Friday 7 August 2009

FELIPE MUJICA 'NO DREAM' MODERNIST WALL CURTAINS IN BEIJING









Felipe Mujica
No Dream

No Dream belongs to a series of works that organize space, that divide and arrange it into a set of intermedial spatial constructions. By doing this they redirect the viewer’s circulation, affecting their perception of space and its contents. These spatial installations are also flexible, they can work on their own as architectural partitions and can also work as exhibition design, in relationship to other art works, either mine or from other artists.

At The Shop No Dream will consist in the installation of a group of fabric panels, which have embroidered drawings based on the work of modernist Argentinean artist Raul Lozza. They will re-configure The Shop and will become a new display: a selection of works by local artists will be installed in and around No Dream aiming to create a dialogue between the different works.

As a way to keep the piece as open as possible these space dividers (or “wall curtains”) will be also set into motion. Following The Shop’s conceptual framework as a space in search of the art object and the gallery as possible situations and expressions of daily processes these wall curtains will be movable, which will allow - if wanted - an almost daily transformation of space, of encounters, of interpretations. Made with the same material as a curtain and used to dived their domestic usability both re-signifies and undermines their conceptuality.

To bring Latin American Modernism, a specific history, time and place, into The Shop may look at first as distanced or misplaced yet my interest in this historical review is based on the possibility of finding possible connections between this specific history with The Shop’s context and intentions. One key element in Lozza’s work was the utopian idea of creating a painting system that would merge art, architecture and design, therefore creating a single and unifying art piece, a painting that was no longer “a window” yet an object, and hopefully an object of daily use. For this his final goal was to paint directly onto the walls: art needed to be integrated into the “daily life”. In this aspect the project intends to be also a research platform, for me as well as for the public.

This exhibition therefore will become an experiment, with no fixed opening or closing date these “wall curtains” will dialogue with space as well as with The Shop as an identity as well as with other artist’s art-works as well with the viewer that encounters and enters The Shop. They will become a tool to be used by The Shop. A talk and video screening will be organized for which the curtains will be used as display and as background. No Dream’s intention is to create an open artwork, a functional dream, incomplete by nature.

"The perceptive painting is not a museum art, a place where man goes, on a fixed schedule, in search of his ration of aesthetic feelings.
It is an art of "ambiance" that must accompany man in his center of cotidianity; at home, in the public and private buildings, on means of transportation, in the offices, workshops and streets, because it must reach man in the expression of his reality and not at the exhaust pipe that is the exhibition room of a museum"
art critic Abraham Haber on the work of Raul Lozza.


No Dream (Felipe Mujica in discussion with Michael Eddy) and Groovy, man (a discussion between Yan Jun and Hu Fang)
Saturday, August 1st, 2009
15:00 - 18:00
(videos total running time 30-40 min)
With English and Chinese translations

Felipe Mujica is a New York-based, Chilean artist working in various media. For his project at the shop he is making an installation of "wall curtains", which re-organize the space and contents of the shop, while remaining graphic objects on their own. The designs of these curtains are sewn with geometric drawings originating from the Argentinean Modernist artist Raul Lozza (1911-2008). Felipe conceived this project with the context of the shop in mind; Lozza represents an approach to Modernism whose aim was less autonomy than functionality. As Felipe says, "his final goal was to paint directly onto the walls: art needed to be integrated into 'daily life'" Felipe's project is an invitation to rethink the singular trajectory we attribute to Modernism, bringing forward evidence of a pluralistic approach, bringing it into the present.

To coincide with - and to use - his installation, Felipe will discuss with Michael Eddy art in Latin America, and what modernism means in that part of the world. He will also present his work as an artist in New York where he has lived for the last 10 years, his previous work organizing an independent gallery in Santiago, "Galeria Chilena", and will screen some videos of artists who have participated in the foundation of this gallery. Following Felipe's presentation will be a reading and conversation between sound artist and poet Yan Jun and writer Hu Fang on themes relating to self exile, differing scales of journeys, and how to reconnect to approaches explored in the 1960's. There will be a music-listening component to this conversation.

the shop,
B1-1503, Building 15, Jianwai SOHO, 39 East 3rd-Ring Rd, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100022
Tel: 0086-10-59004374 / Fax: 0086-10-59004374
mobile: 0086- 15001127304

http://www.vitamincreativespace.com/
http://vitamincreativespace.blogbus.com/

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