Art And Architecture

Who draws the line?

This post comes to you from Cultura21

September, 24th – 30th, 2011

Lecce (Apulia, Italy)

“Who draws the line?” is the title of the first solo exhibition in Italy by the Turkish artist Devrim Kadirbeyoglu, co-produced by Archiviazioni and Ramdom Association.

The exhibition was born as an inner necessity of the artist to represent and communicate the human, financial and social extent problems concerning the Schengen visa requirement for Turkish citizens. This is implemented through a site specific installation which paradoxically becomes itself a mobile project: after having traveled in the Northeast of Italy in search for a context of where to be discussed and presented, subjected to several conceptual and aesthetical elaborations, he finds home at the spaces of Archiviazioni and the Laboratory of Art and Architecture in Lecce. This part of Southern Italy is widely known as land of emigration.

More information: www.archiviazioni.org

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

Summer Residency Program: “Reconfiguring Site”

This post comes to you from Cultura21

July 11 until August 19 in New York City by the School of Visual Arts

The six-week summer program ”Reconfiguring Sites: New Approaches to Public Art and Architecture” highlights different areas that are currently manifest in public art: such as social intervention, new media technologies, interdisciplinary collaborations with architecture, ecological and environmental interventions, and performance.

Prominent figures working in these areas will discuss their practice and offer critiques of participants’ work. In addition, resident artists will attend workshops that are designed specifically to learn the tools essential to working in the field of public art.

Through the workshops and the guidance of faculty and guest lecturers, interdisciplinary and collaborative teams will be encouraged and artists will develop and present a professional proposal. This program covers topics such as reading from the plan, grant proposal writing, contracts, funding for self-initiated projects and workshops in fabrication.

Taking full advantage of New York City’s rich resources, participants will engage with leading artists, architects, landscape architects, curators and critics in the field. SVA’s state-of-the-art digital sculpture facility offers the resources for experimenting with ideas in an environment conducive to creative exploration and supportive of logistical issues involved in public art pursuits. Sculpture facilities and facilities for working with custom electronics, high-end digital photography, video, 3D graphics and sound production equipment are available.

Current faculty and lecturers include: Herve-Armand Bechy, Mary Ellen Carroll, Charlotte Cohen, Eiko and Koma, Christina Ewing, Wendy Feuer, Anita Glesta, Deborah Gans, Marlina Gonzalez, Kendall Henry, Jonathan Lippincott, Tom Otterness, Lauren Ross, Harriet Senie, Meryl Taradash, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Jerry Van Eyck and Krzysztof Wodiczko.

For more information about this program visit: reconfiguringsite.sva.edu.

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)

– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)

– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)

– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

Public Art Team realities:united Sends Smoke Rings as a Reminder of CO2 Emission

Rendering ©2010 by BIG http://www.big.dk

This post comes to you from Green Public Art

BIG architects, developed in collaboration with art studio realities:united, AKT, Topotek 1 and Man Made Land, has won an international competition to design a new Waste-to-Energy Plant for Copenhagen that doubles as a ski slope for Copenhagen’s citizens and a public art symbol of the city’s CO2 emission.

The new Waste-to-Energy plant will be an international model in the field of waste management and energy production, as well as an architectural landmark in the cityscape of Copenhagen. The project is the single largest environmental initiative in Denmark with a budget of 3,5 Billion DKK (approx. 658 million USD), and replaces the adjacent 40 year old Amagerforbraending plant, integrating the latest technologies in waste treatment and environmental performance. BIG’s progressive building design will turn the roof of the new facility into an ecological ski slope deepening the connection between the citizens of Copenhagen and redefining the relationship between the waste plant and the public.

Photo ©2000 by Jürg Alean http://www.swisseduc.ch/stromboli/

The public art component of the project, BIG VORTEX, designed by Berlin-based artists realities:united answers the question “What does a ton of CO2 look like?” The modified smokestack acts as a gentle reminder of the residues of waste burning. The gas will leave the smokestack as revolving gas clouds in the shape of smoke rings (toroidal vortex shape), which become visible due to the condensation of water in the flue gases as they slowly rise and cool, before slowly resolving into the air.

Each smoke ring, approximately 30 meters in diameter and 3 meters in height, constitutes exactly one ton of fossil carbon dioxide, which is added to the atmosphere. By using art to make the waste visible to the public the rather abstract pollution aspect becomes something the public can see and relate to.  On average the ring will remain stable for about 45 seconds, serving as a gentle reminder of the impact of consumption. At night, heat tracking lights will be used to position lasers onto the smoke rings turning them into glowing artworks over the city.

realities:united studio for art and architecture. E-Mail: info@realU.de

realities:united studio for art and architecture. E-Mail: info@realU.de

PROJECT INFORMATION:

Project: Waste-to-Energy Plant

Client: Amagerforbraending

Location: Copenhagen, Denmark

Budget: 3,5 BL DKK; 650 MIL USD, 460 MIL EUR

Smoke Rings: approx. 30m diameter, 3 meter height, 1 ton Co2

Architect: BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

Project Artist: realities:united, studio for art and architecture (Smoke Ring Generator), Jan Edler, Tim Edler, Erik Levander, Daniel Mock

Collaborators: AKT (Façade & Structural Consulting), Topotek 1/Man Made Land (Landscape)

BIG Team: Bjarke Ingels, David Zahle, Brian Yang, Jelena Vucic, Alina Tamosiunaite, Armor Gutierrez, Maciej Zawadzki, Jakob Lange, Andreas Klok Pedersen, Daniel Selensky, Gül Ertekin, Xing Xiong, Sunming Lee, Long Zuo

Rebecca Ansert, founder of Green Public Art, is an art consultant who specializes in artist solicitation, artist selection, and public art project management for both private and public agencies. She is a graduate of the master’s degree program in Public Art Studies at the University of Southern California and has a unique interest in how art can demonstrate green processes or utilize green design theories and techniques in LEED certified buildings.

Green Public Art is a Los Angeles-based consultancy that was founded in 2009 in an effort to advance the conversation of public art’s role in green building. The consultancy specializes in public art project development and management, artist solicitation and selection, creative community involvement and knowledge of LEED building requirements. Green Public Art also works with emerging and mid-career studio artists to demystify the public art process. The consultancy acts as a resource for artists to receive one-on-one consultation before, during, and after applying for a public art project.

Go to Green Public Art

Emulating Genius: learn how to do it in under 2 hours

Many thanks to everyone who came to the event, ran around forming adaptive eco-systems and generated new design possibilities. (And sorry to those who couldn’t get in because the event sold out).

Biomimicry is a new discipline that consciously emulates life’s genius.

It’s a design principle based on the genius of nature. The idea is not simply to utilise the natural world, but to learn from the exceptional aspects of its design.

It is the most radical approach to problem solving I have heard of.

And when architect Michael Pawlyn (FRSA) told me about it, I thought: ‘ Hmmm, it’d be good to learn how that works – not just ‘hear about it’ as something interesting – it would be great to understand the principles of it, then find ways to apply it.’ Then I drifted off into a daydream about the possibility of applying biomimicry in the arts….

So Michael has been developing games that can teach the principles of how biomimicry works – and we g0t to try them out with him and ecologist Dusty Gedge (FRSA).

The event is part of the Barbican exhibition Radical Nature – Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969–2009.

The genius behind the genius of biomimicry is Janine Benyus – she is an Ada Lovelace for the 21st century. If you want to see a short introduction to Benyus’s work, her latest TED talk is now online.

Go to RSA Arts & Ecology

No Really Now.

Really. It’s a common blip for the wordpress theme to get all aggressively defaulty, but hopefully now it is fixed. We hope. We are hoping. ‘Cause the blips and farts are really exhausting.

In the meantime, some really awesome stuff has been going on.

In Seattle, artist Mandy Greer has just unveiled the installation Mater Matrix Mother and Medium at Camp Long in Seattle, Washington. It’s a lot of yarn. A lot of yarn in deep dark to bright lights blues, twisting and spazzing and coughing its way through a series of urban trees. Water. On its opening night it danced with performer Zoe Scofield.

Trees are growing sideways in the exhibition Radical Nature: Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969-2009, on display at the Barbican Art Gallery in London. They’re part of a massive retrospective of environmental artwork, ranging from Beuys to Smithson to mounds of grass. Trees also paraded through London to celebrate the opening of the exhibit.   William Shaw gives an excellent overview on the RSA Arts & Ecology blog: there’s a video of the exhibition from them below. Monumental, both in the comprehensive gathering of significant artworks, and in the diverse reactions from the critics.

And sadly, the environmental art gallery Collectively Grasp will be closing its San Francisco doors in August. For those of you in the area: they’re having a closing party August 15th. Check it out.

The Bay Area Air is alternately hot, stale, and rich and creamy like ice cream. Here’s RSA Arts and Ecology’s video of Radical Nature. Enjoy.

Radical Nature | Barbican 2009 from RSA Arts & Ecology on Vimeo.

Go to the Green Museum

Radical Nature Comes to the Art Gallery : TreeHugger

Radical Nature, Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet is an exhibition that examines how nature has inspired artists and architects. The show takes a historical look at strange and experimental buildings since the 60s that have changed the way we see the world.

via Radical Nature Comes to the Art Gallery : TreeHugger.

Current and upcoming eco art shows

{Fallen Forest, 2006, by Henrik HÃ¥kansson, soon to be on view at the Barbican in London.}

More eco shows just keep popping up. Here’s two that I’ve heard about recently. Unfortunately, neither museum has particularly interactive websites for these shows.

Trouble in Paradise: Examining Discord between Nature and Society
February 28, 2009 – June 28, 2009
Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ

Blurb:

Artists are looking at the beauty and the terror in the forces of nature through their honest and emotional portrayals, while sending urgent messages to pay attention to the ravages society inflicts on the land through war and waste. This exhibition will examine a range of art in a variety of media that addresses extreme forces of nature in two basic categories: nature-based discord, such as lightning, tornadoes, volcanoes, hurricanes, and fire; and human-caused environmental discord such as pollution, over-population, global warming, oil field fires, atomic fallout, and destruction of land. The debate about how much of nature’s wrath is the result of human impact and interference is ongoing, but questions are posed through stunning visuals about the seemingly unstoppable cycle of cause and effect. 

Artists:
Edward Burtynsky, Richard Misrach, William T. Wiley, Mark Dion, Joel Peter Witkin and about 50 more artists. Complete list here. (PDF)

Show website

Radical Nature Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969–2009
19 June 2009 – 18 October 2009
Barbican Art Gallery, London

Blurb

The beauty and wonder of nature have provided inspiration for artists and architects for centuries. Since the 1960s, the increasingly evident degradation of the natural world and the effects of climate change have brought a new urgency to their responses. Radical Nature is the first exhibition to bring together key figures across different generations who have created utopian works and inspiring solutions for our ever-changing planet. 

Artists:
Ant Farm, Richard Buckminster Fuller, Joseph Beuys, Agnes Denes, Hans Haacke and Robert Smithson are shown alongside a younger generation of practitioners including Heather and Ivan Morison, R&Sie (n), Philippe Rahm and Simon Starling.

Show website

Go to Eco Art Blog

Lima and LA


Although Los Angeles is not quite the desert that Lima, Peru is, this event at the MAK center in Hollywood still looks interesting. More at www.makcenter.org

THE MAK URBAN FUTURE INITIATIVE (UFI) PUBLIC FORUM SERIES PRESENTS:

Los Angeles + Lima: Probing the Urban Desert
A conversation between UFI Fellow Alexia Leon and Christian Stayner

For the MAK UFI Public Forum, Leon and Stayner discuss their ongoing project on the “urban desert” (developed in collaboration with Peruvian art curator Jorge Villacorta). Leon and Stayner shall critically consider the role of the architect in shaping the future development of arid lands. They will also present their observations on the points of intersection between Lima and Los Angeles, both places that have sprung up from the desert. Leon and Stayner’s subject will take them into issues of urban settlement, population density, social transformation, and the use of history by architects and urban planners.

Tuesday, April 7
Reception at 6:30 pm
Presentation at 7:00 pm, followed by Q & A

MAK Center for Art and Architecture, L.A.

Schindler House
835 North Kings Road
West Hollywood, CA 90069

Go to Eco Art Blog