Samuel Dowd, Vicky Falconer and Mark Geffriaud
dal 11/12/2009 al 6/2/2010
Segnalato da
11/12/2009
Samuel Dowd, Vicky Falconer and Mark Geffriaud
FormContent - new space, London
Three by 3. With this project, FormContent would like to tackle an essential element in the development of its own programme: the conditions for the production of new experimental works by artists in different moments of their career. For this project FormContent has multiplied the influences: three by 3, three curators and three artists. The reason to collaborate with each one of them has a slightly different focus, and it is precisely in these small differences that the interest of the project arises.
Dear Vicky, Sam and Mark
We hope that this letter finds you well and in good spirits. On our part, we are really looking forward to working with the three of you on the next exhibition at FormContent. In the time remaining before the opening, we are keen to continue our discussion with each of you and, at the same time, on attempting to better comprehend each other’s practice.
With this project, FormContent would like to tackle an essential element in the development of its own programme: the conditions for the production of new experimental works by artists in different moments of their career. Even though we selected each of you through different conceptual paths, we would like to further establish certain conditions for collaboration, since we feel you three share a similar sensitivity. Moreover, the fact that there will be three of you in the space mirrors the dialogical focus that is at the heart of FormContent’s practice: a constant discussion between three curators. For this project we have multiplied the influences: three by 3, three curators and three artists. The reason to collaborate with each one of you has a slightly different focus, and it is precisely in these small differences that the interest of the project arises.
Vicky, we were struck and fascinated by the layered quality of your work. We have been discussing between us and with you its formal coherency that draws as source material on a number of inspirations such as architecture, literature or Modernism. The study of and interest in these subjects is then distilled and finds new formations in installation that explore different potentialities: how a window constitutes a boundary between inside and outside, how it sheds light, how a studio is affected by it and how many different materials’ configurations contribute to create new compositions. We are very curious to see how you will balance at FormContent the outputs of your research - both playful and abstract - in a very tight dialogue between space, objects and materials.
Sam, after many discussions we became intrigued by your thorough research into the Arts and Crafts movement– the Bauhaus, visionary architecture etc. Being at the moment in Berlin for a residency, your research seems to evolve in a slightly different direction and as such our exhibition comes at the right time. The work you are pursuing consists of drawings and models of sets, props and costumes based on a film by Frederick Kiesler that was never realized. The unfinished material that is your starting point gives you the possibility to engage with the specific moment in-between initial concept and final outcome. We are curious to see how this fictional collaboration finds its materialization and how you see this intermediate space negotiated.
It was not just due to a common formal sensitivity that we arrived at your work Mark. If it is indeed true that the three of you share a certain attraction for lightness, instability and incompleteness in both the materials you use and the final result you obtain, then your personal research has the value of an empiric experiment always in need of the right conditions to happen. So we wanted to set up these conditions at FormContent, allowing you to work towards a new piece in a free and experimental environment, yet keeping in mind the proximity with Sam and Vicky’s practices. In your work you seem to apply a subjective take onto rational decision-making, allowing (or even provoking) accidents and arbitrary choices to create inadvertent but yet valuable knowledge. In this sense, the possibility to spend some time at FormContent to test new ideas seems the perfect method of creating a new gesture, a new attempt to point at the feeble breath of knowledge.
Taking all of this into consideration, we are also planning for January 23rd a day devoted to the exploration of different strands of your individual practices through a dialogue with other artists, curators and thinkers that, on the one hand, could have something interesting to say about your research, and on the other will bring their own experience of similar issues around different conditions for the production of new works.
We look forward to seeing you soon at FormContent and beginning to work together
Sincerely
Francesco, Caterina and Pieternel - FormContent
FormContent is a cu torial project space, initiated in 2007 by Francesco Pedraglio, Caterina Riva and Pieternel Vermoortel in London’s East End. Its mission is to create a space in which to experiment with ideas and exhibition formats, to foster an active collaboration between artists and curators while challenging their roles.
Opening: Saturday 12, 4-9 pm
FormContent
51– 63 Ridley Road, London e8 2np
Open: Friday – Sunday,
12 – 6 pm or by appointment