A.I.R extension#04

A.I.R extension#04 was a discussion that took place between Katleen Vermeir & Christodoulos Panayiotou (artist) on the topic of the A.I.R project. The discussion took place at Platform Garanti, Istanbul, where they were both in residency. The discussion was recorded and written out in order to be proposed for a Greek magazine (not published).

Excerpt interview:

KV: Yes, and we then began exploring all that we have discussed. Lately, Ronny was working with large wooden installations, where he would use the same material in different forms, recycling them. We would always make fun saying that with all this effort and work we could build a house. And eventually that’s exactly what we did; we used all his pieces to organize the loft that we have purchased. Of course they are no longer there as art works. The wood that made up Ronny’s sculptures is now the wooden floor, or the wooden structure of a wall...

CP: And how do you plan to exhibit in this idiosyncratic piece of art/house?

KV: Our house is our work; that which we exhibit to the public is not the house itself. For Instance, we do not invite people over to show it to them, and we are not going to do this, it goes beyond our intentions and there is nothing in particular for anyone to see other than a house.

CP: So, in what way is this research being promoted?

KV: We have decided to present a series of Extensions; that is activities that will represent our house. Consequently, this also constitutes a comment on the way in which we often get to know about contemporary architecture. Architecture is communicated in a strange way; it does not constitute an experience, as it should. It would be reasonable for one to visit a house in order for them to see it. To walk in it, to sit there... Nevertheless, we mostly know architecture through books and magazines. That is, we know more about architecture as an image rather than as an experience.

CP: The other day we were talking about Julius Schulman’s show in Istanbul. This great photographer has organized the aesthetics of modernist architecture through the known sterile method of its presentation, creating thus the image that has prevailed about the modernist house.

KV: Exactly, for Julius Schulman the interest was to create a perfect image that would represent these houses. In the same manner, we create the desired representations for our house through these Extensions.

CP: So you would call an Extension any exhibition that you produce which refers to your loft.

KV: Yes, but not only exhibitions, not in the strict sense. An Extension can be any representation of the house. For example the conversation that we are having right now is one of our Extensions. In a similar way we have done a radio interview.

CP: So, your work is concerned more with the image of the house rather than the house itself.

KV: It’s the house but it begins to exist outside the house. For example Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye must certainly exist somewhere but we all know it as an image. That is exactly what we mean by the term Extension…

Discussion Katleen Vermeir & Christodoulos Panayiotou
Istanbul, 2006