Modernist architecture has been a strong, recurring theme in contemporary art. Way after its rise and fall, it still seems to bug artists, both as art and as social program: it provokes mixed feelings of fascination, nostalgia, rejection and disillusionment.Gets Under the Skin offers a selection of critical responses to the ideas and products of modernist architecture that neither buy the recent “grand narrative” of its wholesale failure nor join the uncritical celebration and fetishization of its masterpieces.
Taking prime and more obscure examples of the Euro-American modernist architectural canon from the Bauhaus school in Dessau or the Goldfinger House in London through Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation and the Crown Hall at the IIT campus to the Expo ’67 in Montreal and Eastern European housing projects among many others, these works recast various threads that led from the originally informative ideas of pure reason and universal emancipation to the wildly divergent realities and myths that make up for their current context. Demolished and in ruins or polished and musealized, modernist architecture appears in these works as an unshakable legacy that continues to inspire and irritate.
Full schedule of screenings:
April 24, 7 pm
Location: in the Spacebuster (by Raumlabor) under the High Line at 508 W25 St at 10th Ave
Organized by Storefront for Art and Architecture
Anna Molska
Perspective, 2003
1’ 31”, video, color, sound
Courtesy of the artist and Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw
Judi Werthein
This Functional Family, 2007
15’, video, color, English
Courtesy of the artist
Johanna Billing
Where She Is At, 2001
07’ 35”, video, color, sound
Courtesy of the artist and Hollybush Gardens, London
Ursula Mayer
Interiors, 2006
3’ 11”, 16 mm transferred to DVD b/w and color, sound
Courtesy of the artist and Monitor, Rome
Bernd Behr
House Without a Door, 2006
16’ 32”, HD video, color, sound
Courtesy of the artist
Sadie Murdoch
Eileen. Gray, 2004
6’ 45”, video, color
Courtesy of the artist
Domènec
Unité Mobile (roads are also places), 2005
9’ 35”, video, color, sound (French)
Courtesy of the artist
Terence Gower
Ciudad Moderna, 2004
8’, digital video, b/w, color
Spanish with English subtitles
Courtesy of the artist
Pia Rönicke
Somewhere Out There, 1998
9’ 13”, digital animation, color, sound
Courtesy of the artist and gb agency, Paris
April 30, 7 pm
Location: Storefront for Art and Architecture 97 Kenmare Street, New York, NY 10012
Terence Gower
Wilderness Utopia, 2008
3’, HD video, color, English
Courtesy of the artist
Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle
Always After (The Glass House), 2006
9’ 41”, super 16 mm film digitized to HD and compressed for HD-DVD
Courtesy of the artist and Max Protetch Gallery
Lars Laumann
Berlinmuren, 2008
23’ 56”, video, color, English
Courtesy of the artist and Maureen Paley, London
Pierre Huyghe
This Is No Time for Dreaming, 2004
24’, 16 mm film transferred to HD DVD
color, English
Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman, New York
Caspar Stracke
No Damage, 2002
13’, digital video, color, sound
Courtesy of the artist
May 7
Location: Storefront for Art and Architecture 97 Kenmare Street, New York, NY 10012
With a conversation between Tirdad Zolghadr (thesis adviser) and the curator
Caitlin Masley
Expo ’67, 2008
11’ 14”, super 8 mm film transferred to DVD
b/w and color, sound (French)
Courtesy of the artist
Josef Dabernig
WARS, 2001
10’, 16 mm film transferred to DVD, b/w, sound
Courtesy of the artist and Andreas Huber Gallery, Vienna
Miklós Erhardt
Havanna, 2006
15’ 11”, video, color, English
Courtesy of the artist
Anri Sala
Dammi I Colori, 2003
16’, video, color
Albanian with English subtitles
Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman, New York
Michael Blum
The Three Failures, 2006
22’ 04”, video, color, English
Courtesy of the artist
May 13, 6 pm
Location: Preston Theatre, Bard College Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Anna Molska
Perspective, 2003
1’ 31”, video, color, sound
Courtesy of the artist and Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw
Judi Werthein
This Functional Family, 2007
15’, video, color, English
Courtesy of the artist
Sadie Murdoch
Eileen. Gray, 2004
6’ 45”, video, color
Courtesy of the artist
Terence Gower
Ciudad Moderna, 2004
8’, digital video, b/w, color
Spanish with English subtitles
Courtesy of the artist
Pia Rönicke
Somewhere Out There, 1998
9’ 13”, digital animation, color, sound
Courtesy of the artist and gb agency, Paris
Pierre Huyghe
This Is No Time for Dreaming, 2004
24’, 16 mm film transferred to HD DVD
color, English
Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman, New York
Caitlin Masley
Expo ’67, 2008
11’ 14”, super 8 mm film transferred to DVD
b/w and color, sound (French)
Courtesy of the artist
Josef Dabernig
WARS, 2001
10’, 16 mm film transferred to DVD, b/w, sound
Courtesy of the artist and Andreas Huber Gallery, Vienna
Anri Sala
Dammi I Colori, 2003
16’, video, color
Albanian with English subtitles
Courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman, New York
Gets Under the Skin is curated by Hajnalka Somogyi as part of the requirements for the master of arts degree in curatorial studies.
Student curated exhibitions at CCS Bard are made possible with support from the Rebecca and Martin Eisenberg Student Exhibition Fund; Mitzi and Warren Eisenberg; and the Patrons, Supporters, and Friends of the Center for Curatorial Studies.