the centre of attention
Snejana Krasteva and Colleen Grennan with architects Jun Vera and Tomohisa Myauchi from ISSHO Architects Tokyo
NEW CURATING
Manifesto New Curating
We here take the liberty to propose that New Curating is building. And a building. One dictates the other.
We propose that New Curating is transitional. The modus operandi of the movement is research and development, experimental, interpretive, simultaneously resistant to and reliant upon the environment.
New Curating involves the advancement of unconventional exhibition spaces.
New Curating challenges the common. New Curating flourishes in a like minded contemporary building.
A building responds by creating a reversible indoor/outdoor, future/past, building/destroying relationship.
New Curating experiments with precarious installation methods taking liberties to expand the interaction and experiential memory of the exhibited works. The building responds by making possible its own subtraction, addition, multiplication and division.
New Curating goes beyond the identity of a curator. It is the responsibility of becoming part of the landscape, and thus influencing it. Its building is a form of landscape itself.
Ruins contain memories, a record of the invisible human fabric of decisions. A building of new curating built from ruins is meant to be built neither new nor old. It is indefinite. Leaving the existing as preserved, and new architectural element can be a state of art. The truth is in the building itself, understood as process and a constantly changing result. Preserving becomes excavating/exhibiting.
We have included the following solutions in support of the Manifesto New Curating:
Architectural idea 1.
Wrapping and covering By wrapping the entire building as well as each space, a new face or skin can be achieved without having an impact on the original structure; similar to wearing a cloth or mask. It could be temporary or permanent depending on the usage of space. Covering the historical structure acts as a preservational tool. The existing pavilion can always return to the state before manipulation. The transparent material selected allows the stone to breath and be seen in the current condition.
Architectural idea 2.
Trapped balloons Inflated balloons are trapped among walls to fill gaps over the ceiling. The original structure is almost untouched. Balloons can be added or subtracted for a space to become interior or exterior. The balloons minimize restrictions that usually are associated with archaic exhibition practices. They are challenging, elevate permanence, and create an adaptable atmosphere. The colored translucent material allows natural light to activate the objects/walls/people
Snejana Krasteva is an independent curator currently living and working in London, UK, where
she is pursuing an MFA Curating at Goldsmiths College, University of London. For the past five
years she was based in China, where she ran a contemporary art gallery located in Beijing.
Selected curatorial projects include: Liu Gang: Merlin, Champagne and Regalia at Ullens Center for
Contemporary Art, Beijing, China; Is it Ok to have fun in an art gallery? at Beijing Tokyo Art
Projects, Beijing, China; Techno-Orientalism at BTAP, Beijing, China.
Colleen Grennan is an independent curator living and working in London, UK. She is currently
pursuing an MFA Curating at Goldsmiths College, University of London. From 2005-2009, she was
the Assistant Director at the Mahan Gallery located in Columbus, Ohio, USA. Selected curatorial
projects include: Maya Hayuk, doMeASolid (Columbus, OH, USA), Mahan Gallery Booth, NEXT:
The Invitational Exhibition of Emerging Art (Chicago, IL, USA), ^^^^^: The Allegory of the
Mountain (Columbus, OH, USA), Seams (Jersey City, NJ, USA).
ISSHO is an architectural design office based in Tokyo, established in 2002, develops building,
urban space, art and furniture. ISSHO collaborates with leading specialists in a variety of fields to
bring innovation in environmental and spiritual design. For a complete list of works and reviews
please visit the official website: www.issho.com.