This
press release will be available in English
by the end of this week
Santiago
Cirugeda es un artista, arquitecto
y agitador social que, en los últimos
11 años, ha desarrollado proyectos
subversivos en la realidad urbana que le han
permitido imponerse de una manera absolutamente
única en el mundo del arte contemporáneo.
Desde la ocupación de espacios públicos
con simples containers hasta la construcción
de prótesis en fachadas, patios, terrenos
y solares abandonados, Cirugeda negocia zonas
legales e ilegales, actuando como recordatorio
del poder al cual todos estamos sujetos. En
2003, invitado por la Bienal de Venecia en
la exposición Utopía Station,
presentó proyectos de ocupación
en suburbios urbanos en que problemáticas
de autogestión y precariedad van acompañadas
por temas más lúdicos e irónicos.
Paralelamente, entre el 11 y el 16 de Abril
de 2005 Santiago Cirugeda muestra, en el marco
del Salón Construmat, la realización
de un prototipo de vivienda asequible. Una
vez finalizada la feria Construmat, el edificio
proyectado por Cirugeda se instalará
en un solar en desuso de la ciudad por un
período de dos años, promoviendo
su uso ciudadano.
Entre sus exposiciones más recientes
destacan: Bienal de Arte Contemporáneo
de Moscú, Rusia (2005); “Intrusiones”,
Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo,
Sevilla (2004); “Crossroads of n°11
creation, design and habitats”, Centre
George Pompidou, París y “The
TENT”, Bienal de Arquitectura de Rótterdam
(2004). Recientemente ha realizado en el Espai
d´Art Contemporani de Castelló
un “Espacio de agitación cultural”.
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Proyectar
con Luces: Fotografía. 120 x 80
cm.
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| ADN
Galeria, is pleased to present a project by
Alexander Pilis, entitled ‘Architecture
Parallax : The Blind Architect – T.B.A”,
an ambitious project that examines the concept
of vision.
Alexander
Pilis is a Brazilian / Canadian Artist, Architect
and Curator based in Barcelona. He is founder
of Archimemoria, Canada, www.architecture-parallax.net & www.theblindarchitect.com, a non-profit
organisation established to broaden the links
between Architecture, Art, Science, and Perception.
He has participated in many international exhibitions
in Canada, Germany, Brazil, England and Spain.
Pilis has participated in two Sao Paulo’s
Art Biennials and he was an artist/architect
in residence at the Akademie Schloss Solitude
and at the Banff Art Centre.
To
his study of architecture, Pilis has incorporated
the ideological instrument of Parallax as the
theoretical base. From this platform he teaches
and organizes exhibitions, symposiums and public
discussions
The
project examines the crossover between Site,
Art, Architecture and Perception. Alexander
Pilis describes his work as follows: ‘To
locate an issue and a question, one needs a
minimum of three views of observation, such
a discourse negotiates the conversation of differences.
With this cognitive method, difference is actually
the necessary basis of locating; describing
and finally coming to some understanding of
a given object , issues of our concepts of visuality
within our contemporary depiction’.
The
exhibition consists of three installation elements
that offer a critical insight into the notion
of visual crisis.
1
Element : Architecture Parallax
Four stainless steel medical examiner tables,
with a dozen microscopes mounted on the surfaces.
Looking through the microscopes, the viewers
see collaged images drawn from various scientific
and historical/cultural sources. But as we strain
to see – it is the nature of the monocular
microscopes apparatus (to literally close one
eye, or be blind in one eye) – we blink
and adjust our focus and perception. There is
a paradox and contradiction -- our eyes can
get in the way of vision.
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Architecture
Parallax. Vista de la Instalación
A
pressure zone microphone and eight miniature
speakers adds a real-time audio component.
2
Element : The Blind Architect – To Be
Announced (T.B.A.)
Three full body portraits of architects posed
as if they are blind, and part of ongoing
research that Pilis is developing towards
a full feature film with the same title; The
Blind Architect –T.B.A.
We
are all blind, except the blind can teach
us again how to see, how to sustain attention.
We see too much. There is too much to see.
There is no end to seeing.
3
Element : Blind Jokes
Two plaques engraved with jokes about blindness,
using a ‘traditional’ white on
black signage-engraving process. Humour is
a powerful tool, a way to expose our preconceptions
and our inherent discomfort with ‘abnormality’.
In humour, there is a truth beyond that which
is ‘black and white’ than can
lead to other truths.
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