Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space 2011: Switzerland will be represented by the ‘Made of Concrete’ project
Bern, 14.06.2011 - The Prague Quadrennial is the leading international exhibition dedicated to contemporary performance design. The Federal Office of Culture, on the recommendation of the Federal Design Commission, commissioned Körner Union to produce and present a work for the forthcoming edition of the Quadrennial between 16 and 26 June.
For the piece entitled "Made of Concrete", the artists set out with the idea of creating still life depicting unusually large objects. For three months, Körner Union, assisted by a number of helpers, put together montages of cars, trees, boats, telegraph poles, tents and numerous other objects in a vast hangar in Monthey in canton Valais. The result was sixteen still lifes in black and white, whose play on dimensions leaves the spectator in awe. Each image portrays unique objects, each one different. With "Made of Concrete", Körner Union creates a scene in which the spectator can project both reflections of a general nature, as well as personal recollections.
In Prague the artists will be presenting a collection composed of black and white photographs of reduced dimension. Reproductions of this work are published in the catalogue which will be presented for the first time in Prague. The publication also contains articles by two authors who comment on "Made of Concrete". They are Yann Chateigné Tytelman, an art critic from Geneva, and Samuel Dubosson, a philosopher based in Lausanne and Paris. These two approaches bear witness to the complexity and finesse of this project with its misleading title.The artists Guy Meldem (born 1980 from Apples, Switzerland), Sami Benhadj (born 1977 from Algiers, Algeria) and Tarik Hayward (born 1979 from Ibiza, Spain) founded Körner Union in 1999, creating a platform for multidisciplinary experimentation and collaborative creation. Körner Union is active in numerous fields of art and design and is now a veritable communication and production studio. This multidimensional enterprise tackles the most diverse range of projects with an open mind and free of taboos. Between 2004 and 2009, the artists received the Swiss Federal Design Award (a total of five times as a group or as individuals).
Vernissage
15 June 2011, 5pm – 7pm
National Gallery-Veletržní Palace
Dukelskych hrdinu 47, Praha 7
10am – 8pm
www.pq.cz
Catalogue
Edited by the Federal Office of Culture, 2011, 72 pages, 15 illustrations, French/English,
paperback, ISBN 978-3-9523843-0-5 CHF 18.50/EUR 15.
www.bak.admin.ch
www.swissdesignawards.ch
Address for enquiries
Anna Niederhäuser, Cultural Service Section, Federal Office of Culture,
+41 79 4766474; anna.niederhaeuser@bak.admin.ch
Links
Publisher
Federal Office of Cultural Affairs
http://www.bak.admin.ch
