In a previous post a while back we looked at the possibility of re-dressing buildings, concealing or masking the surfaces of a structure to "deceive" the viewer. In that post we explored some artistic interventions to create unusual surface textures employing materials borrowed from other fields or areas (remember the "Casa Vestita" installation by Slovenian artist Matej Andraz Vogrinčič?) and we talked about "facing to clarify", so covering the facade of a building with a specific material to highlight its main purpose, and "facing to mask", that is hiding its purpose, radically transforming the structure.
"Facing to mask" is the concept behind some of the installations that will be created by a few artists featured in the 2021 Bruges Triennial (from 8th May to 26th September 2021). The event, entitled "TraumA", will mainly focus on the experience of the city as a place where opposing dynamic forces create contrasts and tensions, giving it life.
Two artists in particular - American Amanda Browder and Nigerian Nnenna Okore - will be presenting installations revolving around the idea of masking buildings that will also give the chance to visitors to explore other themes such as history and identity.
Amanda Browder is known for her large-scale textile site-specific installations at public locations in urban environments, but there is also a sustainable aspect to her work. Each of her installations consists indeed of collected or donated materials that are collaged together with the help of local communities. In this way the building becomes a tangible representation of the participants' lives and stories.
Browder has already started collaborating with local Bruges residents, searching for and collecting textiles. The second phase will consist in organising the residents in helping to organize the textiles and in teaching them how to stitch and sew. Once they will all be familiar with the techniques involved, they will start developing an architectural tapestry that will wrap up one of the local buildings.
The main purpose of Browder's art is not just dressing and re-dressing a building in bright and playful patterns and colours, but to create a social project around it that allows people to come together and create a work of art, generating a positive experience. All the phases of Browder's projects are indeed based on the participation of ordinary people - from collecting the materials to assembling them during the sewing days and finally installing the tapestry. For the Bruges Triennial, Browder will develop a new piece entitled "Happy Coincidences" in the Verversdijk site in Bruges, an installation that will be set amidst the bricks of the bridge, across the span of the canal, and between the windows of the houses.
Nnenna Okore usually works on abstract installations inspired by textures, colours and landscapes and by the themes of ageing, death and decay.
Also in her work there is an element of sustainability with the use of everyday objects that she repurposes employing repetitive and labour-intensive techniques, such as weaving, spinning, sewing, painting, waxing, and rolling. Recycling and upcycling are conceived by Okore as ways to examine the themes of the transformation and regeneration of forms made with natural materials including paper, fibre, cotton and jute.
For the Bruges Triennial, Okore will stretch a fabric around the Poertoren (Gunpowder Tower) in Bruges: colour-wise the textile will be inspired by the typical red-brick colour of the region and by a local technique - lacemaking. Behind the project there is a gentle invitation: through the textile Okore prompts Bruges to consider its identity, remember its past and look at the challenges of the future.
Located next to the Minnewater Bridge, the 18-metre tall the defensive tower built in 1397 will be wrapped up in a material derived from tarpaulin, a solid and synthetic PVC structure that will highlight its architectural form. Circular pieces of cloth will then be applied on the tarpaulin and bind together into structures, reminiscent of cells or organisms. In this way the tower will be given an extra skin, pulsating with new life and with blood red veins, vessels and cells made with textiles.
This is the first time Okore works with a man-made material, but the artist will stay true to her values of sustainability, recycling and repurposing by reusing for other works these materials after the Triennial.
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