Opening: Saturday 11/12, 4-6 PM at LAMOA at Occidental College
BBQ around the burning roof truss: Thursday 11/10, 6-11PM
In his sculptural and photographic work, Andreas Fogarasi investigates how things are presented to us, how architecture is conceived as an image, how images are conceived as spectacle. His installation at LAMOA evokes and reinterprets some of these gestures of presentation.
An aluminum truss, the modular construction system commonly used for short-term event architecture, is modified to produce the most basic and archaic spectacle - an open fire (or rather the domesticated version of it, a neat row of gas flames).
Next to it, a brochure holder, suspended with grand gesture in mid-air, presents a small and inexpensively printed publication, entitled FREE BOOK YEAR. Free to take away, it contains 24 photographs from various exotic and mundane places around the world. Buildings by star architects such as Gustave Eiffel, Vladimir Shukhov, Peter Eisenman or Norman Foster, are pictured alongside anonymous temporary constructions, always with a focus on how their various urban situations and surroundings interfere with the aesthetic vision of the architecture. Situated somewhere between snapshots and the highly codified art of architectural photography, Fogarasi offers an exhibition to be taken away as a gift.
The publication's mirror cover would reflect the flames of the burning truss(entitled The La Brea Tar Pits on Fire), if it wasn't impossible to light it, both for college regulations as for the simple fact that LAMOA, itself an ironic sculptural model of museum architecture, is built from wood. A photograph mounted on the back wall shows the truss in action - used as a BBQ grill a few days prior to installing it on site. Connected to an empty propane gas bottle, it sits as a dysfunctional promise of excitement.
(Yes, there is some Ruscha reference, but also Yves Klein!)
(Yes, there is some Ruscha reference, but also Yves Klein!)
Andreas Fogarasi (*1977, Vienna) is through his installations, sculptures, videos and photographs concerned with the act of showing and of representation. He analyses how places, cities, political ideas, or historic events become images and questions the role of culture – art, architecture, and design – in this process. Underlying his works is his critical examination of the mechanisms with which political appropriation operates in the field of visual culture today: the process of culturalisation of the economy – be it through „creative“ models of working and remuneration, through culture being the motor behind urban reconstruction, or as a factor in the competition for attracting tourists, investors, and media attention.
Formally informed by Minimal Art and Conceptual Art, Fogarasi’s works are at the same time documentary and autonomous sculptures. The documentary element is consciously fractured and rests on a precise balance between information and openness. The sculptural aspect is strongly architectural, often referencing iconic landmarks, commercial presentations or temporary forms of architecture such as stands at fairs, stage constructions, or pavilions.
Andreas Fogarasi was awarded in 2007 with the Golden Lion at the 52nd Venice Biennial for his exhibition in the Hungarian Pavilion. He participated in numerous international exhibitions at institutions such as the MAK Center, Los Angeles; Museo Tamayo, Mexico City; The New Museum, New York and had solo shows amongst others at the Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid; Galerie für zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig; Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich; Galeria Vermelho, Sao Paulo; Prefix Institute of Contemporary Art, Toronto; Ludwig Museum, Aachen; Lombard Freid Projects, New York; Ernst Museum, Budapest; Grazer Kunstverein, Graz; and concurrently with his show at LAMOA, at Proyectos Monclova, Mexico City.
Photos by Sean Deckert
Photos by Sean Deckert
