 | Dolores Zinny/Juan Maidagan (AR, USA, D)
Curtain Call for Graz
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Curtain Call for Graz 2009
Installation
Steel beam structure, fabric in six different colours,
sewn and reinforced
City hall, Hauptplatz 1
The duo of artists Dolores Zinny / Juan Maidagan has projected a giant curtain onto the portico of the city hall. The monumentality of this large sculpture geared to achieving an impression of depth turns it into a piece of architecture in its own right, a giant folded screen fronting the city hall. In terms of colour, it camouflages in with the appearance of the city hall, the silver and gold (alongside beige, grey, black and white) lending it a festive aspect. The folds and the alternating use of colours are reminiscent of the strict imagery of modernism, that in a sense it seems to parody the form of a curtain or projection screen.
The meaning of this intervention is evident at first sight, as if Zinny / Maidagan are declaring the city hall to be a stage and the square in front an auditorium. Or is it perhaps the other way round? Could the main square or indeed the entire city be the stage, or rather the screen, with local politicians watching our everyday bustle from the safety of their circle seats? Or are we in fact behind the stage, thus able to glimpse behind the scenes of local decisionmaking? The folding of this large textile sculpture keeps us guessing where the front and the back are. It is apparently up to us to decide. However we see it, in one sweep (in fact with one fold) the artist couple has transformed the main square and the city hall, indeed the entire city; declaring it to be a place where an event takes place, where something is performed, projected and thus presented. When will the performance begin? Or are we already in it?
Commissioned by steirischer herbst
Project sponsor Think!
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25/09 - 18/10
Utopia and Monument I
Fri 25/09, 6 pm
Vernissage at the exhibition pavilion, Platz der Freiwilligen Schützen / Bad zur Sonne
public space
Dolores Zinny & Juan Maidagan
Born in Rosario (AR) in 1968 and 1957 respectively, lived in New York (USA) from 1994 to 2001; live in Berlin (D) since 2002.
25/09 - 18/10
Utopia and Monument I
Fri 25/09, 6 pm
Vernissage at the exhibition pavilion, Platz der Freiwilligen Schützen / Bad zur Sonne
public space
Dolores Zinny & Juan Maidagan
Born in Rosario (AR) in 1968 and 1957 respectively, lived in New York (USA) from 1994 to 2001; live in Berlin (D) since 2002.
