An international group-exhibition curated by multi-disciplinary collective They Are Here is entitled "Their Wonderlands" and is running in MAC Birmingham, UK. Contemporary artists have been drawn together to explore the space given to make-believe and folklore in post industrial 21st century European society. Inspired by the essay In Praise of Shadows (1933) by Japanese writer Jun Ichiro Tanizaki, the exhibition exists in darkness.
Among the participants is artist Ioanna Pantazopoulou who created the sculptural installation "I.W.A.G." (photos here) as a response to Yona Friedman's architectural installation entitled "Une Ville Spatiale Pour Artistes".
Friedman took over the gallery space by creating a maze out of cardboard and wood whereby the artists' work is installed. Ioanna used the scraps from Friedman's maze and created an imploded maze within a maze. As a result, a structural dialogue is created. Where Friedman supports his structures by right-angles Ioanna uses curnes,slits and cut-outs. Friedman's maze is spacious to walk through and visitors can walk around the whole structure whilst in Ioanna's maze they are confronted with a more intimate environment that reaches dead-end.
Additionally, Ioanna Pantazopoulou included her miniature try-out/study sculptures that she created prior to commencing the work. She situated them with the final sculptures and this formed a third "maze" and a relation between the tangible object and the monumental environment.
The exhibition will be running in MAC until 29th Jan, 2012
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