Electric Labyrinth Revisited

So when a few weeks ago I blogged about Arata Isozaki's Re-Ruined Hiroshima, I mentioned the legendary "Electric Labyrinth" installation. Well it was legendary in my imagination, because it sounded legendary. Browsing through Isozakis' super cute (though I'm not lovin the sketchy handcrafted layout) UNBUILT book,

I see photos from the said Electric Labyrinth, and while it is what it sounds like, it wasnt really what I had in mind. Still to be able to pull off an architectural installation during the 1968 riots is really quite a feat.

The installation was in fact cool, a forest of rotating metallic panels printed with images from Re-Ruined Hiroshima and with other images projected on top.
So not just a ruin, not just electric but also quite trippy, but hey it was the 60s after all.



Browsing through the book, there's of course plenty of space dedicated to the "Cities in the Air" category of projects, nice plan of clusters, etc.

Also, a great photo from  the maquette of the truly legendary Osaka Expo 70, that talks about all the mechanisms and the robots.

And then all of a sudden the book skips to Isozakis' later preoccupation with platonic solids and symbolism, leading right into his glass pyramid and terracotta arch period, which doesn't really make sense with the heroic projects of the 60's but maybe Osaka was the missing link to that transition. Anyways, I feel like I'm about to OD on blogging so...

Fast Mark Gaetano Pesce Gold Organic Kaleidoscope

Just got the new issue of Mark Magazine, which features Ron Arad's Holon Design Museum  on the cover. The museum just opened with "The State of Things: Design and the 21st Century" curated by Barbara J. Bloemink, Julie Lasky, Aric Chen and Garth Walker. The inaugurating exhibition features the Wrapped Armchair (Gold).

In the Mark issue, there is a spread on the exceedingly genius Gaetano Pesce, whom I've blogged numerous times. Just last week I sent off a text contribution to Kaleidoscope Magazine, on Mr Pesce, out this month. I had wanted to somehow mention his 1970's super eccentric organic architecture, but could only manage a reference in the piece. And by chance, here it is in Mark, in the form of a brand new project, a house configured as portraits of the clients (! looks like the kind of building Angelo would take a portrait of).

There is an obvious continuity between the new project and Pesce's Tree House from 1970

and even more interesting, the very famous Organic Building, realized in Osaka in 1970 or so..talk about bunker flowerpots .. found here somewhere in flickr

Artists for Athens Pride, and more from Athens Galleries

Last night was the Artists for Athens Pride auction, , which you can read all about at Angelo Says featuring works by Στιβ Γιαννάκος, Zoë Charlton, Χρήστος Δεληδήμος, Χριστίνα Δημητριάδη, Κωνσταντίνος Κακανιάς, Κατερίνα Κανά, Em Kei, Jeremy Kost, Kalup Linzy, Τέο Μιχαήλ, Ντόρα Οικονόμου, Χριστόδουλος Παναγιώτου, Άγγελος Παπαδημητρίου, Μαρία & Ντόρα Παπαδημητρίου, Λήδα Παπακωνσταντίνου, Poka-Yio, Γιώργος Σαπουντζής, Scott Treleaven, Sharon Thomas, Νίκος Χαραλαμπίδης, Πέτρος Χρυσοστόμου and Μανταλίνα Ψωμά. (yes I was too bored to re-type all the names in english, but you can read all about it on Angelo Says)

The auction is an initiative of Breeder Gallery with curator Andrea Gilbert. It is a serious fundraiser for the emerging Athens Pride festival, and happily the auction was sold out, with record prices for works by Poka-Yio and Kalup Linzy.

Meanwhile, at the main spaces of Breeder, you can still see a great Ryan McGinley show

featuring photos of cute boys and girls
exchanging pills,

jumping up in the air,

and hiding inside fabulous multicolored caves.

Meanwhile, Loraini Alimandiri GazonRouge gallery has relocated to the legendary,

and perhaps now strangely renovated,  Aristomenis Provelengios building, famous for being a small scale urban house-studio.







The second show is Isabelle Fein,

I managed to peak at a super cute Ryan McLaughlin
painting from the first exhibition.

A few blocks down, Apartment Gallery has also found new digs,  in a grand classic 1930's apartment,

 and kicked off the season with a show by lovely Maria Andelman

Goodbye Kalimera

It's a bit tough that in the fabulous BUTT Calendar you have to rip off the pages as the weeks go by.
That means its time to say goodbye to Kalimera.
(Kalimera is the name of apparently the most famous drag queen in Serbia. Hilariously, it means Good morning in Greek)

February Good Ogre

Are New York art galleries turning into Museums?

Peter Alexander, Green Wedge, 1969

Walking around Chelsea last week,
one could see at least 3 museums shows in as many galleries.
at David Zwirner, a fantastic exhibition of 60's California Minimalism
with works I'd never seen before, like Craig Kaufmann's Untitled (sic)
seminal pieces by James Turrell

in spaces that totally blur the line between museum and commercial gallery

at Gladstone, never seen so many of Alighiero e Boetti's maps in a single room

even though the over-precious guard did not really allow for photos
meanwhile uptown at Hauser & Wirth, Ida Applebroog
follows equally museum level exhibitions of Alan Kaprow and Paul McCarthy

Daytrippin

So many Vitrines, so little Time

Everywhere we went last week in NY, there were vitrines with archival stuff in them.
Here some fanzines at the newly directed Artists' Space
Behind a wall, a giant photomural of William Burroughts Bowery Bunkerand some classic Ray Johnson


At White Columns, more vitrines with underground poetry fanzines

and very collectible posters


in one of the other rooms, "hitch hikers" curated by Bob Nickas
more great posters

at a gallery on 27th street, I took these for buildings
they could easily be
at Mary Boone, even more vitrines, this time from the total master
though the show was weirdly installed and quite frankly too packed



over at X Initiative many more vitrines with more underground artists publication
(I guess we just have to take their word that all these are interesting,
because they are behind glass and we cant see)upstairs, in arguable one of the finest ever exhibition rooms,
an ephemerally political show by the absolutely great Hans Haacke
and on another floor a really political show that wants Ru Paul for president (who doesnt?)
at Drawing Center a promising Ianis Xenakis show with kind of chic vitrines
though the most promising content was again behind glass
at Mathew Marks, more vitrines by Fischly & Weiss
and finally no vitrines but very cute chair-like objects
by the very cute Bruce High Quality Foundation

Vue Lumiere No 765 - Danse Serpentine, 1896

Just saw this masterpiece at MOMA's Architecture and Design gallery.

JUDD

On an entirely different note, we visited the incredible Donald Judd house in SOHO, which remains closed to the public, and starting June will go through an extensive renovation. The house includes Judd pieces, furniture mixed with everyday objects, and art from his friends. The art from his friends means a fantastic Carl Andre on the ground floor, mesmerizing Dan Flavin drawings and "icons" on the dining room floor, Frank Stella, Claes Oldenburg and much more. No photography allowed whatsoever.

The Tremendous Archive of Cesar Padilla (and Radford Brown!)

Just came back from Mr Cesar Padilla's
incredible archive warehouse in Long Island City


where we witness pastoral scenesand fashion explosions
the archive includes a set of very rare gay bar t-shirts

with familiar namesand unexpected graphics (Dick Monster!)

so we hid behind semi-transparent maks (Jeremy)
(Felix)
(me)

(Angelo)and then we found books on the look of men
which was an entirely different story

we prayed to a broken St Jackie

before venturing into the endless Maze of Shoes

Amazing bridge that I didnt know about

Ponte sul Basento by Sergio Musmeci,
bumbed into this in a weird and seminal Paolo Portoghesi book
Nature and Architecture
some images via this flickr account

and a randomly cute person happily posing from here

The Sea and the Cake

Every year in early January, swimmers jump into the sea to find a cross
a few days ago the celebration was canceled because the sea was too rough

impromptu beach tables

were almost dragged into the waves

makeshift chairs were left staring at the sea
tents stepped into the water

beach became waves

the sea kept getting angrier

ready to wipe everything away

Monument to an oncoming disaster - Gate to the Athens Marina

A Marina is by definition a place where we leave the city to go off into the sea, to find leisure and pleasure in nature. Recently our relationship with Nature has changed drastically, and environmentalists predict that things will only get worse. According to a popular scientific scenario, sea levels around the world will rise, resulting in a severely altered coastline that will find many beachside developments underwater.
Instead of designing a gate for the Athens Marina, we proposed a structure that refers to this potentially new sea level. Using the geometric rock modules that break waves are usually built with, we balance an artificial island up at the future horizon line. The structure at present time functions as the gate for the Athens Marina gate though in reality it is an island expecting the oncoming disaster.
Further down at the marina, the flagpole is made from precariously balancing the rock modules one on top of the other, again to form the base for a tiny island that can barely host a wind turbine. The wind turbine functions as a wind direction indicator while creating sufficient energy for a light signal. This tiny island will function as a beacon for approaching ships in the future sea.

Andreas Angelidakis Studio, Athens Marina competition entry, completion 2011.
Project team: Sotiris Vasileiou, Nana Stathi, Efrosyni Charalambous, Eirini Anthouli, Andreas Sivitos
Construction consultant Christos Kaklamanis - Palimpsest
Green Roof consultant Grigoris Kotopoulis E-Green
construction partner Diarchon

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Theodor Kittlesen

Kind of obsessed with Theodor Kittelsen, popular Norwegian artist, famous for painting Nature, Fairies and especially Trolls

I'm not sure what these are but they sure look interesting

These were all sitting in the "to blog" folder"
I don't remember where I got them
or if they are part oft he same search
and maybe it doesn't matter

Bunker Flowerpots and other miracles by Lina Bo Bardi

Spent a perfect Sunday morning leafing through Olivia de Oliveira's
classic Lina Bo Bardi monograph

we've blogged about Bo Bardi before

but what struck me now was the quite eccentric Chame-Chame house
basically a Bunker Flowerpotbuilt in Salvador in Bahia in the 60s and demolished (RLY?) in the 90s

arranged around an existing tree that Lina loved
this became her later style

kind of culminating in the miraculous MASPI where paintings
were iconicaly hung on a plexiglass sheet supported by a concrete block
Lina hung out a lot with all the artits of the period
and was especially inspired by the great Helio Oiticica.

According to Oliveira,
Lina translated Oiticica's Crelazer concept (creative inactivity! our favourite!)
into the Maspi void, an urban space where activity was not prescribed,
but people could just hang around waiting for nothing
Another important Oiticica concept that Lina translated into architecture was of course the Parangole , the fabric that could provide shelter. Lina used curtains and drapings as Parangole, even dressing up columns in tropical fabrics. In the back , a tree column

and a Tree skyscraper

a Cyclopean wall with flowerpots, a design intended for the fantastic Sesc de Pompeia


and a pyramid chair.
For more Bo Bardi,
head over to Mr Pablo De La Barra's Blog
the Centre for Aesthetic Revolution

Junior Boys - Bits And Pieces

Mysterious Island