Two Architectures for Researching
Within the context of the la XV Biennale of Architecture in Venice, this exhibition gathers, for the first time, the projects Laboratorio Eigengrau y White Elephant Bibliotheke by the chilean artists Javier Toro Blum and Martin La Roche. The show is curated by Cristóbal Barría and Angélica Muñoz, and it will take place between May 28th and June 11th at the cultural space Casa Punto Croce
Two Architectures for Researching is an exhibition produced by chilean artists and curators which shows experimental spaces of production, reflection and exhibition of contemporary art. These “two spaces” aim to go beyond the conventional galleries or museums, and they share the characteristics of being interdisciplinary, itinerant, and performative.
Laboratorio Eigengrau was initiated by Javier Toro Blum in 2014 in Santiago, Chile. This space was conceived as a mix between a residency or a contemporary art workshop, and an experimental psychology laboratory. The aim is to research, alongside guest artists and the attending public, the formal possibilities regarding the phenomena of darkness. For this purpose, the places where it is unfolded are adapted to function as a space to produce and exhibit works that engage in this phenomena.
White Elephant Bibliotheke by Martín La Roche, is a collaborative, multi-disciplinary project that investigates the construction of a library in a determined space and time. Unlike a traditional library, White Elephant Bibliotheke is not a permanent archive that can be accessed in a determined place, but rather in a series of actions in which it is formed and its file are shared.
Although both projects have been separately shown on various occasions in different countries, such as Chile, Spain, and Netherlands, this will be the first time that they will be shown together; where the works of art and the activities related to them integrate international artist and curators from Italy, Austria, and Chile.
This exhibition consists in the selection of works produced within these two projects and a program of performances and activities that search to account for the relational dimension that these projects share.
Two architectures for researching is supported by the Dirección de Asuntos Culturales DIRAC of The Ministry of International Affairs in Chile and the Milanese production house Accapiù.