SPREAD | ArtCulture » Rem Koolhaas

A Pop Up Museum

KisaLala — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:54:57 +0000

Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli’s latest media ploy has been to design a pop-up museum, open for 24 hours, in collaboration with Prada and AMO, Rem Koolhaas’ think tank in Paris’ Palais d’Iéna. The temporary event will welcome the public in to the traditionally historic building for a night of magic, like a Cinderella’s ball, before it is dismantled the next day.

The theatrical premiere is organized into three event spaces, historic, contemporary and the forgotten, the first being a showcase of Vezzoli’s works enclosed in neon-lit metal cages on the ground floor of the building. Vezzoli poses his portraits of Hollywood divas in the style of classical Greco-Roman sculptures on marble pedestals – the sculptures wear masks with Vezzoli’s mother’s eyes. With these works, Vezzoli continues his exploration of red-carpet rituals of celebrity and stardom that will be further exploited with a party staged in conjunction with the event, and which will be live streamed on the internet. Also, on Facebook, the artist intends to have an interactive game in which he frames people’s faces in classical composites.

Vezzoli’s previous performance-events included a live tribute to Diaghilev he did with Lady Gaga and Frank Gehry at LA’s MOCA entitled Ballets Russes Italian Style (The Shortest Musical You Will Never See Again) 2009, and the Democrazy video with Sharon Stone and Bernard-Henri Lévy playing characters in a ficitional political campaign for Venice Biennale in 2007. Prada has also previously collaborated with artist Carsten Holler for the The Double Club, a pop up club in London in 2009.

More information:
24 h Museum – 24 – 25 January 2012
Palais d’Iéna, ADDRESS: 9, PLACE D’IÉNA, 75016 PARIS
TUESDAY 24 JANUARY 2012- WEDNESDAY 25 JANUARY 2012, 7.00 am – 8.30 pm
www.24hoursmuseum.com

Rem Koolhaas Designs for Prada

KisaLala — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 21:51:32 +0000

Prada collaborated with Rem Koolhaas‘ OMA design studio to create a show space for its men’s Spring/Summer 2012 catwalk show at the Fondazione Prada in Milan.

OMA organized rows of blue foam cubes in a 1.5 x 1.5 spatial grid spread across the hall for the audience to sit on while models zigzagged between them creating more engagement and visibility then the usual linear catwalks.

Each person sits on a block creating a more confrontational interaction between model and spectator. “Each guest becomes a challenge for the new fashion; each confrontation becomes highly personal…” says OMA’s designers. Astro-turf grass covered the floor, and stadium-lighting gave it a outdoors/picnic feel.

Prada also recently opened its new palazzo at Fondazione Prada in Venice where it houses a rotating collection of contemporary art.

http://www.oma.eu/

http://www.prada.com/

Sleepover at the new Serpentine Pavilion

KisaLala — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 18:16:05 +0000

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2010 Designed by Jean Nouvel© Ateliers Jean Nouvel Photo: Philippe Ruault

The Serpentine Gallery in London’s Hyde Park is having a slumber party right at the heels of their annual summer party, which took place around their 10^th and latest eye-catching Pavilion, designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel.

Nouvel’s scarlet Pavilion set the scene for the darlings of the British art set attending. Ron Arad, Antony Gormley, Gavin Turk, Dinos Chapman, Sir Peter Blake, Grace Jones, Tracey Emin and model Lily Cole were among the guests invited to play ping-pong and tennis with champion players and have their heartbeats recorded by French artist Christian Boltanski’s installation The Heart Archive. Also on view in the permanent galleries inside was the summer show of new inkjet prints by Wolfgang Tillmans.

July 8 2010 Summer Party at Serpentine Gallery, London, England. L to R: Dinos Chapman and Keith Tyson, Sir Peter Blake and Chrissie Blake, Tracey Emin. Photo: Nick Harvey

Julia Peyton-Jones, the director who had originally envisioned this fund-raising concept, hosted this 40^th anniversary party for the gallery with the new, much talked about co-director Hans Ulrich Obrist. This year’s Pavilion is built on impressive cantilevered structures painted in vivid red, set in dramatic contrast to the green of the Hyde Park lawns. Nouvel said in his opening speech, “I want more disorder in this place,” imagining a relaxed place for people to play. The Pavilion is canopied by large retractable awnings and a sloping freestanding wall that allows the park to inhabit the interiors.

Notable architects that had been invited in previous years to design the free-form Pavilion include Daniel Libeskind (2001), Frank Gehry (2008), and Rem Koolhaas/Cecil Balmond (2006). The architect Zaha Hadid who had designed the 2000 Pavilion also came along for the celebration.

Spending the night in the park may not be as sordid as it sounds, because as part of the summer program, the gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum are staging a sleepover event inside the Pavilion, beginning late at night with films, music, talks and a midnight banquet that will continue on until breakfast is served the next day at 8am. Artists, psychologists and scientists will host experiments throughout the night for the wired, sleepless guests to explore the psychedelic qualities of insomnia and alternative sleep-states.

Guests might be treated to some lullabies as well.

Sleepover at the Serpentine Pavilion: A night of creative thinking: 30-31 July 2010 from 10pm – 8am
Wolfgang Tillmans 26 June – 19 September 2010, Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens London W2