INFINITE VILLAGE / DE_SPACED  

NOS, NonObjectifSud, Tulette (FRANCE)

2017

The project DE_SPACED is a collaborative work and creative dialogue between the artists Cora von. Zezschwitz (CN/FR) and Tilman (D/US/FR). In common linguistic use we mostly tend to refer to the term `space` as a mathematical or ‘hollow’ space rather then an experienced space. 

We inhabit this `mathematical` space – we dwell in it, we work in it, we are dominated by this Euclidian structure and it forms the center of our life, may it be a house or an apartment, an office or an industrial space. 

This ‘mathematical’ space, which is to a certain degree shaping our perception, is like a skin, which can barely be permeated, which reflects on our behavior and our relationships to us, other persons and/or objects of any kind. We cannot escape the fact of enclosure and structure, not even via architectural features enhancing the idea of peripheral vision. 

The human being is always and also necessarily conditioned in his life by his behavior in relation to a surrounding space. 

Experienced space on the contrary is by nature unstructured, and in this way extends in all directions into infinity, even when first given as a closed finite space lacking any form of socially functional activity. 

This experienced space is deeply manifested in human life. It is related to the human being by a vital relationship with subjective and objective life in it and with it, and forms an essential medium of human life and expression. 

The temporary extra-muros installation, entitled DE-SPACED, aims to investigate the subjective and objective perception of space – of concretely experienced space opposed to a measurable mathematical space. 

The structure in its rather raw and barren appearance recalls vaguely the outlines of a simple mathematical space transforming its volume into a spatial drawing leading towards the idea of an experienced space. 

In its form an ‘open’ structure, a conscious construction of space, this work is to be understood as a topos, a place of departure for this investigation – visually and mentally. By its nature, its proposed ‘mobility’ as well as its structural fragility, the structure aims to suggest the idea of a nomadic existence rather then that of a fixed location, once the meaning of space and topos are subject to change according to various backgrounds and areas of life. The singularity of its qualities is a form of expression, a test, and realization aiming to invite the visitor to explore, experience his relation to the given open structure and reacting to it. 

The structure can be seen as a place of passage or as a resting place, a place of fulfillment or as a possibility of development of thought. It can be experienced as a place of resistance as well as toeing the borderlines of spatial experience. It wants to inspire a dialogue regarding our relationship to space in its intimate, social, mental and even political dimensions.