An exhibition of two filmworks by the Norwegian multi-media artist Knut Asdam: in this, his first showing in Ireland, Asdam seeks to demonstrate how the architecture of a city can embody contemporary life. Living in Motion, major Design Exhibition: one of the largest modern design exhibitions ever held in this country.
Knut Asdam
An exhibition of two filmworks by the Norwegian multi-media artist Knut Asdam
opens to the public at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Wednesday 29 October.
In this, his first showing in Ireland, Asdam seeks to demonstrate how the
architecture of a city can embody contemporary life.
Filter City, 2003, is Asdam most ambitious film/video work to date. The work
focuses on two women, their relationship to each other, to a larger social group
and to a city that is in constant transformation - architecturally, socially and
politically. The film is mostly shot outdoors in modern apartment/housing
complexes, using scenes that are interchangeable with different Western cities.
Through dialogue and filmic description of places and people, Asdam brings the
characters into a narration with a city that is constantly changing socially and
politically. Filter City was first shown at the recent Istanbul Biennial.
The second work Cluster Praxis, 2002, deals with dancing as a form of social
practice, and particularly as an expression of the desire for collectivety. The
work is structured around the sound - a narrative mix of voice and ambient
soundscapes - dominated by a five-minute-long poetic monologue. Writing in
Artforum, Jordan Kantor, described the work as tracing an ever-deepening
subjectivity with the "objective" camera.
Knut Asdam was born in 1968, in Trondheim, Norway, and studied in London at
Wimbledon College of Art and Goldsmiths College. He has exhibited extensively
in the US and Europe and was selected for the Nordic pavilion in the 1999 Venice
Biennale. His most recent shows include solo exhibitions at Klmens Gasser and
Tanja Grunert, New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Oslo, and Tate Britain,
London.
A publication, with an essay by Simon Sheikh, Curator and Assistant Professor of
Art Theory and Co-ordinator of the Critical Studies Programme, Malmo Art
Academy, accompanies the exhibition.
The exhibition continues until 4 January 2003.
Admission is free.
Image: Knut Asdam, Filter City, 2003, 35mm film or DVD
projection installation, 21 min. colour, stereo, Courtesy the artist
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Major Design Exhibition at IMMA
One of the largest modern design exhibitions ever held in this country opens to
the public at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Wednesday 29 October 2003.
Living in Motion: Design and Architecture for Flexible Dwelling explores
developments in the home, the workplace and in people's lifestyles, which are
now subject to greater and more rapid change than ever before. Also examined
are the ways in which contemporary architects and designers have worked to adapt
living environments to these new parameters. The exhibition features modular
furniture, folding screens, housing containers and other forms of movable
architecture and brings together design and architecture ranging from the
traditional South American hammock to modern-day living pods. Organised by the
Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany, it includes work by such noted
designers as Isamu Noguchi, Philipe Starck, Ron Arad, Gerrit Rietveld and Eileen
Gray.
Although flexible modes of living draw on an age-old tradition and a wide
variety of cultures - from early European stair ladders to North African tents -
recent changes in living conditions and technical advances have greatly
increased the relevance of domestic flexibility. This preoccupation with
energising our domestic environment, using either multipurpose rooms or
multifunctional furniture, is something which has caught the imagination of
almost all the great designers of the last 80 years, from Frank Lloyd Wright
through Gerrit Rietveld and Mies van der Rohe to Ron Arad and Rem Koolhaas all
of whom are represented in the exhibition.
The exhibition also includes two pieces by the Irish designer Tony O'Neill,
whose approach to furniture design is based not only on structural
considerations but takes in more surprising aspects such as puzzles and
paradoxes. As working and private lives increasingly overlap, a mobile
independent lifestyle becomes increasingly important. Today, more than ever,
people are seeking a way of living which is not tied to fixed patterns and
predetermined locations. The 100 objects brought together in Living in Motion
are displayed in six main groups based on their use:
Transporting, including Mathieu Mategot's tea wagon and a model of an Asian
houseboat.
Assembling and Disassembling, usually serving the purpose of easier transport,
such as the Colonial Folding Chair by Kare Klint or Gerrit Rietveld's Schroeder
House with its moveable walls.
Adapting, comprising objects that can be adapted to alternating physical needs,
such as Joe Colombo's Mutichair, Ron Arad's Transformer, and Tony O'Neill's
Slimline Folding Chairs.
Combining, including a ladder chair, a sleeping sofa, or David Green's Living
Pod, integrating various functions in a single object.
Folding and Unfolding, to save space or facilitate transport as seen in the
folding screen of Charles and Ray Eames, or in a camper by Eduard Böhtlingk.
Wearing and Carrying, where individual domestic devices can be worn or carried:
as in a jacket with integrated telecommunications equipment by Philips and Levi
Strauss or a simple umbrella.
In addition to the objects exhibited, over 500 illustrations of further examples
of flexible living will be displayed in films and on computer terminals.
The following talks have been organised to coincide with the exhibition.
Lecture Wednesday 29 October at 11.30am
Living in Motion: Design and Architecture for Flexible Dwelling
Mathias Schwarz-Clauss, Curator, Vitra Design Museum presents a lecture on
the exhibition.
Panel Discussion Wednesday 29 October at 2.30pm
Living in Motion: Design and Architecture for Flexible Dwelling
Mathias Schwarz-Clauss, Curator, Vitra Design Museum chairs a panel
discussion based on the exhibition.
The exhibition is accompanied by a 300-page catalogue with more than 300, mostly
colour, illustrations. It includes essays by Mathias Schwartz-Clauss, Curator,
Vitra Design Museum, Dr Robert Kronenburg, Dr Annemarie Seiler-Baldinger and Dr
Stephen Rammler. The authors examine the major developments in mobile and
adaptable architecture and interior design in the 20th century and also provide
insights into causes and consequences of "living in motion" from sociological
and psychological standpoints.
Living in Motion continues until 2 January 2004.
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Opening hours:
Tue - Sat 10.00am - 5.30pm
Sun and Bank Holidays 12 noon - 5.30pm
and 27, 28, 30 and 31 Dec
Closed Mondays and 24 - 26 Dec
Irish Museum of Modern Art
Royal Hospital Military Road Kilmainham
Dublin
353 1 612 9900