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gordon matta-clark

Home Tag gordon matta-clark
antonio o’connell + pepsi + liter of light. design week mexico 2015.

antonio o’connell + pepsi + liter of light. design week mexico 2015.

Oct 21, 2015

Mexico City hosts Design Week Mexico. One of the exhibitions is called ‘Light in the Darkness’- where Mexican artist Antonio O’Connell contemplates the idea of living without light. He has partnered with Pepsi and Liter of Light to bring “Ignite the Light” – a program that fuses art, philanthropy and social commentary and action.

Pepsi, through their Pepsi Challenge, a worldwide initiative bringing attention to communities that lack access to electricity and basic lighting solutions. Liter of Light, using empty recycled plastic bottles, innovative designs and simple circuitry, builds solar lights for day and night with zero carbon emissions.

“Light in the Darkness” is a a large scale, mixed media art installation that mirrors Liter of Light’s core work, the use of recycled plastic bottles to transform colors and lights in unexpected ways, illuminating an otherwise ordinary space and shedding light on the millions of people who live without it on a daily basis.

We talk to the artist.

[DesignApplause] Antonio, please tell us about the concept behind ‘Light in the Darkness’.
[Antonio O’Connell] We live in a world of great social contrasts where imagination is a luxury for some but a necessity for others. Many of us take for granted that we open a faucet and we have running water or turn a switch and have light. I thought of the idea of living without light and remembered a quote by Gaston Bachelard in his book “Poetics of Space”: “The house we were born in is more than an embodiment of home, it is also an embodiment of dreams”.

So “Light in the Darkness”” alludes to the ephemeral construction of “favelas” and shanty towns but with a vision of hope when light is provided to homes with Pepsi® PET bottles by the “Liter of Light” Foundation. Light transforms a dark place into a place of fantasy where new forms and colors are possible and the hope to dream farther.

[DA] What has this particular project taught you?
[AO] I wasn’t aware of the “Liter of Light” foundation and their simple but innovative way to bring light into communities that have none. By participating in this Pepsi® global initiative I was inspired by the wonderful job their doing and felt motivated to be a part of it.

[DA] You’re both an architect and an artist. Tell us what each discipline means to you and how they play off the other for you.
[AO] For me it’s hard to tell them apart because I see my work as it is. I guess it depends on the context you view the work it can be experimental Architecture or Installation Art. You can think its Art but then again isn’t Architecture a form of Art? I left my “conventional” architectural work since 2006 and began to focus on more conceptual and/or experimental work.

[DA] What’s the process of concept to the finished piece in your Architecture or Art? Do you use the computer or old school methods?
[AO] The concept is always embedded in the finished piece, even during the process, which is usually hand crafted from sketching to modeling to building. I don’t use computers because my work is very intuitive and hands on, besides it alludes to the self building in marginalized communities as well as the hand craft of the traditional construction workers in Mexico.

dwm15-antonio-5

[DA] Who has inspired and influenced you in both Architecture and Art?
[[AO] Influence and inspiration comes from everywhere not just Architecture and Art, but to name a few, in Architecture it has been Enric Miralles which I had the chance to meet and study a small course, the Deconstructive movement as well as the Russian Constructivists, Vladimir Tatlin, Peter Eisenman, Archigram, Lebbeus Woods, Thom Mayne, Rem Koolhaas, Coop Himmelblau, Samuel Mockbee, Hundertwasser, Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, the Mexican architects Luis Barragán and Juan O’Gorman. In Art there are many as well but usually artists trained as architects or their work related to Architecture: Gordon Matta-Clark, Kurt Schwitters, Situationist International, Bauhaus, Tadashi Kawamata, Ai Wei Wei, Richard Serra, Joseph Beuys, Francis Alÿs, González Gortázar, Mathias Goeritz, the Mexican Muralist Movement, Gabriel Orozco, to name a few.

[DA] Design Week Mexico goes back to 2009. Have you been involved with this event before? Can you tell us about the evolution over the past seven years and how the city and world responds to a design week?
[AO] This is the first time that I’ve been involved with Design Week Mexico. I don’t really know about the evolution of Design Week Mexico during these years, I just know it has grown a lot. People are more aware about design and interested to see what’s being done. This makes it a great opportunity to present this project with Pepsi® that blends design, art and architecture with a social cause benefit program.

[DA] What other architecture & design events have been able to attend?
[AO] I was invited to a work for Kartell Loves Mexico design event.

[DA] Anything else you wish to say that we haven’t talked about?
[AO] I am very happy to take part in such an important initiative like Pepsi Challenge and be able to support the efforts of “Liter of Light” to bring attention to important matters like access to basic services for those in need.

dwm15-antonio-2

Expo chicago. A river runs through it.

Sep 16, 2012

photo: elizabeth corr (nrdc) | click > enlarge

Sometimes you need a new perspective on things to see them clearly, as if for the first time. Take the Chicago River. Many of us interact with the waterway on a daily basis, but in a passive manner. And, yet when we do pay attention, we don’t think of the River as a resource. We’re not fazed by the bottles and debris floating downstream.

But, imagine a topographical map of the Chicago River that was made entirely of silver pins…that lets us see the River anew.

Take 2,000 pounds of garbage that was polluting the River and transform it into a sculpture… that commands attention.

This is the power of visual art – it refocuses our attention on issues we might otherwise ignore, and helps us to understand an issue in a completely different way. And, this is why I’m thrilled that NRDC is a part of ExpoChicago, Chicago’s new contemporary art fair set to take place at Navy Pier this September 20-23. The examples of a pin river and a garbage wall are real installations that NRDC is proud to present in our exhibition space at EXPO – installations that we hope will inspire the public look at the Chicago River, and other fresh water resources, in a new light.

NRDC’s honorary Trustee, Maya Lin will have several of her pieces on display with us, including Reversing the Flow, the aforementioned pin-map of the Chicago River, and a sound/video installation from >What is Missing?, a project about endangered species and ecosystems. Lin’s work in sculpture and landscape art elegantly depicts the current environmental issues we’re facing, underscoring the importance of science, and the need for community participation.

Maya Lin’s vision stems from a rich tradition of architecture and design that realigns the practice with the realities of everyday life for people and their communities – transforming architecture from abstraction, disembodied expression, and dueling aesthetics, into a collaborative tool that engages with the urgent issues of real life, and mobilizes citizen awareness.

Gordon Matta-Clark pioneered this approach as an architect and as an artist. His work creatively transformed the built environment, addressing urban issues that remain relevant today – sustainable living, principles of recycling, social equity, food production, and clean air.

For this reason, it is particularly meaningful to be able to display his landmark piece –Garbage Wall – next to Maya Lin’s work.

Garbage Wall is the latest incarnation of a piece Matta-Clark built in 1970 to commemorate the first Earth Day. At the time, Garbage Wall was notable for its use of recycled materials and its uncompromising assessment of pollution problems in New York City. Continuing in that tradition of environmental activism, this version of the Wall uses only materials sourced directly from the Chicago, Mississippi, Illinois, and Ohio Rivers – drawing attention to water pollution and waste management practices plaguing the Midwest.

There is a serendipitous component of EXPO worth noting. Navy Pier, the location for the fair, sits directly next to the man-made Chicago Lock – the exact point where the Chicago River connects the Great Lakes and Mississippi River system. This site specificity underscores the interconnected nature of our water resources, demonstrating why NRDC’s efforts to create a healthy and safe Chicago River matter not just for the city of Chicago, but also for the health of Illinois beaches, the Great Lakes ecosystem and the Gulf of Mexico, where Chicago’s waste ends up as a major contribution to the growing “Dead Zone.”

Throughout our forty-two year history, NRDC has strived to bolster our environmental laws, science, and advocacy with a variety of interdisciplinary partnerships that engage artists, architects, and designers. Reversing the Flow and Garbage Wall continue this practice, reinforcing the responsibility we all have as citizens to be good stewards for our fresh water resources.

My thanks to Chicago gallerist Rhona Hoffman and Expo Chicago President Tony Karman for championing NRDC’s participation in this important art event.

Come for the art, but expect to leave thinking about the Chicago River!

NRDC at Expo Chicago | Navy Pier | Festival Hall | Booth 112


henry henderson | natural resources defense council midwest program director | see original post

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