INFINTE VILLAGE

LO SPAZIO E BLU E  GLI UCCELLI ATTRAVERSANO IN VOLO

CAMPO DEI GESUITI, VENICE (IT)

2018

This project entitled `LO SPAZIO E BLU E GLI UCCELI ATTRAVERSANO IN VOLO` is a continuation  of the collaborative project `DE_SPACED` initiated by artists Cora von Zezschwitz (CN/FR) and Tilman (D/FR/IT).

Previously realized projects include `DE_SPACED`, N.O.S., Tulette (FR) and `RESTRUCTURING`, IUVA, Convento St.Teresa, Venice (IT).

The collaborative project `DE_SPACED` focuses primarily on the perception of  space and spatiality, its importance in our daily life, and space as a vehicle of thought and experience as well as a corporeal matter. The project aims to instigate a  visual and mental dialogue about the involvement of the human being in this topological dimension and its daily currents of events and to investigate space as a medium in our life.

 The project integrates ideas about space (mathematical as well as experiential space), our behaviour and understanding - personal and public - of the rammifications of space in and off our temporary lives. The project speaks of intimacy and openess, of political and privat engagement and aims to challenge ones perception of  space and to reevaluate one`s apprehension and position within given topos.

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 bareley be permeated, which reflects on our behaviour and our relationship to ourselves, other persons or objects of any kind surrounding us and events happening beyond our personal sphere. 

The human being is always and often necessarily conditioned in his life by his behaviour in relation to a surrounding space and we cannot escape the fact of enclosure and structure - not even via architectural features enhancing the idea of a peripheral vision or retreating into nature – and seldom experience a space without barriers factual or mentally.

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 space lacking any form of socially functional activity.

Yet the experienced space is deeply manifested in human life. Experienced space 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 project entitled `LO SPAZIO E BLU E GLI UCCELI ATTRAVERSANO IN VOLO` is conceived primarily for an interior space but also can be easily adapted to any exterior situation. Based on a modular structure (3mx3mx3m) it is in its realisation variable and infinte, expanding in all dimensions with ideally no restrictions of any nature. 

The single modular structure in its apparent form describes a spatial situation rather then manifesting itself as volume., presenting itself  as a notion rather then an object.

 Thoughtful interventions with fabrics and other materials suggest the idea of  inhabitation and social activity to underscore the extricable interdependence of work of art, architecture, perception of space per se and intimacy , openess, reflection and dialogue on the other hand.

The  entire work itself, is visually and mentally understood as an `open` structure  - as a conscious yet playful construction of spatialities and its various layers and realities. - and functions as a mere work of art, a sculptural or architectural intervention as well as as a topos, a place of departure for the investigation of spatial perception and also a vessel to inspire thoughts beyond the formal restrictions set up by a conditioned perception. 

The work aims to provoke contemplation and thougth about our personal standing within a consumerist society worshipping greed and self-indulgence, taking in consideration the alarming developments and unsettling events dictated by our times and partially our own apathy and helplessness in dealing with the timely currents.

Both in intellectual and practical terms the given conscious structure is, amongst other intellectual influences, related to the concept of `bricoleur`,  a term coined by Claude-Levi Strauss  as the antipode to the `ingenieur` or the idea of the HOJOKI and the HOJO as the archetype of Japanese architecture , designed to be a space of contemplation and meditation, of modesty and simplicity , where the exterior becomes the interior and vice versa, a space functioning as refuge and a place to reflect upon a manifold of aspects of social, intimate or political nature.