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22/5/2010

Spatial City: An Architecture of Idealism

Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago

The Hyde Park Art Center is pleased to announce Spatial City: An Architecture of Idealism, a major touring exhibition of contemporary art drawn from the French Regional Contemporary Art Funds (Frac) opening with a reception from 3-5pm on Sunday, May 23, 2010 and remaining on view through August 8, 2010. Spatial City brings togehter an international, multi-generational array of artists - with an emphasis on artists living in France - whose work contends with idealism, utopian thinking and, in counterpoint, the cynicism that follows a failed revolution and the retreat of optimism in the face of pragmatic reality.

Spatial City is an art exhibition inspired by the theoretical architecture of the same name by Yona Friedman (b.1923). In his first manifesto Mobile Architecture (1958), Friedman defines the structures in this ideal city as being transformable, transportable and occupying as little ground area as possible, pushing the structures to hover over the earth rather than spread out along the surface. Friedman’s ideas, disseminated in the aftermath of World War II, have influenced subsequent generations both indirectly and directly. While Friedman’s ideas informed the framework of the show, the selection of artwork reflects the cycling and recycling of optimism and cynicism in postwar and contemporary culture. Artists in the exhibition are responding to society’s complex problems: the failed utopian social experiments that resulted in the dehumanizing conditions of Brutalist architecture, the rise and fall of totalitarian states, the tensions resulting from post-colonial immigration, and the destruction of the environment in the name of progress.

Beginning with Friedman’s Ville spatiale drawings of 1959-1960, the full touring exhibition includes the sculpture, video and installation work of Lida Abdul, Élisabeth Ballet, Yves Bélorgey, Berdaguer & Péjus, Katinka Bock, Monica Bonvicini, Jeff Carter, Jordi Colomer, François Dallegret, Peter Downsbrough, Philippe Durand, Jimmie Durham, Simon Faithfull, Didier Fuiza Faustino, Cao Fei, Robert Filliou, Elise Florenty, Dora Garcia, Ben Hall, Séverine Hubard, Stefan Kern, Bertrand Lamarche, Vincent Lamouroux, Didier Marcel, François Morellet, Sarah Morris, Juan Muñoz, Stéphanie Nava, Philippe Ramette, Sara Schnadt, Kristina Solomoukha, Tatiana Trouvé, Hui Min Tsen, Marie Voignier, herman de vries, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Stephen Wetzel and Raphaël Zarka. The exhibition will also include a program of video art on view in the Black Box Gallery on the second floor.

This is the first exhibition of the Frac collections in the United States, and it will tour the Midwest throughout 2010. Curator Nicholas Frank (Institute of Visual Arts, the Peck School of the Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) originated the concept and exhibition. Participating curators are Allison Peters Quinn (Hyde Park Art Center), Luis Croquer (Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit - MOCAD), Eva González- Sancho (Frac Bourgogne) and Yannick Miloux (Frac Limousin). The project and tour were developed in partnership with Platform (Regroupement des Fonds régionaux d'art contemporain--the association of the Frac) and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States.

Works in the exhibition are drawn from the following French Regional Contemporary Art Collections (FRAC): Alsace, Aquitaine, Auvergne, Basse-Normandie, Bourgogne, Bretagne, Centre, Champagne-Ardenne, Corse, Franche-Comté, Haute-Normandie, Ile-de-France/Le Plateau, Languedoc-Roussillon, Limousin, Lorraine, Nord-Pas de Calais, Pays de la Loire, Poitou-Charentes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Réunion, and Institut d’art contemporain Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes.

Spatial City: An Architecture of Idealism, is supported in part by Culturesfrance-French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, the French Ministry of Culture and Communication (Délégation aux Arts Plastiques), the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States and friends of the Hyde Park Art Center.

The exhibition will visit three architecturally-rich Midwestern cities, originating at the Institute of Visual Arts (Inova) in Milwaukee (February 5 - April 18, 2010) and traveling to the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago (May 23 - August 8, 2010) and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (September 10 – December 26, 2010).

Artist-in-Residence Talk: June 24, 6 p.m.
Paris–based photographer Philippe Durand presents his work and upcoming projects

Talk with the Artists: August 8, 3 - 5 p.m.
Chicago-based artists Jeff Carter and Sarah Schnadt join Allison Peters Quinn to discuss relationship between social networks and architectural forms

For information on the complete set of talks, workshops and performances, please visit the Spatial City exhibition page via http://www.hydeparkart.org

Image: Yona Friedman, Ville spatiale, 1959-60. Photography: Francois Lauginie. Collection Frac Centre

Platform
Coordinator: Marie-Ce'cile Burnichon mariececile@frac-platform.com - http://www.frac-platform.com

Institute of Visual Arts (Inova), at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Coordinator: Polly Morris pollymorris@ameritech.net - http://www.arts.uwm.edu/inova

Press contact: Crystal Pernell
Marketing & Communications Manager
5020 South Cornell Avenue Chicago, IL 60615 773.324.5520 x 1003 cpernell@hydeparkart.org

Exhibition Reception: May 23, 3 - 5 p.m.

Hyde Park Art Center, 5020 South
Cornell Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60615
Gallery Hours:
Monday – Thursday: 10am – 8pm
Friday – Saturday: 10am – 5pm
Sunday: 12pm – 5pm
Exhibitions are always free and open to the public

stampa

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