ESTRATOS’’
CONTEMPORARY ART PROJECT MURCIA 2008
31 January to 31 March 2008
PAC MURCIA / HORIZON MOINS VINGT BY POINCHEVAL & TIXADOR STARTS FEBRUARY 11TH
During a meeting held by the adventurers’ club, it was said that the quality of a journey depends much less on the final destination than on the mode of transport used.
Not long after, Laurent Tixador and Abraham Poincheval, while joking around, came up with the idea that one could travel from point A to point B through a closed tunnel—that is, the tunnel would be resealed by its occupants as they would move forward, thus travelling as if they were in a kind of troglodyte mobile home.
“After a feasibility study validated the possibility of carrying out this project, it is now a question of advancing by this means for the space of twenty days. The resistance of the soil will determine the speed and distance that will be travelled. No one knows in advance how this journey will unfold, seeing as there is no prior experience to use as a point of reference. HORIZON MOINS VINGT (H-20) project consists of the construction of a tunnel that will be gradually filled in behind them by its dwellers as they go along, in such a way that the resulting underground space will consist of a kind of air bubble cut off from the outside. The estimated duration of the performance is twenty days (starting February 11th), with the excavation of one metre per day, producing a total displacement of 20 metres.
Air will be pumped into and extracted from the tunnel and all necessary equipment and provisions will be in place from the start, because it will not be possible to rely on external supplies once the project begins. For the entrance, it will be necessary to begin by digging a 5-metre access ramp as well as to open 10 metres of tunnel that will comprise the living space. Therefore, the total excavation required will be 35 metres. The height of the tunnel will be 166 cm, and its depth at ceiling level will be 100 cm. For this reason it is absolutely essential to build it in deep ground with at least 3 metres of soft soil. A 24-hour guard duty will be in place to monitor the correct functioning of the pumps and to communicate with the two occupants. Site huts will be built to house the pumps and guards.”
Abraham Poincheval & Laurent Tixador
The work of Laurent Tixador and Abraham Poincheval may be defined as an adventure. That is, as the fact of discovering something extraordinary. In their proposals, they never repeat the same experience twice and their projects include, for instance, an attempt to survive for a week on the island of Frioul, in the precariousness of prehistoric life, or a two month straight line walk from Nantes to Metz. Utopian expeditionary projects through itineraries and situations unknown to the artists, ultimately remitting to the conquest of space, a reflection on chance and its limitations.
The PAC MURCIA Proyecto de Arte Contemporáneo (Contemporary Art Project) opened January 31th. It is one initiatives conceived by the Regional Administration of the Region of Murcia to lay the foundations for a consistent and referential context in the contemporary art field. As well as the exhibition curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, titled ESTRATOS”, including site specific works by Lara Almarcegui, Juan Cruz. Mark Dion, Abraham Poincheval & Laurent Tixador and Marjetica Potrc, it will also feature a selection of films with this same topic in the Filmoteca Regional during the month of February; a parallel program of exhibitions by local galleries and institutions and the seminar “HETEROCHRONIES: Temporality and image in contemporaneity”.
ARTISTS
LARA ALMARCEGUI, BERND & HILLA BECHER, BLEDA Y ROSA, JUAN CRUZ, VERNE DAWSON, MARK DION, JIMMIE DURHAM, CYPRIEN GAILLARD, ILANA HALPERIN, JOACHIM KOESTER, MARK LOMBARDI, ALLAN McCOLLUM, PAUL NOBLE, PAULINA OLOWSKA, DIEGO PERRONE,
ABRAHAM POINCHEVAL & LAURENT TIXADOR, MARJETICA POTRC, GREGOR SCHNEIDER, EVE SUSSMAN & THE RUFUS CORPORATION, KEITH TYSON
CURATOR
NICOLAS BOURRIAUD
VENUES
Centro Párraga
Espacio AV
MAM (Museo Arqueológico de Murcia)
MUBAM (Museo de Bellas Artes de Murcia)
Museo de Santa Clara
Sala San Esteban
Sala Verónicas
Public spaces
CENDEAC (Centro de Documentación y Estudios Avanzados de Arte Contemporáneo)
Filmoteca Regional Francisco Rabal
For further information, please contact:
Press Office
T. (+34) 902 106 504
info@pacmurcia.es