The Folds
permanent installation in Wrocław (PL) city center,
Barbara building, Wrocław
unveiled 9th Jun 2017
white concrete
3 parts relief, 3 x 3 m each part
2015—17
co-operation:
Marta Mnich, vroa – architectural supervision
Michał Bieniek, curator of ESK2016
The washed-out-antique of The Folds refers to the idea of democracy, that is variously defined and changes through ages. The work is embedded in the context of Wrocław 2016 European Capital of Culture, when the concept of the ‘Iron Curtain’ still evoked emotions in European societies. In people's minds, its constant assembly and disassembly continues. For years, the ECC institution has been involved in transforming the function of this curtain—from a dividing one to a decorative one. A potential success of this process remains to be seen.
G. Deleuze in “The Fold“ (le pli)—a text that impacted many architects—approaches consciousness as the result of matter that has been folded and folded and folded until exteriority has become interiority; the world as a body of infinite folds weaves through compressed time and space.
The Folds take a simple form of a three-part relief set in the midst of what mainly exemplifies the modernist architecture of Wrocław (PL) after the WWII. Each part of the relief forms a curtain cast in white, self-cleaning concrete, the “marble of modernity“. The use of this material includes ambivalence, as it improved housing crisis around the globe but for a huge environmental cost. The curtain offers protection, emphasizes importance, shields but may also conceal and separate, bar access or block a view, signalling not transparent intentions.
The realisation of the work was made possible thanks to: Katarzyna Zielińska (ESK 2016), Dariusz Kosiarski (Impart2016), Jucha Beton.
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permanent installation in Wrocław (PL) city center,
Barbara building, Wrocław
unveiled 9th Jun 2017
white concrete
3 parts relief, 3 x 3 m each part
2015—17
co-operation:
Marta Mnich, vroa – architectural supervision
Michał Bieniek, curator of ESK2016
The washed-out-antique of The Folds refers to the idea of democracy, that is variously defined and changes through ages. The work is embedded in the context of Wrocław 2016 European Capital of Culture, when the concept of the ‘Iron Curtain’ still evoked emotions in European societies. In people's minds, its constant assembly and disassembly continues. For years, the ECC institution has been involved in transforming the function of this curtain—from a dividing one to a decorative one. A potential success of this process remains to be seen.
G. Deleuze in “The Fold“ (le pli)—a text that impacted many architects—approaches consciousness as the result of matter that has been folded and folded and folded until exteriority has become interiority; the world as a body of infinite folds weaves through compressed time and space.
The Folds take a simple form of a three-part relief set in the midst of what mainly exemplifies the modernist architecture of Wrocław (PL) after the WWII. Each part of the relief forms a curtain cast in white, self-cleaning concrete, the “marble of modernity“. The use of this material includes ambivalence, as it improved housing crisis around the globe but for a huge environmental cost. The curtain offers protection, emphasizes importance, shields but may also conceal and separate, bar access or block a view, signalling not transparent intentions.
The realisation of the work was made possible thanks to: Katarzyna Zielińska (ESK 2016), Dariusz Kosiarski (Impart2016), Jucha Beton.
installation views during the day and night
detail, during the installation process at Barbara building
casts removed from the molds, August 2017
casts removed from the molds, August 2017