[oberlist] Fwd: Invitation: PSWAR at the Centre Pompidou-Metz, France

Wed Aug 24 10:56:48 CEST 2011

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Public Space With A Roof <pswar at xs4all.nl>
Date: Wed, Aug 24, 2011 at 11:52 AM
Subject: Invitation: PSWAR at the Centre Pompidou-Metz, France
To: Public Roof Space With A <pswar at xs4all.nl>

*
[image: Beschrijving: cid:image001.jpg at 01CC55DA.41D6CF10]

Dear friends,

We are happy to invite you to the opening of our new work

The Inverted City: Looking Through the Cracks of a Labyrinth

at the Centre Pompidou – Metz on September 10, 6pm.

The Inverted City is developed as a commission for the exhibition ERRE:
Variations Labyrinthiques curated by Hélène Guenin and Guillaume
Désanges. Via the model of a labyrinth, this group show tackles the notions
of straying, loss and wandering as well as their representations in
contemporary art. Rather than being illustrative, the exhibition strives at
being intuitive and sensitive. Extending over 2000 square meters in two of
the gallery spaces at the Centre Pompidou-Metz, ERRE presents works by
different generations of French and international artists, together with
major figures from the collection of the Centre Pompidou – Musée National
d'Art Moderne: Vito Acconci, Abbas Kiarostami, Frederick Kiesler, Carl
Andre, Constant, Maya Deren, Marcel Duchamp, Harun Farocki, Yona Friedman,
Mona Hatoum, Isidore Isou, Kisho Kurokawa, Kasimir Malevitch, Robert Morris,
Piranèse, Alexander Rodtchenko, Robert Smithson, Frank Stella, Raphael
Zarka, etc.
More info: www.centrepompidou-metz.fr

On The Inverted City

“Thus the traveler, arriving, sees two cities: one erect above the lake, and
the other reflected, upside down. Nothing exists or happens in the one
Valdrada that the other Valdrada does not repeat, because the city was so
constructed that its every point would be reflected in its mirror. (…) At
times the mirror increases a thing's value, at times denies it. Not
everything that seems valuable above the mirror maintains its force when
mirrored. The twin cities are not equal, because nothing that exists or
happens in Valdrada is symmetrical: every face and gesture is answered, from
the mirror, by a face and gesture inverted, point by point. The two
Valdradas live for each other, their eyes interlocked;
but there is no love between them.”
Italo Calvino, Cities & Eyes

By accepting the invitation to realize our new work in the framework of a
large-scale exhibition devoted to the notion of labyrinth, among works of
many of our idols and inspirations, we also accepted the challenge to
redefine our own practice in a new context. Hence the decision to take
further the main questions raised by the ERRE exhibition, by creating a work
that will reflect on its three main aspects: the concept of labyrinth, the
architecture of exhibition spaces, and the artists whose works are being
presented.

The Labyrinth as a Concept
Labyrinth is a metaphor for both life and death, feelings of getting lost
and finding one's way, play and horror. This duality of its nature also
complicated our ability to formulate one single definition. Instead, we
decided to search for the ways in which we could recreate the labyrinth as
an experience, testing the ability of senses to translate this into
particular kind of knowledge.

The Labyrinth as an Exhibition
In the imaginary space of the ERRE exhibition, we felt like walking around a
particular urban structure made of imaginary streets and houses inhabited by
works of art. The segments of the exhibition became for us the quarters of
the ERRE City, neighborhoods with their own stories and emotional charging.
The spaces in which we were to create our work turned out to be located on
the borders of those imaginary quarters, simultaneously connecting and
dividing them. Our position became one in a shadow, parallel universe that
exists only as a reflection of the exhibition structure. Inspired by Italo
Calvino, we decided to create a structure functioning as its distorted
mirror image. On the level of the narrative, our main questions became: what
are the ways in which we can detect the cracks in this labyrinth and what do
we see once we look through them?

As we learned from The Naked City (a Situationists inspiration and the first
film fully filmed on the streets of New York), in order to see the city from
all its angles one requires transgression, or an outcast character to take
us over the borders of perception. Therefore, we created a character living
on the streets of ERRE as its shadow, disturbance and provocation, who could
tell us secret stories about this seemingly peaceful, safe and controlled
place.

The Labyrinths of Individual Minds
Institutions are haunted by the desire to discipline and order, something
museums do not differ from. At the same time, many of the artworks exhibited
in ERRE are the works of individuals who had a strong rejection of
institutional confinement and rules. Following our desire to look through
the cracks of this labyrinth, our imaginary character reveals untold stories
about those individual inhabitants. The orderly image of the artworks is
disturbed by the revelation of the process through which they were born,
revealing also the individual labyrinths of the authors behind. Sometimes
all we hear are their screams, strange sounds coming from the centers of
their own labyrinths, frightening and tempting us to follow the noise to see
if we could beat the beast.

The Map of Emotions
On the second floor of the exhibition, the visitor is left alone to find
his/her way, leaving behind our imaginary character who continues to haunt
the streets of ERRE. Through our investigation, we came to a conclusion that
this imaginary urban structure missed one important element – a square.
Hence, we decided to create this missing square, where the visitors can rest
and reflect on the experience of things already seen. On its floor, the
image of our own self-reflection becomes visible: a particular map which
marks the emotional experience created by the downstairs labyrinth. As a map
of emotional experience, it is also a tool which allows to question
individual memory by replaying the scenes encountered in ERRE. It is here
that all different elements will come together, the reassembled image of the
city and its reflection in the lake.

The Inverted City: Looking Through the Cracks of a Labyrinth
Project by Public Space With a Roof: Adi Hollander, Tamuna Chabashvili,
Vesna Madzoski
Installation created
by:
Adi Hollander, Tamuna Chabashvili
Text
by: Vesna Madzoski
Assistant: Giacomo Sponzilli
Construction design:
Davide
Manzoni ‐ RedeeMade
Laboratory
Supported by: Mondriaan Foundation, Fonds BKVB, Centre Pompidou - Metz
Special thanks to: Amsterdam Grafisch Atelier, Keramikos, Aty Boonstra,
Christina Hallstrom and Vika Mitrichenka
http://www.pswar.org <http://pswar.org/>

Erre: Variations Labyrinthiques
Centre Pompidou – Metz
September 12, 2011 – March 5, 2012
Opening: September 10, 2011, 6-9pm
Curated by: Hélène Guenin, Head of Curatorial Department, Centre
Pompidou-Metz and Guillaume Désanges, Independent Curator and Art Critic
www.centrepompidou-metz.fr
…………………………………………………………… ……………………

Public Space With A Roof (PSWAR)
Orteliusstraat 15
1057 AR, Amsterdam
The Netherlands

postbus 15565,
1001NB, Amsterdam

Email: pswar at xs4all.nl
http://www.pswar.org

For an appointment you can reach us by email or call:
Tel: +31 (0) 611174239, Tel: +31 (0) 628128003
…………………………………………………………………………………

*

*
* <http://www.knotland.net/index.php?id=13&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=483&cHash=903daf1680a47402cb27df41501fbcbe>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: </pipermail/oberlist/attachments/20110824/c81a3629/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 25288 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: </pipermail/oberlist/attachments/20110824/c81a3629/attachment-0001.jpg>