IRIS TOULIATOU
INFO
Sergei Eisenstein: “Montage is collision. Conflict of two pieces in opposition to each other. A view that from the collision of the two given factors arises a concept.”
DUVE Berlin proudly presents the first solo exhibition of Greek born artist Iris Touliatou in Germany, titled *On the Breaking Act of Seeing Through and Through the other Side of Grounds and Things *. The exhibition presents new works of sculptures, drawings and collages, alongside a limited edition artist publication.
In the continuity of previous projects, questioning the utopian ambitions of modernism and the fictional, dramatic nature of architecture through its relation to cinema, this new series of works is based on Sergei Eisenstein’s scenario for ‘Glass House’ (1926 - 1932), a film that the pioneering director and former architect would unfortunately fail to realize.
The ‘Glass House’ was to present a new type of dwelling. A glass tower, similar to Mies van de Rohe’s unrealised skyscraper proposal for Berlin’s Friedrichstraße competition in 1921. Eisenstein’s film aimed to invent architecture that would exist only through film, whilst reflecting and contributing to contemporary architectural debates. At this time, modernity was obsessed with transparency; the German mystics, American rationalists and Russian constructivists were creating glass buildings and discovering that this material could support conflicting ideologies. The clash between expressionist mysticism and Bauhaus functionalism, as well as the glass house as a model for a new cinematic space and language, are elements found in the core of Eisenstein’s script.
Following this axis, the installation is conceived as a postscript, including diverse conceptual gestures, reinventing the mise-en- scene of a multi layered architectural drama, producing space through new angles and perspectives. Across a wide spectrum of forms, sculptures, drawings, collages and an accompanying publication, the installation questions transparency, documents and mythologizes the conflict between the utopias of glass architecture, unravels its structure and creates new associations, metaphors and interpretations.
Abstract sculptural replicas of hypothetical film props, composed from panes of glass are presented in this show. Arranged into geometric structures that merge almost imperceptibly with the space in which they are installed, they are imbued with high degrees of unsettling tragedy. Their dynamic yet fragile form implies loss of all known dimensions and points of view and redefines senses of property, privacy and ownership. Transparent and empty, they become a display of all and of nothing, a vitrine inside a vitrine. Furthermore collages and drawings of various formats conceptually and formally explore a kaleidoscopic and polyfocal point of view, inspired from Eisenstein’s theory of montage.
Can we really deal with transparency?
Iris Touliatou was born in 1981 in Athens, Greece, where she studied at the University of Social and Political Sciences and obtained her bachelors degree from the School of Fine Arts in Athens. Touliatou received her Masters of fine arts from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Paris, France in 2008. In 2010, she received the Onassis Foundation Grant and was shortlisted for The Future of Europe Art Prize. In 2009, Touliatou was awarded the artist residency at Le Pavillon, Laboratoire de Création du Palais de Tokyo, Paris as well as at SAIR/ Artist in residency in Denmark. Exhibitions include, a solo show at Les Modules, Palais de Tokyo, Paris in 2010 as well as thematic exhibitions at The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens in 2007,2008 and 2010. Her works form part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens and she is currently an artist in residency at PROGRAM, Berlin. Touliatou lives and works in Paris.
**On the Breaking Act of Seeing Through and Through the other Side of Grounds and Things * is the first act of a three part project under the title THE GLASS HOUSE: PROPOSALS FOR THE MATERIALIZATION OF THREE IMPOSSIBLE SCENES
I. On the Breaking Act of Seeing Through and Through the other Side of Grounds and Things II. On the vertiginous act of falling on the ceiling
II. On the vertiginous act of falling on the ceiling
III. On the inconclusive act of hammering a nail into a glass wall
DUVE Berlin proudly presents the first solo exhibition of Greek born artist Iris Touliatou in Germany, titled *On the Breaking Act of Seeing Through and Through the other Side of Grounds and Things *. The exhibition presents new works of sculptures, drawings and collages, alongside a limited edition artist publication.
In the continuity of previous projects, questioning the utopian ambitions of modernism and the fictional, dramatic nature of architecture through its relation to cinema, this new series of works is based on Sergei Eisenstein’s scenario for ‘Glass House’ (1926 - 1932), a film that the pioneering director and former architect would unfortunately fail to realize.
The ‘Glass House’ was to present a new type of dwelling. A glass tower, similar to Mies van de Rohe’s unrealised skyscraper proposal for Berlin’s Friedrichstraße competition in 1921. Eisenstein’s film aimed to invent architecture that would exist only through film, whilst reflecting and contributing to contemporary architectural debates. At this time, modernity was obsessed with transparency; the German mystics, American rationalists and Russian constructivists were creating glass buildings and discovering that this material could support conflicting ideologies. The clash between expressionist mysticism and Bauhaus functionalism, as well as the glass house as a model for a new cinematic space and language, are elements found in the core of Eisenstein’s script.
Following this axis, the installation is conceived as a postscript, including diverse conceptual gestures, reinventing the mise-en- scene of a multi layered architectural drama, producing space through new angles and perspectives. Across a wide spectrum of forms, sculptures, drawings, collages and an accompanying publication, the installation questions transparency, documents and mythologizes the conflict between the utopias of glass architecture, unravels its structure and creates new associations, metaphors and interpretations.
Abstract sculptural replicas of hypothetical film props, composed from panes of glass are presented in this show. Arranged into geometric structures that merge almost imperceptibly with the space in which they are installed, they are imbued with high degrees of unsettling tragedy. Their dynamic yet fragile form implies loss of all known dimensions and points of view and redefines senses of property, privacy and ownership. Transparent and empty, they become a display of all and of nothing, a vitrine inside a vitrine. Furthermore collages and drawings of various formats conceptually and formally explore a kaleidoscopic and polyfocal point of view, inspired from Eisenstein’s theory of montage.
Can we really deal with transparency?
Iris Touliatou was born in 1981 in Athens, Greece, where she studied at the University of Social and Political Sciences and obtained her bachelors degree from the School of Fine Arts in Athens. Touliatou received her Masters of fine arts from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Paris, France in 2008. In 2010, she received the Onassis Foundation Grant and was shortlisted for The Future of Europe Art Prize. In 2009, Touliatou was awarded the artist residency at Le Pavillon, Laboratoire de Création du Palais de Tokyo, Paris as well as at SAIR/ Artist in residency in Denmark. Exhibitions include, a solo show at Les Modules, Palais de Tokyo, Paris in 2010 as well as thematic exhibitions at The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens in 2007,2008 and 2010. Her works form part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens and she is currently an artist in residency at PROGRAM, Berlin. Touliatou lives and works in Paris.
**On the Breaking Act of Seeing Through and Through the other Side of Grounds and Things * is the first act of a three part project under the title THE GLASS HOUSE: PROPOSALS FOR THE MATERIALIZATION OF THREE IMPOSSIBLE SCENES
I. On the Breaking Act of Seeing Through and Through the other Side of Grounds and Things II. On the vertiginous act of falling on the ceiling
II. On the vertiginous act of falling on the ceiling
III. On the inconclusive act of hammering a nail into a glass wall