A location based collaborative construction

LAYOUT 1

'Layout' is a location based 'aesthetic construction' that interrogates the standard engineered urban interior space, in this case an artist's studio. The project is a collaboration between Indian artists M. Pravat and Susanta Mandal, Indian architect Sayantan Maitra Boka and Swiss artist Navid Tschopp. This partnership seeks to transform and mutate the typical architectural process using four distinct approaches. M. Pravat, the host of the project, has been meditating on the notion of flexibility of the designed space, and his prior works dealt it by creating 'fake' architectural blueprints. He had transferred these two-dimensional possibilities into a three- dimensional space.

Susanta Mandal's contribution focuses on the 'nervous system' of a building, the logistics of supplying water or electricity to an engineered space and, therefore, making it habitable. Navid Tschopp brings in a colouristic visuality within the interior. He utilized different strategies to evoke the illusion of volumetric propositions where none exist. Sayantan Maitra Boka's intervention was to locate normal utilitarian furniture artifacts into bizarre locations within the space, exploiting the spatial voids generated from the compositions of his three collaborators. The resulting convergence of these four unique eccentricities, functioned as one self-contained artwork and the product of the interaction was a source of discovery for both the artists and the audience.

LAYOUT 2

Location Based Collaborative Construction

Kochi Biennale Collateral, 2012

Venue : Warehouse opposite Jeevamatha Church, Mattancherry , Kochi

"Layout 2" is a location based 'aesthetic construction’ that interrogates the standard engineered urban space, in this case an urban Kochi landscape. This was a unique land art project created in an abandoned warehouse in the busy lanes of Bazaar Road of Fort Kochi. This place is surrounded by spice markets which were trading for centuries. Keeping in mind the history of the lost town of Muziris which was swept by mud floods and the many historical battles and wars, we wanted to explore the idea of going underground and experience spaces differently. The floor and foundation of this warehouse space was made of a thick layer of concrete. We dug into this concrete floor to create a series of rooms underground which also had some visual connections. We created an artificial organic hillock on top of this concrete from the dug up earth. Within the dynamic morphology of cityscapes, any attempt at forming representational models to reflect that dynamism poses a number of challenges, more so because any city itself is largely constituted by innumerable layers of images and imaginations. Whereas many images find a picture-plane, there are imaginations, desires, and resentments that gradually seep into fissures and cracks to form different substrata. With excavation and archival retrieving as the most commonly spoken-about tropes today, could there be other ways to illuminate that which is beneath? This initiative aims to delve into those substrata, albeit not with a mind to excavate but to 'project onto' through the diverse approaches of 4 creative practitioners from India and Switzerland. Such a process of discovery aims to unravel the various layers defining the semantics of space.

LAYOUT 3

A process based work at Sarai Reader09 Show

Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon

Curator : Raqs Media Collective

A space becomes a void when it cannot be used as a consequence of the built or as vestigial remains of spatial planning and design. Many a times, these incidental spaces take on different meanings through their un-designed usage. A look at these negative spaces and their significance in our daily lives reveals our relationship with this un-built component and the way we perceive space. What happens if we were to create these voids deliberately and not incidentally? 'Layout 3' is a process based 'aesthetic construction' that interrogates the standard engineered urban interior space, in this case a public space. This partnership seeks to gather and mutate the typical architectural process using distinct approaches through memory, recall and experience of the viewers of previously done ‘Layout’ (1, 2 and 4) projects. The resulting convergence of these unique eccentricities is foreseen to function as one self-contained work and the product of the interaction is foreseen as a source of discovery for both the artists and the audience. This ‘Layout’ is an imaginary reactionary act by the audience in this museum space exploring and experiencing and feeling a space which does not exist. Audience are told to recall or experiences on commonly used spaces and forms like window / hole, staircase, roof, wall, corner, the idea of labour, inside/outside, home, bottomless pit, light etc. This collective resulting of reactions from the audience might be another source of a new ‘Layout’.

LAYOUT 4

Zones of Contact: Propositions on the Museum at Kiran Nader Museum of Art , Noida

Curator : Akansha Rastogi , Deeksha Nath , Vidya Shivadas

‘Layout 04’ is a location-based 'aesthetic construction' that interrogates the standard engineered urban space, in this case the foyer of Kiran Nader Museum of Art .Within the dynamic morphology of cityscapes, any attempt at forming representational models to reflect that dynamism poses a number of challenges, more so because any city is largely constituted by innumerable layers of images and imaginations. Whereas many images find a picture-plane, there are imaginations, desires, and resentments that gradually seep into fissures and cracks to form a different substratum. The artists are concerned with a specific cultural landscape, the character of which is influenced by the geological structure, history and culture into which they integrate their work. They are also interested in the disturbing associations that people have of spaces and drawing attention to the architectural settings through their interventions. The group draws inspiration from technology in order to create a new reality that is solely expressed through hypothetical projects. In a completely polished and shining interior space of a corporate building they created a labyrinth of raw brick walls to completely transform that space and forcing the audience to walk through and experience through sounds and videos.