Gerard & Kelly animate Émile Sala's Villa Benkemoun with site-specific performance 'On Time'

The artist duo Gerard & Kelly have transformed Villa Benkemoun, a 1970s modernist residence in Arles designed by architect Émile Sala, into a live performance piece titled 'On Time.' The project strips the house back to its essential form and animates it through movement, turning the building itself into a stage for memory and daily rituals.

"the artists strip émile sala’s modernist house back and animate it through performance, allowing memory and daily rituals to become the exhibit."

designboomvilla benkemoun becomes a home again in gerard & kelly’s site-specific performance

This approach collapses the line between art and architecture, inviting audiences to see the villa not as a static monument but as a space reactivated by human presence. According to designboom (via visitlink.me), the work transforms Sala’s 1970s design into a living performance that reinhabits the home.

"gerard & kelly's 'on time', a project conceived for villa benkemoun, transforms émile sala’s 1970s residence into a living performance."

By stripping away the usual exhibition apparatus, the artists allow the architecture itself to become the primary medium. The performance encourages viewers to consider how space holds memory, with each gesture and movement echoing the routines of the home's former inhabitants. Through 'On Time,' Gerard & Kelly revive the original spirit of Sala's villa, emphasizing that a house is ultimately defined by the lives lived within its walls.