Monday, 30 January 2012
Friday, 27 January 2012
Wednesday, 11 January 2012
Alexander Apóstol + Neutra
Think Blue III
Fotografía Digital
Díptico, 55 x 155 cm
Trabajo comisionado por Los Angeles
Contemporary Editions, 2006
Sobre esta obra:
Durante la década de los ’50 el famoso arquitecto angelino Richard Neutra proyectó un complejo urbanístico para los habitantes del Chávez Revine. Estos provenían de México y era inmigrantes de bajos recursos, pero el proyecto estaba financiado por inversores privados. Estos se reunieron con los habitantes del sector y se organizaron para ir desalojando a medida que se construían las modernas viviendas para luego habitarlas. Todo ello ocurría en medio del ambiente anticomunista de la era McCarthy y sus seguidores, que rápidamente olieron en el proyecto tintes sospechosos. Los inversores decidieron cancelar el proyecto y se reutilizó inmediatamente el espacio para construir el stadium de Los Dodgers, no sin antes echar por la fuerza, utilizando tractores y policías, a los habitantes del sector negados a irse.
El suceso se silenció con la finalización de la construcción de stadium para el equipo estrella, institución muy respetada por los angelinos. El slogan de Los Dodgers, y que luce en enormes vallas frente al stadium, dice THINK BLUE.
http://alexanderapostol.com
Tamar Guimaraes + Niemeyer
Canoas (a film)
Tamar Guimaraes
Casa das Canoas is the house Oscar Niemeyer built for himself in the early 50s. Surrounded by remnants of the rainforest in the hills of the city of Rio de Janeiro the house floor plan appears to be a stage for sensuous display and erotic possibilities rather than a machine for living.
My intention is to research and produce a short 16mm film at the house in which the camera follows the preparations for a cocktail party - focusing on the servants, on the house maintenance and on the house itself.
Instead of housing for the masses, modernist architecture in Brazil was in most cases a luxury item for the wealthy, and the servants classes, an ubiquitous reality in the lives of Brazilian middle and upper classes, was and still is an inbuilt commodity in the pleasure machine which this architecture serves.
According to Richard J. Williams “during Kubitcheck’s presidency (Casa das Canoas) was a critical part of Rio’s cultural infrastructure, providing a regular setting for cocktails for visiting dignitaries and intellectuals. The erotic charge of the house was no doubt more imaginary than real, but equally, there is little doubt that it helped to contribute – along with the beaches and the floorshow of Copacabana, and the genuinely uninhibited revelry of Carnival – to the myth of Brazil as an erotic paradise. (...) The house in this scenario is far more than the European Modernists ever really envisaged. Far from being a ‘machine for living’, this is a riot of orgiastic pleasure.” (1)
My initial idea is to visually reproduce the accounts which helped to fuel and maintain the glamorous image of this indeed extremely beautiful house - the play of light, the curves, water, the Atlantic forest remnants which surround it, etc… For example the house as recounted by the architect Ernesto Rogers: “I doubt that I shall ever forget that scene: the sun was just dipping below the horizon, leaving us in the dark sea of orange, violet, green and indigo. The house repeated the themes of that orgiastic countryside (incense and the hum of insects); a vast rhapsody beginning in the roof vibrated down the walls and their niches to finish in the pool, where the water, instead of being neatly dammed up, spread freely along the rocks in a kind of forest pool.” (2)
Part of this project is to research on Niemeyer’s involvement with the Communist party and his views of what architecture can or cannot accomplish, as well as the conflicting meanings and purposes of modernist architecture within Brazilian society. These would be scripted as lines occasionally inserted in the dialogue between anonymous characters.
(1). ‘The Politics of Eros’, in Richard J. Williams’ Brazil: Modern architectures in history,
Reaktion Books, 2009
(2)/ ibid, (see longer extract below).
Runo Lagomarsino + Niemeyer
Consists of a dia projection loop and three postcards. The starting point for the work is the Parque Ibirapuera in São Paulo, designed by Oscar Niemeyer and Roberto Burle Marx, inaugurated in 1954 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the city. The projected photos are the record of the artist's search for the image of the South-American map in the cracks of the paved path that unites the different buildings in the park. There is an element of performativity as the artist walks along the 28,000 square meters marquise seeking the aged concrete for fissures that resemble his idea and memory of this territory's outline. In connection to the slide projection, three postcards reproduce the covers of books displayed in Niemeyer's library in Casa das Canoas, Rio de Janeiro, built by the architect between 1951 and 53 as his own residency. The covers read: "Afiches Républicaines de la Guerre d'Espagne", "Guerre et Revolution en Espagne" and "Кремль".
http://www.runolagomarsino.com
Stefan Bruggemann + Mies van der Rohe
Stefan Brüggemann at the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion,
Curators: Laurent Fiévet and Silvia Guerra.
May 25 - 29, 2011
*****
Sunglasses
The World is a prisoner of its own making as if it has been abruptly locked behind a partition of mirrors.
Artist Stefan Brüggemann at Mies van der Rohe Pavilion follows the maxims Less is more and Gott steckt im Detail (God is in the detail). In order to extol the virtues of the architecture, he has chosen an approach as minimalist as it is radical: replacing the three windows of the principle facade with reflective surfaces. With this choice, the artist revisits the relationship between darkness and transparency in architecture by simultaneously shattering the structure of the façade and rendering it more concrete. The artist accomplishes this separation by blocking light inside the building and rejecting the outdoor light. He enacts a new spatial experiment that turns upside down the free circulation and the aesthetic and philosophical principles at the heart of this architecture. By inviting him to explore the recesses of his mind and question what informs his vision of the world (and therefore recreating his gaze and allowing us to better enter his artistic universe), Stefan Brüggemann includes everything, including the visitor, in his view of his world. This takes physical shape with the projection of his image on the pavilion’s facade through the simple use of reflection, which he in turn violently rejects by blocking his own gaze. We can see this as a way to distinguish the uniqueness of his approach and to use humor to underline his ability to turn something inside out. Just as the visitor finds himself confronted with the projected personification of Morning (as imagined by Georg Kolbe) who suddenly stretches out in front of the fountain’s liquid surface, he is also confronted by himself, face to face with his critical analysis of this artistic creation, whether it be iconoclast or respectful: this location helps the visitor come to terms with his own train of thought and to articulate his concerns. Deeply ambivalent, Stefan Brüggemann’s approach to this intervention brings us back to the image of the mirror which the artist, at times, so enjoys hanging the backwards: the perception generated by his intervention swallows everything up and risks being stifling, much like a posited claim that is still susceptible to doubt and wonder. It resembles a mirror reflecting light, which can both blind and dazzle the eyes.
text by Laurent Fiévet
*****
THE WORLD TRAPPED IN THE SELF
(MIRRORS FOR WINDOWS)
When the World looks in the mirror does it see perfection?
It may not be blind to its perfection, but perfection is boring.
The World’s perfection is its final delusion: man has designed another world richer and more complete than this world and this new one, like the first, is already burning up under the sun.
The Sun’s reflection in the mirror causes it to go up in flames.
Through Stefan Brüggemann’s simple material alterations to Barcelona’s Mies van der Rohe Pavilion, our gaze is held, captivated, by its own image – like a metaphor for this contemporary world.
Duality is a theme in the Pavilion: the marble veining and travertine grain repeat. Stefan Brüggemann’s intervention transforms the transparencies into mirrors through a slight of the hand that allows the spectator to see multiples of himself.
Since its renovation in 1986, art and architecture come together in this timeless work by Mies van der Rohe. Stefan Brüggemann’s ephemeral intervention terminates this dream of eternal life.
The sociologist Bruno Latour deemed that we were never modern, but Brüggemann pushes us to be hypermodern. We must march to the rhythm of our time.
text by Silvia Guerra
WWW.STEFANBRUGGEMANN.COM
Tuesday, 10 January 2012
Isa Melsheimer + Luckhardt / Scharoun / Taut
Taut 2009, Glas, Silikon
75 x Ø 48 cm
Scharoun 2009, Glas, Silikon
39 x 40 x 42 cm
Luchardt 2, 2009, Glas, Silikon
25 x 71 x 57 cm
Monday, 9 January 2012
Rob Voerman + le Corbusier
watercolor and pencil on paper, 60×45 cm
wood, cardboard and glass, 200×187x58 cm
watercolor and pencil on paper, 45×60 cm
http://www.robvoerman.nl/
Josiah McElheny + Taut / Mies van der Rohe
Bruno Taut's Monument to Socialist Spirituality
(After Mies van der Rohe)
2009
Hand blown and molded glass modules, wood and hardware
105 3/4 x 75 x 55 inches
(268.6 x 190.5 x 139.7 cm)
ARG# MJ2009-001
©Josiah McElheny
Bruno Taut on Mies van der Rohe (1922), i
2009
Drawing on silver gelatin photograph using color
retouching pencil
23 1/2 x 17 1/2 inches
(59.7 x 44.5 cm)
Edition variant 1 of 4, 1AP
ARG# MJ2009-005
©Josiah McElheny
Thursday, 10 November 2011
Santiago Borja + Le Corbusier
SITIO is a site-specific art project produced for the Villa Savoye in Poissy, France. SITIO furthers the thesis developed by Adolf Max Vogt in his book Le Corbusier, The Noble Savage (2003), where Vogt traces back the invention of pilotis to childhood memories permeated by imagination and fantasy, rather than the high rationale argued by Le Corbusier. It will employ the same site: the iconic modern building and works created by the artist Santiago Borja, which depart from traditional artisanal techniques of certain Mayan communities in southern Mexico. As part of an anachronic montage, three main pieces will be presented: Destinerrance, which will superimpose two palapas installed in the park; Tapis (rugs), which is conceived for the floors of the Villa's living spaces; and Cosmogonie Suspendue, a weaved ceiling meant to represent the Mayan cosmos, produced for the building's terrace.
Born in Mexico City in 1970, Santiago Borja has a bachelor's of science in architecture from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, and a master's degree in the theory and practice of contemporary art and new media from the Université Paris 8, France. He has completed several training programs at Central Saint Martins in London and at Centro Nacional de las Artes in Mexico City, and his work is built on the intersection between art and architecture. Among other awards, he has been granted a SNCA-FONCA fellowship, and has received production grants from the Fundación Marcelino Botín and Fundación/Colección JUMEX. Recent projects include Fort Da / Sampler at the Neutra VDL-Research House in Los Angeles; In the Shadow of the Sun at the Irish Museum of Modern Art; Divan at the Freud Museum in London; Décalage at the Museo Experimental El Eco in Mexico City; and Halo at the Pavilion Le Corbusier, Foundation Suisse, CIUP in Paris. Forthcoming projects include Sitio at the Villa Savoye in Poissy and Chromatic Circus at Laxart in Los Angeles.
Born in Mexico City in 1970, Santiago Borja has a bachelor's of science in architecture from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, and a master's degree in the theory and practice of contemporary art and new media from the Université Paris 8, France. He has completed several training programs at Central Saint Martins in London and at Centro Nacional de las Artes in Mexico City, and his work is built on the intersection between art and architecture. Among other awards, he has been granted a SNCA-FONCA fellowship, and has received production grants from the Fundación Marcelino Botín and Fundación/Colección JUMEX. Recent projects include Fort Da / Sampler at the Neutra VDL-Research House in Los Angeles; In the Shadow of the Sun at the Irish Museum of Modern Art; Divan at the Freud Museum in London; Décalage at the Museo Experimental El Eco in Mexico City; and Halo at the Pavilion Le Corbusier, Foundation Suisse, CIUP in Paris. Forthcoming projects include Sitio at the Villa Savoye in Poissy and Chromatic Circus at Laxart in Los Angeles.
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Monday, 11 July 2011
Wilfrid Almendra + Neutra
Killed in Action (CSH #6, Omega, Richard NEUTRA)
2009
51.18 x 82.68 x 14.96 inches
Pièce unique
The Case Study House project n°6, or 'Omega' house (1945) should have been the neighbor of the CSH n°13, or 'Alpha' (cf. infra) and in harmony with it. It shows off an industrial sheet metal roof and exemplifies the typical Richard NEUTRA architectural features visible in the slight slope and in the large excesses. The low cost of the construction and the efficiency of the materials corresponded to the purchasers needs. Covered by white light reflecting gravel and made to prevent the penetration of warmth, this roof ensures a very good isolation to the whole construction. Finally the cruciform plan allows the inclusion of four courtyards, each having a specific function.
Wilfrid ALMENDRA uses the sheet metal roof principal and imagines the various it could have suffered, possible additions or perforations. He also evokes the four courtyards through a geometrical paving made of four polish polished steel plates, which are reminders of both Carl ANDRE' s theories and Frank STELLA's shapes.
Killed in Action (Case Study Houses)
The Case Study Houses were experiments in residential architecture, aimed at building modern, efficient, affordable houses; it took place on the US West coast, mainly around Los Angeles, between 1945 and 1966. Sponsored by Arts & Architecture magazine, the program's ambition was to create model houses that could help face the real estate boom caused by the end of World War II and the return of millions of demobilized soldiers, mainly young men about to start a home and family.
The program's announcement stated that each 'house must be capable of duplication and in no sense be an individual "performance"; (...) the houses will be conceived within the spirit of our times, using as far as is practicable, many war-born techniques and materials best suited to the expression of man's life in the modern world.' Major architects of the time were commissioned, including Richard NEUTRA, Charles and Ray EAMES, Pierre KOENIG and Eero SAARINEN. Out of 37 projects (35 detached houses and two apartment buildings), 26 were built (25 houses, amongst which some became icons of architecture, and the first part of a block of apartments) and stand, for those still existing, as part of one of the major architectural programs of the 20th century.
As for the ten projects that were not built, they became the inspiration of Wilfrid ALMENDRA's new series Killed in Action (Case Study Houses), a set of ten works each taking after one of the projects. The series takes its title from the official military expression and suggests that these aborted projects, whose 'raison d'être' and building processes were directly linked to the war, were soldiers of Modernism fallen to the field of honor. Wilfrid ALMENDRA made ten 'wall sculptures', low or high reliefs, which switch architecture from the horizontal to the vertical plan.
Each sculpture draws inspiration from the corresponding project's floor plan for its shape, as well as from the techniques and building materials planned for its construction. Wilfrid ALMENDRA finds here an opportunity to demonstrate his art of assemblage from a wide palette of materials: wood, concrete, metal, stone, glass, metal, plaster, tiles etc. As it is often the case with this artist, who considers the production process to be part of the artwork, these materials tell parallel, often autobiographical stories: a piece of asphalt cut from a road with an industrial lapidary becomes the ground for a house; the pyramid-shaped tops of concrete fence poles from a working class house, pavilions' roofs; and the door of his own family house in Portugal, the on piles platform for these pavilions.
Wilfrid ALMENDRA also plays with the specific architectural details of the various projects, which become as many abstract forms: here a monumental roof is turned into a totem of metal and wired glass; there a staircase or a ramp access, a terrace or a swimming pool, or a monumental indoor / outdoor fireplace are integrated into the compositions. Other elements, having to do with the projects context of conception or with the vision they conveyed, are similarly included into the sculptures. For instance, for one of the projects, all sketches at the time were staging a model family, with the father coming back home in his personal helicopter, tomorrow's common means of transportation – a naively optimistic vision of the future, and a blind faith in technique and progress; in Wilfrid ALMENDRA's sculpture, the helicopter blades themselves merge with the house.
But Wilfrid ALMENDRA also extrapolates on what the projects, if built, would have become, hence questioning the suburban destiny of the Modernist utopia. Indeed, before the historical importance of the whole program was recently acknowledged, many of the Case Study Houses that were built had been long neglected, or had undergone significant transformations, and even sometimes had been deeply denatured to adaptto the needs of their inhabitants. ALMENDRA's sculptures tell us about both the ageing of architecture – and through it about the passing of time –, and its 'customizing', whether it is with thick roughcast or unauthorized building modifications. For instance, in one of the works made out of cast concrete, the prominent reinforcing bars recall at the same time those who appear under the eroding concrete of dilapidated houses and the ones seen in houses built without authorization and never finished – skeletons of concrete with pointing metal bars, familiar silhouettes in Southern Europe.
The works of the series Killed in Action (Case Study Houses), shown here along with preparatory drawings and reproductions of original documents, subtly combine several levels of reading: at first, the display of a remarkably abstract aesthetic quality, they also offer a deep reflection on Modern architecture and its becoming, while investigating with empathy the way people adapt their habitat and to their habitat.
via Bugada Cargnel
Saturday, 9 July 2011
Veronika Kelldorfer + Lautner
2008, single panel silk-screen print on glass, 59 x 87-3/4 inches, 150 x 223 cm, VK069
Veronika Kellndorfer + Koenig
Pierre Koenig,
2008, single panel silk-screen print on glass, 43-1/4 x 90-1/2 inches, 110 x 230 cm, VK071
Thursday, 30 June 2011
thenorthroom + Le Corbusier
Szu-Han Ho and Jesse Vogler
16 mm film loop
2008
This film reanimates one account of the utopian impulse–Le Corbusier’s Plan for a City of Three Million, a project that has become iconic of both the visions and failures of the modernist moment. That this work has come to epitomize a modernist directive for city planning, one both eerily familiar and outlandishly distant, serves as the basis of our inquiry into the uncanny space of a dislocated subject. By collapsing a digital animation of the City of Three Million onto the recognizably antiquated medium of 16mm stock, this project attempts to complicate the path between a memory of existing urban forms and the possibilities of future urban arrangements.
http://www.thenorthroom.org
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