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Contact: Jill Katz Director of Marketing & Communications (215) 573-9975 publicity@icaphila.org |
Institute of Contemporary Art University of Pennsylvania 118 South 36th Street Philadelphia, PA 19104-3289 |
Tel. (215) 898-7108/5911 Fax: (215) 898-5050 info@icaphila.org www.icaphila.org |
Holiday Home, Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos (UN Studio, Amsterdam)
Visual Media: Imaginary Forces (New York/
Los Angeles)
January 21-March 26, 2006
Exhibition Walkthrough: Friday, January 20, 5-6pm, ICA Members Only, join on-site
Opening Reception: Friday, January 20, 6 - 8pm, free and open to the public
December 21, 2005
This winter, the Institute of Contemporary Art is pleased to present a site-specific commissioned installation by renowned architects Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos in ICA's second-floor galleries on view January 20-March 26, 2006. The technical realization of the visual media is a collaborative effort of UN Studio and Imaginary Forces.
The "Holiday Home" is an experiential installation exploring and quantifying areas in which the holiday home departs from modern design conventions. The orthogonal surfaces of the archetypal house are extruded and skewed creating the sculptural armature within which the dichotomies of home and holiday home are played out. The new architectural shape emulates escapism, the expectation of a holiday as removed from the everyday experiential routine. The interplay of what is real and what is virtual transpires on a number of levels touching on ideas of collective memory and phenomenological perceptions.
The unadorned construction allows attention to be directed towards the spatial configurations of the structure. Visitor movement through the installation activates unexpected views and the multidirectional shadows cast create unpredictable perspectives as they fall onto faceted surfaces. The perception of time is intrinsically interwoven into the project as light conditions subtly modulate referencing different atmospheric qualities; the sense of season and time of day become more abstract as you may find on holiday where time has a different rhythm as it is unbound by the frameworks of contemporary patterns of living and dwelling.
Based in Amsterdam, van Berkel and Bos have realized several internationally acclaimed projects, including the Erasmus Bridge (Rotterdam, 1990-96), the widely publicized Möbius House (Het Gooi, 1993-98), and most recently, the opening of the Mercedes-Benz Museum (Stuttgart,2006). Their work was also featured in the International Architecture Exhibition of the 2004 Venice Biennale. Van Berkel and Bos’s firm, UN Studio, is meant to act as a powerhouse in which architects, graphic designers, stylists, engineers, and other building and creative professionals can collaborate dynamically. Van Berkel, a self-described hyper-modernist, strives to design on the cutting edge while maintaining coherence with the surrounding landscape, and credits the computer for his designs’ noted fluidity. Bos, an art historian, serves as in-house critic, all-purpose debunker, and producer of conceptual and theoretical literature.
Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos (UN Studio, Amsterdam) with Imaginary Forces (New York)
Founded in 1996, Imaginary Forces (IF) is an entertainment and design agency based in Los Angeles and New York. Their award-winning work spans the diverse industries of feature film production and marketing, corporate branding, architecture, commercial advertising, and interactive media. Fusing architecture and media, IF has created branded experiences for BMW, MoMA, Morgan Stanley, Wynn Las Vegas, IBM, and the NFL's Baltimore Ravens. Following the events of September 11, IF, together with colleagues from five architectural firms, formed United Architects—a collaboration that combined architecture, storytelling, and filmmaking to address the social, emotional, national, and international issues involved in the re-design of the World Trade Center site. Additionally, IF has produced main titles and marketing campaigns for such feature films as Ray, Spider-Man, Seven, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the upcoming release The Chronicles of Narnia. Blade: Trinity, the third film produced by ImaginaryForces in the Blade series, opened in theatres on December 8, 2004. IF has also created acclaimed commercial campaigns for Nike, Herman Miller, and Smirnoff. IF is comprised of over 70 creative professionals: art directors, designers, writers, animators, editors, producers, and film directors.The UN Studio exhibition continues ICA’s Architecture + Design exhibition series, launched in 1999 to provide a laboratory for artists and designers to realize their ideas in a visual arts and academic environment and for ICA to explore connections between the contemporary visual arts and the extended world of design, including cutting-edge architecture. Van Berkel and Bos are on the leading edge of the theory and practice of architecture and design, and this exhibition fosters alternative and iconoclastic design ideas. The UN Studio project furthers a primary goal of ICA’s strategic plan-maintaining a critically acclaimed exhibition program-by adding to the scope and variety of exhibitions.
Architecture and design have been well-represented in ICA’s 40-year history. ICA-organized projects have included work by Hella Jongerius and Jurgen Bey; Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture (Asymptote Architecture) with Karim Rashid (stratascape, 2001-02); and architect and theorist Greg Lynn (Intricacy, 2002-03). Architecture and design shows at ICA organized by other institutions include the work of Rudi Gernreich (2001), KieranTimberlake (2004), and Ant Farm (2004). In fall 2006 (September 10 - December 15, 2006), Peter Eisenman (Eisenman Architects) and Laurie Olin (The Olin Partnership) will create a landscape installation presenting key physical and perceptual elements of the pair’s unbuilt environments.
ICA is grateful for the generous support of the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative (PEI), funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts and administered by the University of the Arts. We are also grateful for funding from the Netherlands Architecture Fund, Elise Jaffe + Jeffrey Brown, Goldberg Foundation, Inc., the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York and The Netherland-America Foundation. Additional support 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. (Information complete as of 12/16/05.)
General Education/Outreach Programming
ICA is grateful for support provided by the Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation, The Christian R. & Mary F. Lindback Foundation, The Honickman Foundation and The Barra Foundation Inc. Additional support has been provided by 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. (Information complete as of 12/15/05.) All programs subject to change.
ICA is located at 118 South 36th Street at the University of Pennsylvania. ICA is open to the public, except during installation, from 12:00pm to 8:00pm on Wednesday through Friday and from 11:00am to 5:00pm on Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $6 for adults; $3 for students over 12, artists, and senior citizens; and free to ICA members, children 12 and under, PENN card holders, and on Sundays from 11:00am to 1:00pm. For more information, call 215-898-7108/5911ICA
Founded in 1963 as part of the University of Pennsylvania, ICA presents a year-round exhibition schedule that defines, analyzes, and explores the contemporary visual arts. A non-collecting museum, ICA offers one-person, thematic, and group exhibitions, including commissioned works. ICA diversifies its examination of art to include interdisciplinary work such as film, video, performance, architecture, and design. ICA plays a vital role in introducing American audiences to rising international artists and is also committed to the regional arts community. ICA has been at the forefront of contemporary art for 40 years, presenting the first museum solo exhibitions of artists Andy Warhol, Robert Indiana, Lisa Yuskavage, Charles LeDray and many others.