A.I.R extension#10 (pavilion)

A.I.R extension#10 (pavilion) is a video installation, proposed for the AKM-building on Taksim Square. The project results from a residency at Platform Garanti in 2006.
The installation proposes a semi-transparent ‘exhibition’ pavilion, functioning both as an annex (of the artist’s home) and as a reference to pavilions in world exhibitions.
The pavilion also ‘reflects’ the materials and layout of the AKM (Ataturk Cultural Centre), the Istanbul opera, one of the prestige modernist projects for nation building in the 30ies (but only build in the 60ies and opened in 1978). The architecturally imposing building reveals the paternalistic mentality on which the strategy of nation building was based. The transparency and openness is one sided, the steel structure outside functions as a screen, a conservative way to control the gaze in a technically innovative way. Also the materials inside are cause for perceptual ambiguities: the use of big mirrors, glass and plexi create openness and confusion. The pavilion, placed next to a huge existing mirror wall, is through the use of similar materials absorbed by AKM, and from some viewpoints becoming almost invisible. The pavilion also refers to Dan Graham’s pavilions, but at the same time it denies them in the use of the pavilion’s material, which is simple metal studs for rapid dry wall fabrication, plexi and plasterboard, making it a very temporary construction, conceived especially for the AKM context. It’s shiny facade and its transparent walls reveal a cardboard backside. Inside the pavilion the idea of reflections and confusion is continued with the projection of the film in a mirror, being then reflected on the opposite wall.
The projection inside the pavilion juxtaposes visuals of the Brussels loft space and imagery of Ataturk’s modernist marine pavilion in Istanbul. This summer residence, built by Seyfi Arkan in 1935, was a symbol of Turkey’s progressive modernity and westernisation. They were showcased to disseminate a new vision of living to the whole nation and to exhibit to the rest of the world how the Turkish republic, with Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as its founder, had stripped off its ‘oriental’ habits. Literally creating a facade of a tranparent and open society, the Florya pavilion was to establish the imagery of a leader amidst his people. Since 1993 the marine pavilion is used as an Ataturk museum. The ideological exploitation of the pavilion is still tangible today, f.e. in the continuous restauration of its wooden finish. The two spaces in the film, the loft and the Florya pavilion, become mirroring clusters of meaning, embodied in architectural constructs in which the open floor-plan, the so-called lack of hierarchy and the use of transparency are essential. The video represents both edifices as showcases. We created a hybrid building, through manipulation of the images and re-projection, not leaving a single image ‘original’ or ‘authentic’. In this way we wanted to express a critical approach to modern architecture and to the alienating aspects of the video medium.

read also: 'A.I.R extension#10/The Logic of Representation' an INTERVIEW with Bulent Tanju on the occasion of the presentation of A.I.R extension#10 at AKM building, Taksim, Istanbul (2007)

read also: 'A.I.R extension#10/On Istanbul Biennial', excerpts of an e-mail correspondence between Marko Stamenkovic and Katleen Vermeir & Ronny Heiremans on their participation in the 10th Istanbul Biennial (2007)

2007
Video installation - Double projection 12’, looped, color&BW, no sound - Pavilion - metal studs, drywall, carpet, mirror, plexi - Dimension (5 x 3,6 x 2,5m)
Presented at 10th Istanbul Biennial, AKM building 2007
Supported by Dexia, Deniz Bank, Flemish Community
Produced by Ltd.Ed.vzw

2006 - Katleen Vermeir& Ronny Heiremans, Portfolio of 20 location photographs, printed 40x60 cm, presented in leather portfolio