calendario eventi  :: 

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9/10/2003

As a house that moves

Fri Art - Kunsthalle Fribourg, Fribourg

MODULE 1
Daniel Robert Hunziker - Anne Lacaton & Jean Philippe Vassal

Projects of new temples to culture abound in our times, but the debate on slightly outdated notions such as the 'White Cube' and the 'Black Box' continues apace. The cube represents a minimalist spatial form that retains a strong kinship with the easel painting and its frame. Recycled and trivialized, it is now characterized by a degree of objectivity and neutrality that subjects it to an alienated world of scientific and emotionless rationality.
For this exhibition, Fri-Art has invited an artist and two architects to cooperate on a project that reconsiders the museum and its internal structure, links the individual to the environment, and invites him to develop a shared spatial concept which involves and feeds into a reflection on the 'nature' of this subject.

Anne Lacaton & Jean Philippe Vassal (F) have won international recognition, notably with their redevelopment of the Palais de Tokyo. Their work has always had an ethical aspect, in that they attempt to create an architectural language that goes beyond form. Nevertheless, for Anne Lacaton and Jean Philippe Vassal form is always subordinate to their program. They shun the use of models in their work, prompting the public to view architecture from the inside out. Their main aim is to experiment with architectural solutions that blend with the period and the topography, transforming limits and rules into advantages, stimulating creation, and continuously rethinking technical means. Materials and cost-effective procedures are used to enhance space. To quote Jean Philippe Vassal: '...Architecture for roses, for example, is at least ten times as intelligent as architecture for human beings. There is a world of difference between the thermal comfort enjoyed by plants in a hothouse, and the conditions imposed upon people in human habitations. This shows the extent to which the family home is still ensconced in a form of protective thinking that puts it in a defensive position towards the environment: as few windows as possible, as many walls as possible, maximum insulation (...). Thanks to decades of research, hothouses today are characterised by a degree of architectural and technical intelligence that seems almost like science fiction - the temperature can be regulated to half a degree, humidity to one percent, etc. (...)'.
The teamx{2019}s elegant and poetic programs enable them to generate highly rational though emotionally vibrant structures. Fri-Art will feature eight videos and one interview of the two architects, presenting eight different projects.

Argovian artist Daniel Robert Hunziker (CH) has a special relationship to space, and space-relevant architectural practices are an integral part of his work. He integrates architecture into his work, which in turn incorporates the work within a specific location. Hunziker uses spatial stagings and constructions to make visible fractions of reality and project them outwards. His choice of materials is never random, nor the way in which he assembles them. Mixing nature and technical know-how, his works are not on a standard scale; in fact they often manipulate different scales and combine models with life-size structures, thereby allowing the viewer to take a fresh new look at his own perception of space and at the norms society imposes upon him. For Fri-Art, the three new pieces entitled 'Findling* (2003) correspond to a reflection on its own possible redevelopment. The works are reminiscent of erratic blocks that originated in the ice age and were deposited in the most unlikely places - among them the Fribourg region. Daniel Robert Hunziker plays with space when he presents these monumental rotating geodesic forms, whose configurations redefine their environment. In parallel, a partial model of the new space designed for Fri-Art will be exhibited in the showcase of the XX Café. An encounter between the infinitely large and the infinitesimal, so to speak.

Between art and architecture, this Fri-Art project delves into a common storehouse of spatial experience for an in-depth examination of the museum and of its function: to question our relation to the world and to the work of art. From mediators of reality, art and architecture are transformed into its 'surgeons', cutting into and disclosing the consecutive layers of the visible world.

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MODULE 2
Michel François, Ulrike Gruber, Isabelle Krieg, Frédéric Post, Pierre Vadi

In order to create new synergies between the Fribourg Art and History Museum (Musée dx{2019}Art et dx{2019}Histoire MAHF) and Fri-Art, both institutions will have to join forces and develop a specific artistic concept. Fri-Art proposes to launch this undertaking by contemporary works that make use of numerous moulding and stamping techniques, in parallel with the exhibition 'Au-delà du visible/Jenseits des Sichtbaren' ('Beyond the Visible').

Fri-Art will feature several artists who use similar techniques and deal with such subjects as nature and architecture in a poetic vein.

Belgian artist Michel François, gained a reputation at the Venice Biennial in 1998 and at a number of individual shows, for example in the Kunsthalle in Berne and the Haus der Kunst in Munich (2000). His light bulbs in transparent resin propose a new approach to the moulded object, by multiplying points of view, and reflecting and reversing surrounding scenes. Suddenly, he plays with positive and negative effects (to paraphrase Magritte: 'This is not a light bulb'). Broodthaersx{2019} mussel shells and the mould are recurrent themes in Françoisx{2019} work; he quotes them repeatedly and encourages us to take a new look at the masterpieces of the 20th century.

Ulrike Gruber will present an avalanche 'Ornament und Gebrechen II' (2002). Her work focuses strongly on nature and its evocative power. For this piece, she has produced 160 polyester modules, direct negative moulds of parts of a glacier. Extreme hardness, a certain formal coldness and structure characterise this artistx{2019}s work. The universe she creates is close to a type of chaos, a state of confusion that preceded the creation of the world, perhaps giving rise to our constant attempts at urban or institutional organisation.

Isabelle Krieg, an artist from Fribourg, depicts the world with great subtlety. To tell us stories about its origins, she adapts her figurative imprints to specific locations and objects. Between nature and architecture, the pillars she will present in Fri-Art will assume the shape of trees, reminiscent of the most original forms of architecture, i.e. the first primitive huts.

The work 'Miracol' by Frédéric Post consists of records in wood glue. His works often feature moulded elements, bootleg copies which the audience may listen to, consume or absorb at will. In Fri-Art he will present mountains of capsules hallmarked with abstract elements, a way of questioning the role played by generic pharmaceuticals and placebos in our society. Together with G. and N. Schönwehrs he will produce a number of posters to activate both the networks of art and its societal role.

As for Pierre Vadi, his investigation of mundane objects also takes on the shape of pieces in glucose that represent portable phones, revolvers etc. He will create a new work entitled 'Songs from Liquid Days' (2003), a one-metre chain saw moulded in transparent polystyrene. Executed by G. and N. Schönwehrs, the poster refers to the Philip Glass work, 'Songs from Liquid Days'.

A poster campaign in the Fribourg city centre will deal with the above subjects, enabling us to reconsider our perception of these works in an urban context freed of the institutional yoke.

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MEETING POINTS
Francis Baudevin - Karim Noureldin

Kunst am Bau Project 2003 - 2005

Fri-Art, which functions as a kind of borderline platform between different linguistic and cultural influences, is happy to announce that it will feature a joint work by two Swiss artists, Francis Baudevin and Karim Noureldin, to be presented in the institutionx{2019}s stairwell between the end of 2003 and the beginning of 2005. This four-handed intervention will focus on Fri-Art as a venue in which different trends interpenetrate, and define it as a contact zone between regions, linguistic ones for example. Each artist will develop his concept of abstract painting in the given environment.

Karim Noureldin will work at all three levels of the building to intensify its vanishing points and highlight its different perspectives. A visual system consisting of a single colour - golden yellow - will enter into a dialogue with the horizontal and vertical lines of doors, windows and niches. Francis Baudevinx{2019} complementary intervention will present the origins of the building, which was first in use as a packaging factory, in flat and in solid colour. The artist recycles commercial graphics and packaging linked to the abstract visual identity of more or less common consumer products. For Fri-Art, the Corteingles logo will be used to project infinity of abstract shapes from top to bottom of the building.

The encounter will be based on a vertical development of two murals, highlighting this zone in terms of space and time, and launching the idea of a possible link between two separate exhibition spaces. Influencing the upward and downward movement of visitors, the project should allow for direct interaction with them and enhance their visual perception. Shapes, colours and vanishing points will establish a rhythm for the flow of visitors, and set up a type of mental walkabout, or voyage.

Translated from the French by Zosia Rozankowska

Vernissage Friday, 10 Oktober at 6 p.m.

Opening hours : Tues.-Fri. 2-6 p.m., Sat.-Sun. 2-5 p.m., Thursday evenings 8-10 p.m.
Guided visits at 8 p.m. on Thursdays, November 20 and December 4, 2003

Next show : February 2004
' Prostitution ' : Josep Maria Martin, Matthew Rogers, Christine Ponelle

Venue: Fri-art
Petites-Rames 22 Case postale 354 CH 1701
Fribourg

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