Matthew Ritchie & Aranda/Lasch: The Evening Line In collaboration with Arup AGU Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Fabrication Sheetfabs Nottingham Ltd. Location: Corderie dell’Arsenale (Castello 2169/f) Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-B A21) was invited by Aaron Betsky to present The Evening Line on the 11th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice. The project is the result of an intensive three year collaboration with New York based artist Matthew Ritchie, architects Aranda/Lasch and geometric/structural designers Arup AGU and was produced by T-B A21. Apart from being an autonomous structure conceived for the Biennial, The Evening Line is also a portion of a larger structure – potentially the size of the universe, through the application of fractal geometry –, entitled The Morning Line. The Morning Line will be inaugurated at the Contemporary Art Biennial of Seville entitled YOUniverse on October 1st. It is a highly complex “anti pavilion” (Matthew Ritchie) in which a great variety of interdisciplinary reflections converge. Among these, fractal geometry is the bond linking The Evening Line in Venice and The Morning Line in Seville. Both are infinitely modular constructions, built from a single shape called “the bit” that derives from a truncated tetrahedron and was developed by the architectural duo Aranda/Lasch with Arup AGU. Matthew Ritchie’s visual language maps onto the bits to make The Evening Line a true unification of expression and structure. This synthetic process is accomplished by applying certain geometric constraints to his drawings so that as they grow and change, every line connects to every other line to form a larger picture and a structural framework. Geometry and expression become one. François Roche and Stéphanie Lavaux, R&Sie(n) The Garden of Earthly Delights Commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Location: Italian Pavilion T-B A21 will also preview its third Art Pavilion commission The Garden of Earthly Delights by French architects François Roche and Stéphanie Lavaux/ R&Sie(n) in Venice. They were invited to revive the historic Renaissance gardens on the island of Lopud (Croatia) and conceived an architectural intervention that also functions as a Toxic Garden, a distillery for poisonous concoctions and a self-regulating production unit absorbing the sky’s waters. In designing The Garden of Earthly Delight, the architects have been guided by the detailed historical descriptions of plants found in the scientific herbaria of medieval Franciscan Monks. This site-specific revitalization of an important historic fabric represents a groundbreaking approach in the context of preservation techniques. Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Venice Talks In order to give deeper insight into the artistic and theoretical reflections behind the foundation’s latest pavilion commissions previewed in Venice, T-B A21 hosts two panels that explore the disciplinary convergence of art, architecture, mathematics, music and science, botany and historiography. Panel I: Contemporary Architecture and the Toxicity of History In The Garden of Earthly Delights, contemporary art and architecture are inscribed within the horizon of historic preservation in an unprecedented way: an important non-physical historical particularity of the site is reconstructed. Panel II: Drawing in Art, Architecture and Science The potential of drawing to function as a sort of lingua franca between the sciences and the arts is apparent in The Evening Line and The Morning Line. Both panels: Date: September 11th, 2008 Time: 7 and 8 pm Location and panelists: please refer to www.tba21.org for further information Accreditation for journalists who want to participate through press@tba21.org Out There. Architecture Beyond Building 11th International Architecture Exhibition Venice Duration: September 14th – November 23rd, 2008 Press conference: September 11th, 2008 Preview: September 12th – 13th, 2008 http://www.labiennale.org INFORMATION: Press / Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Himmelpfortgasse 13, 1010 Vienna http://www.tba21.org / press@tba21.org T +43 1 513 98 56 29 / F +43 1 513 98 56 22