direct conversation with one of modernism’s most iconic buildings. DOUBLE CANDLE, a pair of seven-meter-tall bronze forms cast from soft Polyfleece, stands like sentinels above the city. The sculpture’s patinated surface and retained fabric folds evoke both domestic softness and monumental gravity – drawing parallels to historical statuary, the Twin Towers, and the rooftop chimneys of the Cité itself.

Facing it is WALL, the largest work in the Los Angeles-based artist’s SP (Spray Painting) series. Spanning the rooftop wall, its diffused layers of color and recurring horizon lines conjure smoggy vistas, industrial landscapes, and atmospheric tension. In this setting, the painting’s hazy geometry reflects the unique Mediterranean light that once drew Cézanne and Van Gogh, while its mood of fragmentation resonates with twenty-first-century anxieties. Both works extend Ruby’s interest in material transformation and spatial experience, creating a charged exchange with the Brutalist site. Together, they reframe the rooftop not just as an architectural landmark, but as a platform for contemporary reflection – where structure, memory, and atmosphere converge.

Sterling Ruby, installation view, 2025 © Sterling Ruby; © F.L.C. / Adagp, Paris, 2025 | photo: Thomas Lannes courtesy Gagosian

On the Rooftop of Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse, completed in 1952 as a model for collective postwar living, now serves as both a UNESCO World Heritage site and a dynamic backdrop for Sterling Ruby’s monumental installation at MaMo by Ora Ïto. Ruby’s DOUBLE CANDLE and WALL do more than occupy this historic rooftop: they engage it directly, transforming its modernist ideals through a contemporary lens. The twin bronze towers of DOUBLE CANDLE echo and distort the rooftop’s sculptural chimneys, while the hazy expanse of WALL refracts the city’s light and layered history into an unsettling urban landscape. Founded in 2013 in the building’s former gymnasium, MaMo has become a vital platform for contemporary art, hosting bold projects that respond to architecture as both space and symbol. Ruby’s installation furthers this mission, turning the rooftop into a site of reflection, tension, and transformation. Here, vertical meets horizontal, monument meets atmosphere, and the utopian vision of the past is filtered through the fractured realities of today.

Sterling Ruby, installation view, 2025 © Sterling Ruby; © F.L.C. / Adagp, Paris, 2025 | photo: Thomas Lannes courtesy Gagosian

Sterling Ruby DOUBLE CANDLE, 2018 (detail) Patinated bronze 292 x 72 x 32 inches (741.7 x 182.9 x 81.3 cm) Edition of 3 + 1 AP © Sterling Ruby courtesy Sterling Ruby Studio and Gagosian

Sterling Ruby DOUBLE CANDLE, 2018 (detail) Patinated bronze 292 x 72 x 32 inches (741.7 x 182.9 x 81.3 cm) Edition of 3 + 1 AP © Sterling Ruby courtesy Sterling Ruby Studio and Gagosian

Sterling Ruby WALL, 2017 Spray paint on synthetic canvas 112 x 278 inches (284.5 x 706.1 cm) © Sterling Ruby | photo: Rob McKeever courtesy Gagosian

Le Corbusier La Cité radieuse, Unité d’habitation, Marseille, 1945-1952 © F.L.C. / Adagp, Paris, 2025 | photo: Paul Kozlowski courtesy Fondation Le Corbusier and Gagosian

Le Corbusier La Cité radieuse, Unité d’habitation, Marseille, 1945-1952 © F.L.C. / Adagp, Paris, 2025 | photo: Paul Kozlowski courtesy Fondation Le Corbusier and Gagosian

Le Corbusier La Cité radieuse, Unité d’habitation, Marseille, 1945-1952 © F.L.C. / Adagp, Paris, 2025 | photo: Paul Kozlowski courtesy Fondation Le Corbusier and Gagosian

Le Corbusier La Cité radieuse, Unité d’habitation, Marseille, 1945-1952 © F.L.C. / Adagp, Paris, 2025 | photo: Paul Kozlowski courtesy Fondation Le Corbusier and Gagosian

project info: 

name: DOUBLE CANDLE (2017), WALL (2018)
artist: Ruby Sterling | @sterlingruby
location: MAMO Art Center of La Cité Radieuse, 280 Boulevard Michelet, 13008 Marseille
dates: June 27th – September 28th, 2025
collaborator: Gagosian | @gagosian

supporter: Zara Home | @zarahome