Universitat luav di Venezia Convent S Terese, Venice Conference & site-specific installation Organized by Prof Renato Bocchi 23/10/2017
RE-STRUCTURING (un_spaced / the passage)
The project UN_SPACED is a collaborative work and creative dialogue between artists TILMAN (D/US/FR) and CORA VON ZEZSCHWITZ (CN/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 lives, 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 behaviour and our relationships to ourselves, 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 the peripheral vision.
The human being is always and also necessarily conditioned in his life by his behaviour 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 RE-STRUCTURING (un_spaced/the passage), 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 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.
In the second edition of UN_SPACED (the first edition was recently installed at N.O.S / Non-Objectif sud in Tulette, France) the artists choose the form of a passage/corridor as architectural vehicle to further research the possibilities of space as a medium. Over the course of two days, the artists will closely work and discuss with Prof. Renato Bocchi of IUAV/Venice and his students the idea of restructuring a given structure, explore all its ramifications and possibilities, and create new volumes and spaces to be inhabited and experienced.