Of Bridges & Borders, Phase II - faculty of law bridge, Buenos Aires
Beautiful Bridge, # 1
Art in the public space
24 February – 31 December 2011
Opening: February 24th
Faculty of Law, Figueroa Alcorta avenue
The second phase of the project was organized around the urban intervention of the Figueroa Alcorta Avenue pedestrian bridge by the outstanding Swiss artists L/B, who developed a dynamic project mixing design, visual art and urbanism. This project was inaugurated on February 24th 2011 and was planned to remain until the end of the year. Having been very well accepted by the inhabitants and the city, this public art intervention finally remained and soon became emblematic.
The production stage took place between February 14th and 24th where ten people worked at night, preparing and painting the bridge.
The original geometric design is composed with a series of lines of 7 colors that cross the bridge from end to end, each one following the ergonomics of the bridge, interlacing in the center. One of the original aspects of the proposal was that the lower part of the bridge was intervened and not the area on which people walk, which generated a premise of this style in Buenos Aires.
Phase II was supported by: Pro Helvetia – Swiss Art Council, the AVINA Foundation, the paint company Plavicon, and the Ministries of Public Spaces and Culture of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires.
Production, KBB & Toit du Monde
Sobre los artistas: http://www.langbaumann.com
About “Of Bridges & Borders”
Of Bridges & Borders is a cross-border multidisciplinary cultural project. Like certain plays and films, its origin lies in a book that was produced and published in October 2009.
In that publication, visual artists, musicians, architects and thinkers from seventeen countries presented a wide range of positions and artistic visions.
In 2011 in Buenos Aires, Of Bridges & Borders entailed a series of exhibitions, urban interventions, concerts and lectures whose formats range from installations, video art, film, architecture, music and performances. The underlying interest is to provoke new forms of reading through proximity, difference, comparison and contradiction in the cultural sphere.
Phase II “Beautiful Bridge, # 1” was a colorful and geometrical painted intervention by the Swiss artists Lang/Baumann that took place under the pedestrian bridge of the faculty of located on Figueroa Alcorta Avenue. A public art piece that remained and later became emblematic for the city.
Phase III “Fronteras en Mutación” took place at the CCEBA (Spanish Cultural Center) in its San Telmo neighborhood (former Padelai) and Paraná street headquarters, with an international exhibition that brought together a selection of 16 outstanding national and international artists who created site specific projects.
These artists from different backgrounds and generations employed an array of vocabularies in their varied visions of globalization, an issue that has become increasingly important in recent years.
This third phase of the project focused on the morphology of borders, not only from a geographical perspective, but also from a poetic and aesthetic point of view. It attempts to offer the public the experience of a ceaselessly connected world, where borders have become both virtual and political, invisible but latent.
Phase IV “Lluvia de arañas sobre el Riachuelo” a strong visual open-air opera which took place on and around the Boca bridge for the Night of the Museums, with the participation of three groups of musicians from different backgrounds, mixing opera, electronics, jazz, minimal and experimental music.
Phase V presented “From Real to Surreal” at the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Buenos Aires (MAMBA) where works by the English, Lliam Gillick, the Belgian, Hans Op de Beeck, the Chinese, Yung Shun and the German, Carsten Nicolai, were installed, specially designed for the exhibition room.
