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Dornbracht Culture Projects

Noises for Ritual Architecture
Dornbracht Culture Projects

During the imm Cologne’s Passagen, the Dornbracht Culture Projects series presents the first collection of Noises for Ritual Architecture in the Bathroom. MEM, LOGIC and ELEMENTAL (vol. 1-3) reflect the relationship between space, material and movement through ritual architecture and invites people to view the bathing experience as a holistic process. The presentation takes place in a SoundSpa - designed especially for the exhibition.

Reservations for the SoundSpa can be made at http://www.dornbracht.com/noises
Noises for Ritual Architecture will be available on iTunes before long.

14. – 20.01.2008
Open daily 2:00 – 10:00 p.m.
Meiré und Meiré FACTORY
Lichtstrasse 26–28, Cologne Ehrenfeld

Concept and Design Mike Meiré
Mike Meiré has been working as an art director, artist, designer, architect, photographer, curator, editor and facilitator for the past 25 years. During this time he has implemented numerous innovative projects primarily in the area of editorial design. Now he collaborates with composer Carlo Peters and cg artist Jens-Oliver Gasde to present “Noises for Ritual Architecture” – his third contribution to the Dornbracht Edges series.

Music Carlo Peters
Carlo Peters works as sound artist and composer in the fields of art, film and architecture. Numerous sound installations and performances at museums, art galleries and other cultural institutions. His work features collaborations with various visual artist like Rosemarie Trockel, Carsten Höller, BLESS, Paulina Olowska and Bojan Sarcevic. He studied media and cultural theory at Merz-Akademie Stuttgart and teaches aesthetics of music at University of Siegen and University of Applied Arts Vienna. Lives and works in Cologne.

Computer Generated Animation Jens-Oliver Gasde
Jens-Oliver Gasde was born in Erlangen in 1971. He studied art and media at the University of Art and Design Halle – Burg Giebichenstein as well as the University of Art and Design Helsinki. Since 2001 he has worked on a freelance basis on different projects. Noises for Ritual Architecture is the first time he has been involved in an international culture project.

As a current contribution to the Dornbracht Edges, Noises for Ritual Architecture is the continuation of a series that collects projects at the interface of architecture, design and art. The Edges are platforms, especially for designers and architects, who depict their visions and utopias. Thus in 2001, internationally renowned architects such as David Adjaye and Claudio Silvestrin developed their ideas of the bathroom of the future in ‘Bath modules’. In 2003 Matali Crassat provided a poetic new interpretation of the bathroom in ‘Update / three Spaces in one’, and 2004/2005 the Dornbracht Research Unit ETH Zurich under Prof. Dr. Marc Angéli looked at the acts of cleansing and care from the point of ritual and their ‘Production of space’. Mike Meiré himself created a futuristic “wash-plant” for people in 2004, the “E-R-S – Energetic Recovery System”, which cleanses the spirit as well as the body. In 2006 and 2007 Dornbracht exhibited “The Farm Project”
a walk-in installation, curated, designed and developed by Mike Meiré. The Farm Project is the sketch-like image of a farmhouse kitchen transformed into the present time.

The systematic promotion of art and culture has been part of Dornbracht’s corporate thinking since 1997. From the start the company has sought debate with art and the creators of art – a debate that does not functionalise art, but instead lives by and on mutual inspiration.

http://www.cultureprojects.com
http://www.dornbracht.com/noises

The Institute of Contemporary Art

THE PUPPET SHOW
January 18 - March 30, 2008
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 17, 6-8pm

Exhibition Walkthrough with Ingrid Schaffner, Senior Curator and Carin Kuoni, Director, The Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School, New York: Thursday, January 17, 5pm, ICA Members Only

The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is pleased to present “The Puppet Show,” a group exhibition that looks at the imagery of puppets in contemporary art. International in scope, “The Puppet Show” brings together 28 artists and several generations, as reflected by works that range from a 1974 installation by Dennis Oppenheim to a new animation by the Swedish artist Nathalie Djurberg. The exhibition concentrates on sculpture, video and photography. Some of the works involve actual puppets (marionettes, shadow puppets, hand puppets) and artists performing as puppeteers. Other images evoke topics associated with puppetry (manipulation, miniaturization, agency, control). Collectively these works show puppets to be a provocative and relevant imagery—one that moves deep into social, political and psychological terrains.

The puppet show takes as a historic point of departure one of the first episodes of avante-garde art history: Alfred Jarry’s 1896 play Ubu Roi that was conceived as a puppet show. Ubu’s reign continues with the work of the South African artist William Kentridge in collaboration with the Handspring Puppet Company. More recently, puppets have taken hold of pop consciousness by way of films, theater, computer games and animation. On a more political note, current events and national leadership raise questions of agency that cogently relate to puppets. Together with these collective points of reference, “The Puppet Show” poses a larger cultural question: why do puppets matter now?

At ICA the exhibition opens with a discrete structure dubbed “Puppet Storage,” filled with pictures, props and other source material collected from artists studios. It will feature a historic collection of puppets from the collection of the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut, selected by the Institute’s director, Dr. John Bell, an internationally renowned puppeteer and historian of puppet theater. The structure is designed by the artist Terence Gower, who is staging the entire installation with reference to the uncanny, theatrical displacements of scale, and the backstage world of the theater.

Initiated by Ingrid Schaffner, Senior Curator, the exhibition is co-curated with
Carin Kuoni, Director, The Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New
School, New York. The curators received a planning grant for this exhibition
from the Philadelphia Exhibition Initiative (PEI).

This exhibition contains adult content. Parents, caregivers and
educators are strongly advised to preview exhibition before
bringing children.

Participating artists include: Guy Ben-Ner, Nayland Blake, Louise Bourgeois, Maurizio Cattelan, Anne Chu, Nathalie Djurberg, Terence Gower, Dan Graham and Japanther, Pierre Huyghe, Christian Jankowski, Mike Kelley, William Kentridge, Cindy Loehr, Annette Messager, Paul McCarthy, Matt Mullican, Bruce Nauman, Dennis Oppenheim, Philippe Parreno and Rirkrit Tiravanija, Laurie Simmons, Doug Skinner and Michael Smith, Kiki Smith, Survival Research Laboratory, Kara Walker and
Charlie White.

Publication: A fully-illustrated catalog accompanies the exhibition with essays by the curators and contributing authors: John Thomas Bell, Director, Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut; Terence Gower, artist and exhibition designer; Jena Osman, Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing, Temple University; John Pemberton, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University; Jane Taylor, Skye Chair of Dramatic Art, Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand; Michael Taylor, Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art and Allen Weiss, Associate Teacher, Performance Studies and Cinema Studies, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. There will be an annotated checklist of the works in the exhibition, and a picture record of the contents of “Puppet Storage.” The installation will also be documented and the catalog with be printed after the exhibition opens.

Travel Dates: This exhibition premiers at ICA (January 18 - March 30, 2008) and travels to the Santa Monica Museum of Art, California (May 16 - August 9, 2008); The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii (September 5 – November 23, 2008); the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas (January 17 – April 12, 2009) and the Frye Art Museum, Seattle, Washington (May 16 – September 13, 2009).

ICA acknowledges the generous sponsorship of Barbara B. & Theodore R. Aronson for the exhibition catalog. We are grateful to the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative (PEI), a program of the Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, and administered by University of the Arts for research and planning funds; to Etant donnes: The French-American Fund for Contemporary Art; Susquehanna Foundation; The Bandier Family Foundation; Goldberg Foundation; Sotheby’s; and to the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation for promotional marketing support. Additional funding has been provided by The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Dietrich Foundation, Inc., the Overseers Board for the Institute of Contemporary Art, friends and members of ICA, and the University of Pennsylvania. ICA is also grateful to The Chodorow Exhibition Initiative Fund for support of the exhibition’s tour. (Infor
mation complete as of 12/21/07.)

INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
118 SOUTH 36TH STREET
PHILADELPHIA, PA 19104-3289
HTTP://WWW.ICAPHILA.ORG