Inner World / Innen Welt: The Projects of Haus-Rucker-Co., 1967-1992
Dates:
Sat Jun 23, 2012 18:00 - Sat Sep 01, 2012
Location:
London,
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
WORK is pleased to present a retrospective of key projects by avant-garde Viennese architectural group Haus-Rucker-Co.
Haus-Rucker-Co.’s designs for inflatable structures, prosthetic devices and interventions into public spaces were also blueprints for social change and an experiential theory of architecture. Situating itself in the transitional ground between architecture, design and action art, the group was unique in its distinctive emphasis on the perceptual realm.
Their pneumatic projects aimed to counteract apathy and passive acceptance of one’s environment by distorting the experience of public and private spaces, evoking a “feeling of foreignness”. Immersive environments, bubble and capsule forms, and mind-expanding structures for private contemplation or forging personal connections all delineate not only specific physical zones but also psychological spaces. Haus- Rucker-Co. also took a playful approach to architectural materials and strategies. Plastics—mutable, flexible, inexpensive, and with seemingly infinite potential—provided not only the material for many of their projects but also served as a model for the era’s futurist vision of a democratic and mobile lifestyle.
Inner World / Innen Welt presents a comprehensive selection of archival drawings and collages, photographs, models and ephemera spanning Haus-Rucker-Co.’s 25-year collaboration. Some of the projects on display were realised in public spaces; others remain virtual—and often fantastic—solutions for social, political or environmental concerns. Exhibited projects include Oase Nr. 7, a bubble-like personal oasis which protruded from the façade of the Museum Fridericianums during the 1972 Documenta; Gelbes Herz, a psychedelically-patterned “communications space-capsule for two people”; Rahmenbau, a giant framing mechanism contrasting urban sprawl with the natural landscape; and Cover, a temporary white inflatable casing erected over Mies van der Rohe’s 1921 Lange House in a gesture of architectural dialogue.
Inner World / Innen Welt marks the 20-year anniversary of Haus-Rucker-Co.’s dissolution with a celebration of the broad scope and conceptual density of this extraordinary group’s output. Haus-Rucker-Co. was founded in 1967 by Laurids Ortner, Günther Zamp Kelp and Klaus Pinter, later joined by Manfred Ortner. The group has exhibited internationally, including participation in Documenta 5 and 6, and was the subject of a major exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien in 1992, the year of the collective’s dissolution. Already working together as Ortner & Ortner on major building commissions from the mid-1980s, Manfred and Laurids Ortner went on to develop an extensive portfolio of built projects, propelling the preoccupations of Haus-Rucker-Co. into a new realm.
To coincide with the exhibition, WORK is also pleased to announce a limited edition photographic series by the artists, and a special edition of PAPERWORK that locates Haus-Rucker-Co.’s practice within broader aesthetic, historical and socio- political contexts.
Haus-Rucker-Co.’s designs for inflatable structures, prosthetic devices and interventions into public spaces were also blueprints for social change and an experiential theory of architecture. Situating itself in the transitional ground between architecture, design and action art, the group was unique in its distinctive emphasis on the perceptual realm.
Their pneumatic projects aimed to counteract apathy and passive acceptance of one’s environment by distorting the experience of public and private spaces, evoking a “feeling of foreignness”. Immersive environments, bubble and capsule forms, and mind-expanding structures for private contemplation or forging personal connections all delineate not only specific physical zones but also psychological spaces. Haus- Rucker-Co. also took a playful approach to architectural materials and strategies. Plastics—mutable, flexible, inexpensive, and with seemingly infinite potential—provided not only the material for many of their projects but also served as a model for the era’s futurist vision of a democratic and mobile lifestyle.
Inner World / Innen Welt presents a comprehensive selection of archival drawings and collages, photographs, models and ephemera spanning Haus-Rucker-Co.’s 25-year collaboration. Some of the projects on display were realised in public spaces; others remain virtual—and often fantastic—solutions for social, political or environmental concerns. Exhibited projects include Oase Nr. 7, a bubble-like personal oasis which protruded from the façade of the Museum Fridericianums during the 1972 Documenta; Gelbes Herz, a psychedelically-patterned “communications space-capsule for two people”; Rahmenbau, a giant framing mechanism contrasting urban sprawl with the natural landscape; and Cover, a temporary white inflatable casing erected over Mies van der Rohe’s 1921 Lange House in a gesture of architectural dialogue.
Inner World / Innen Welt marks the 20-year anniversary of Haus-Rucker-Co.’s dissolution with a celebration of the broad scope and conceptual density of this extraordinary group’s output. Haus-Rucker-Co. was founded in 1967 by Laurids Ortner, Günther Zamp Kelp and Klaus Pinter, later joined by Manfred Ortner. The group has exhibited internationally, including participation in Documenta 5 and 6, and was the subject of a major exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien in 1992, the year of the collective’s dissolution. Already working together as Ortner & Ortner on major building commissions from the mid-1980s, Manfred and Laurids Ortner went on to develop an extensive portfolio of built projects, propelling the preoccupations of Haus-Rucker-Co. into a new realm.
To coincide with the exhibition, WORK is also pleased to announce a limited edition photographic series by the artists, and a special edition of PAPERWORK that locates Haus-Rucker-Co.’s practice within broader aesthetic, historical and socio- political contexts.
Suzanne Treister: HEXEN2.0/Literature at WORK Gallery, London
Dates:
Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:00 - Sat May 12, 2012
Location:
London,
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
HEXEN2.0/Literature is a new solo exhibition by Suzanne Treister. Treister's HEXEN2.0 project is an expansive cross-media investigation into the interwoven histories of government mass control systems, technological and scientific discovery, behavioural theory and countercultural movements, and diverse philosophical, literary and political responses to advances in technology such as the rise of cybernetics and the Internet. HEXEN2.0 takes as its starting point the seminal Macy Conferences, New York, 1946–53, whose primary goal was to set the foundations for a general science of the workings of the human mind.
HEXEN2.0/Literature is the 'bibliographical' component of HEXEN2.0: a series of beautifully detailed drawings of reversed book covers, exhibited here for the first time. These key texts act as portals into Treister's intricate and highly energised research into actual events, people, histories and scientific projections of the future. Treister's 'reading list' has no clear entry or exit point, bringing into close contact titles such as Timothy Leary's Info-Psychology, 1977; Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, 1953; and Jacques Ellul's The Technological Society, 1967. Once deciphered, the reversed covers denote the claims of Anarcho-Primitivism and Post-Leftism, Theodore Kaczynski/the Unabomber, Techno-Gaianism and Transhumanism, and position precursory ideas such as those of Thoreau, Warren, Heidegger and Adorno in relation to visions of utopian and dystopian futures from science fiction in literature and film.
The exhibition also includes a continuous screening programme of videos relating to HEXEN2.0's precursor, HEXEN 2039, which imagined new technologies for psychological warfare through exploring links between the military and the paranormal. The programme includes: HEXEN 2039 The Movie, 2006; Operation Swanlake, 2004; Crossing, 2005; and Over The Line, 2008-2010.
A pioneer in the digital and web-based field from the beginning of the 1990s, Suzanne Treister uses various media including video, the Internet, photography, drawing and watercolour to engage with notions of identity, history, power and the control of information. She lives and works in London.
From 7 March until 1 May 2012, selected drawings, photo-text works and a film from HEXEN2.0 will be exhibited simultaneously at The Science Museum as part of its contemporary arts programme. Please visit www.sciencemuseum.org.uk for further details and opening times.
WORK is also pleased to announce the publication of the HEXEN2.0 book and tarot deck, both by Black Dog Publishing. Please visit www.blackdogonline.com for further details or to buy online. Both publications are also available at WORK through Paperwork Bookshop.
A limited edition print, HEXEN2.0: From ARPANET to DARWARS via the Internet, has also been produced to coincide with the exhibition and is available exclusively through the gallery.
HEXEN2.0/Literature is the 'bibliographical' component of HEXEN2.0: a series of beautifully detailed drawings of reversed book covers, exhibited here for the first time. These key texts act as portals into Treister's intricate and highly energised research into actual events, people, histories and scientific projections of the future. Treister's 'reading list' has no clear entry or exit point, bringing into close contact titles such as Timothy Leary's Info-Psychology, 1977; Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, 1953; and Jacques Ellul's The Technological Society, 1967. Once deciphered, the reversed covers denote the claims of Anarcho-Primitivism and Post-Leftism, Theodore Kaczynski/the Unabomber, Techno-Gaianism and Transhumanism, and position precursory ideas such as those of Thoreau, Warren, Heidegger and Adorno in relation to visions of utopian and dystopian futures from science fiction in literature and film.
The exhibition also includes a continuous screening programme of videos relating to HEXEN2.0's precursor, HEXEN 2039, which imagined new technologies for psychological warfare through exploring links between the military and the paranormal. The programme includes: HEXEN 2039 The Movie, 2006; Operation Swanlake, 2004; Crossing, 2005; and Over The Line, 2008-2010.
A pioneer in the digital and web-based field from the beginning of the 1990s, Suzanne Treister uses various media including video, the Internet, photography, drawing and watercolour to engage with notions of identity, history, power and the control of information. She lives and works in London.
From 7 March until 1 May 2012, selected drawings, photo-text works and a film from HEXEN2.0 will be exhibited simultaneously at The Science Museum as part of its contemporary arts programme. Please visit www.sciencemuseum.org.uk for further details and opening times.
WORK is also pleased to announce the publication of the HEXEN2.0 book and tarot deck, both by Black Dog Publishing. Please visit www.blackdogonline.com for further details or to buy online. Both publications are also available at WORK through Paperwork Bookshop.
A limited edition print, HEXEN2.0: From ARPANET to DARWARS via the Internet, has also been produced to coincide with the exhibition and is available exclusively through the gallery.
Krzysztof Wodiczko: The Abolition of War
Dates:
Wed Oct 19, 2011 12:00 - Sat Jan 14, 2012
Location:
London,
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Krzysztof Wodiczko is internationally renowned for his politically charged, large-scale public projections and ongoing series of designs for personal communication instruments and survival vehicles. Central to his practice is the exploration of social and political marginalisation, and the creation of suitable platforms for alienated and excluded communities to “develop their shattered abilities to communicate” and testify about their personal experiences. The two projects featured in The Abolition of War, The Flame and War Veteran Vehicle, bring into focus the post-traumatic condition experienced by returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Krzysztof Wodiczko lives and works in New York, Boston and Warsaw. He is Professor of Art, Design and the Public Domain at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, Cambridge, and has exhibited internationally over the past five decades.
Krzysztof Wodiczko lives and works in New York, Boston and Warsaw. He is Professor of Art, Design and the Public Domain at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University, Cambridge, and has exhibited internationally over the past five decades.
Over The Horizon: Narratives Of The Future
Dates:
Thu Sep 08, 2011 18:30 - Thu Sep 08, 2011
Location:
London,
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Over The Horizon: Narratives of the Future
Panel discussion with James Auger, Sam Hecht and Zoe Laughlin
Thursday 8 September, 6.30-8pm, Free
What do today’s designs say about the world of tomorrow? What can they reveal about our current hopes, fears, desires and needs? How do design concepts extend beyond the physical object, to influence our behaviours and lifestyles? What are the narratives produced by speculative design, and how do these sit alongside the narratives of products created for a consumer market?
Three industry professionals discuss what design means today, their visions for the future, the creative uses and misuses of design objects, and how new materials, technologies, considerations and constraints are impacting on contemporary design practice.
James Auger is a partner in the speculative design practice Auger-Loizeau, and a tutor in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art.
Sam Hecht is a Royal Designer for Industry and a co-founder of the award-winning design office Industrial Facility.
Zoe Laughlin is a co-founder/director of the Institute of Making and the Materials Library project, and has a PhD in Materials within the Division of Engineering, King’s College London.
Over The Horizon: Narratives of the Future is held in conjunction with WORK’s current exhibition, See Yourself Sensing: Redefining Human Perception, which runs until 24 September 2011.
Seating for this event is limited, so please RSVP to press@workgallery.co.uk to reserve a place.
Image credit: Auger + Loizeau, Audio Tooth Implant, 2001.
Panel discussion with James Auger, Sam Hecht and Zoe Laughlin
Thursday 8 September, 6.30-8pm, Free
What do today’s designs say about the world of tomorrow? What can they reveal about our current hopes, fears, desires and needs? How do design concepts extend beyond the physical object, to influence our behaviours and lifestyles? What are the narratives produced by speculative design, and how do these sit alongside the narratives of products created for a consumer market?
Three industry professionals discuss what design means today, their visions for the future, the creative uses and misuses of design objects, and how new materials, technologies, considerations and constraints are impacting on contemporary design practice.
James Auger is a partner in the speculative design practice Auger-Loizeau, and a tutor in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art.
Sam Hecht is a Royal Designer for Industry and a co-founder of the award-winning design office Industrial Facility.
Zoe Laughlin is a co-founder/director of the Institute of Making and the Materials Library project, and has a PhD in Materials within the Division of Engineering, King’s College London.
Over The Horizon: Narratives of the Future is held in conjunction with WORK’s current exhibition, See Yourself Sensing: Redefining Human Perception, which runs until 24 September 2011.
Seating for this event is limited, so please RSVP to press@workgallery.co.uk to reserve a place.
Image credit: Auger + Loizeau, Audio Tooth Implant, 2001.
See Yourself Sensing: Redefining Human Perception
Dates:
Fri Jun 24, 2011 12:00 - Sat Sep 24, 2011
Location:
London,
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
As daily life becomes increasingly mediated by technology, there is a growing interest in the original interface between human consciousness, the body, and the outside world: the senses. See Yourself Sensing: Redefining Human Perception brings together a combination of young and established artists and designers to show work that pushes boundaries both conceptually and technically, harnessing existing and developing technologies to challenge our perceptions of ourselves, and the ways we communicate and inhabit space. Participating artists and designers include Ann Hamilton, Beta Tank, Haus-Rucker-Co, Industrial Facility, Susana Soares, Golan Levin, and more.
Using anything from elaborate robotics and slick product design, to experimental scientific procedures and prosthetics, the artists and designers engaged in this field destabilise distinctions between mind and body, and blur boundaries between organic and artificial, internal and external, and public and private. And indeed, between fiction and fact.
Whether hi-tech or lo-fi, this work deals with human emotions and senses. Ranging from the practical to the fantastic and absurd, the futuristic projections of this cross-section of designers and artists whose practices envision new ways of relating to and experiencing the world around us provide glimpses of strange new tomorrows in which humans and technology coexist - often within the same body.
Simultaneously playful and incisive, these propositions inevitably produce more questions than answers, inviting critical dialogue on issues such as bioethics, simulated reality, post-humanism and genetic modification. Artists and designers in this field constantly push boundaries, sometimes working at the edges of conventional respectability, challenging our most basic assumptions about our own bodies and minds.
Curated by Marianne Templeton and Kate Trant, See Yourself Sensing: Redefining Human Perception has been developed in conjunction with the publication of the same name, authored by Madeline Schwartzman and released in June 2011 by Black Dog Publishing.
Image shown: Didier Faustino, (G)host in the (S)hell, digital video, 2008. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Michel Rein.
Using anything from elaborate robotics and slick product design, to experimental scientific procedures and prosthetics, the artists and designers engaged in this field destabilise distinctions between mind and body, and blur boundaries between organic and artificial, internal and external, and public and private. And indeed, between fiction and fact.
Whether hi-tech or lo-fi, this work deals with human emotions and senses. Ranging from the practical to the fantastic and absurd, the futuristic projections of this cross-section of designers and artists whose practices envision new ways of relating to and experiencing the world around us provide glimpses of strange new tomorrows in which humans and technology coexist - often within the same body.
Simultaneously playful and incisive, these propositions inevitably produce more questions than answers, inviting critical dialogue on issues such as bioethics, simulated reality, post-humanism and genetic modification. Artists and designers in this field constantly push boundaries, sometimes working at the edges of conventional respectability, challenging our most basic assumptions about our own bodies and minds.
Curated by Marianne Templeton and Kate Trant, See Yourself Sensing: Redefining Human Perception has been developed in conjunction with the publication of the same name, authored by Madeline Schwartzman and released in June 2011 by Black Dog Publishing.
Image shown: Didier Faustino, (G)host in the (S)hell, digital video, 2008. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Michel Rein.
