Ben van Berkel & the Theatre of Immanence
25 November 2007 – 13 January 2008
Opening: 24 November 2007, 8 p.m.
The group exhibition Ben van Berkel & the Theatre of Immanence consists of an advanced installation designed by Städelschule professor of architecture Ben van Berkel together with Prof. Johan Bettum and Luis Etchegorry. The installation houses a series of works by artists and architects who have participated in the one-year long experimental project, entitled the Space of Communication, a project by the Städelschule Architecture Class (SAC). The participants in this project have been international architects and artists Asterios Agkathidis, Brennan Buck & Igor Kebel, Florencia Colombo, Dani Gal, Holger Hoffmann, Jonas Runberger and Gabi Schillig.In addition, the Frankfurt-based design-technology group, MESO Web Scapes / MESO Digital Interiors, is providing an installation of advanced image projection entitled On Things Off Things On. Throughout its period, the exhibition will serve as a hub for various events and lectures.
This exhibition marks the end of the exploratory Städelschule-project the Space of Communication where various aspects of the contemporary conditions of social interaction and communication have been investigated. While some of the projects inherently engage with new electronic technology, some take it for granted and others merely reflect upon it in a distant fashion. Common to all the projects is that they address the social and inter-relational aspects of communication or spaces of communication. In this manner the projects insist on the relevance of art and architecture to which new technology can only add but not change the basic missions or functions. The investigations have been guided by a series of invited specialists, first and foremost professor and architectural theorist, Sanford Kwinter (Rice University, Houston), and artist and professor Peter Hagdahl (Royal Academy of Arts, Stockholm).
The exhibition Ben van Berkel & the Theatre of Immanence presents an advanced shape projection design on architecture. MESO Digital Interiors’ installation On Things Off Things On activates the structural surface of the installation. In this manner, it is also a very ambitious case study in augmented architecture, an attempt to create a reactive surface of extraordinary spatial complexity. The built structure inside the Portikus is illuminated by multiple precisely matched digital projections that both enhance and obscure the physical objects, adding information and disinformation, atmosphere and detail, playing on topics of presence, absence, body, and volume.
For further informations on the hithero course of the Space of Communication and for the upcoming events program, please see: www.staedelschule-onlinegroup.org/
For further information and guided tours, please write to: info@portikus.de
The exhibition and the previous project the Space of Communication have received generous support from Deutsche Telekom.
Thanks for support goes also to:
Vitra., Koninkrijk der Nederlanden, and Heinz und Gisela Friederichs Stiftung
