Paololuca Barbieri, Isabelle Ferreira, Geka Heinke, Yoon-Young Park, Mariana Viegas

Opening Reception: Thursday, 9 February 2006 6-8pm
Open through: March 4th, 2006 (Tue – Sat, 12 – 6 pm)

On Thursday, February 9th, Location One presents the first of two Spring exhibitions showcasing new work developed by artists from Italy, France, Germany, Korea, and Portugal who are participating in the 2005-2006 International Residency Program. Featured works represent a diverse range of artistic approaches:

Reclaim the Media! by Paololuca Barbieri and the Alterazioni Video collective, is a a three-piece installation that acts upon and reacts against the implications of unprecedented media control in our society.

Alterazioni Video develops software platforms and tools to question issues of conventional borderline of legal and illegal use of media technologies.“Baghdad Space Sharing” (2005), interactive video installation. “Blue Jack” (2005), bluetooth phones, software and media – experiment testing the limits of privacy protection at conventional consumer electronics devices.“If You Hear Something, Say Something” (2005), pirate radio transmitter, gold MP3 recordings. A project in collaboration with Nikolas Gambaroffand special guests Franco Berardi Bifo, Raddek Community, Sylver Lotringer, Avdey Ter Oganien, Los Osamas, Dj Pollution, Aldo Vignocchi, and others.

On the Road (dvd, 2’06”, 2005) and Parade (dvd, 1’49”, 2005) by Isabelle Ferreira

Ferreira describes On the Road as “a road-movie that has been short-circuited.” Through the depiction of an action that is quintessentially absurd, this short video aims to liberate landscape as a format from all narrative content and human representation. The second video Parade is a silent and visual dialogue between two mechanisms. More generally Isabelle’s work tends to create a time suspended atmosphere, where gesture and motion are slowed down and hidden rhythms revealed.

Stars (2006) by Geka Heinke

A monumental wall installation. Here a dynamic structure is achieved through the juxtaposition of a large monochromatic star motif painted directly on the wall against a backdrop of loose, free flowing technique on papersheets rearranged by the artist to engage the viewer into the depths of illusionistic space.

Logo Oriental Landscape Painting (2005-2006) by Yoon-Young Park

consisting of 6 vertical panels, painted in Chinese ink on rice paper. It is the artist’s reflection and comment on reading a western book on Oriental Painting which identifies Oriental landscape painting as Utopian, as opposed to the realistic approach of western landscape painting. Park observes the logos of several bottled waters that include mountains and rivers, and are depicted in a utopian and stylized manner. She elaborates these in the traditional technique of Oriental landscape panels with ink burshed on rice paper.

In her new work, Mariana Viegas

continues to investigate the impact of landscape as a transformative and transforming entity in urban contexts. The artist’s photographs suggest evidence of human activity in the design and articulation of parks and other green areas in the city. In the video, Mariana examines how objects in communal garden settings are placed in such a way that they become designations of each user’s area. Increased familiarity with these objects can also shift our perception and lead to the construction of possible narratives. All these investigations address the larger issue of the relationship between fiction and reality, nature and the construction of nature.

The residencies of the artists included in this show are generously supported by Associazione Artegiovane, Milan; The FondiAnima; Comune di Milano; L’Association Française d’Action Artistique – AFAA, and Ville de Paris; Schloss Balmoral, Stiftung Rheinland Pfalz für Kultur; The Korean Culture and Arts Foundation; Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Luso-American Development Foundation.