Installation view of Garage Exchange: The Visitor - Alfredo Barsuglia & Alice Könitz. Photography by Josh White, 2018.
The Visitor consists of two architectural works: The Future Zone by Alfredo Barsuglia and Pavilion of the Present by Alice Könitz, both components of one largescale accessible sculpture.
The Pavilion of the Present could be entered through three revolving doors, each featuring images representative of and responsive to 2018 to date. The Future Zone is an interactive multimedia installation located inside the pavilion that frames the present by revealing the occupants’ future.
Visitors passed through the revolving doors to enter a narrow corridor, leading to a small room, which is upside down. Inside, a white table hung from above and a ceiling lamp was installed on the “floor.” All surfaces were mirrored. Looking through two windows, one saw a moving snow-scape. The room ticked.
Under the table, there was a small box with two piles of cards, consisting of symbols, texts, and numbers. Visitors were asked to “please – pick a card” from the bottom of the table. On each card was a future calendar date and a telephone number one should call on that particular date, in order to talk to their future. Upon exit, the “tneserp” became the “present.”
Every Saturday during the exhibition, for one hour from 11AM–12PM, visitors can experience a private, one-to-one performance session wherein they can fully experience The Future Zone.
About Garage Exchange Vienna-Los Angeles
In order to expand the cultural exchange at the core of the Artists and Architects-in-Residence program, the Austrian Federal Chancellery and the MAK Center invite Austrian and Vienna-based alumni residents to collaborate with L.A. artists and architects of their choosing at the Garage Top at the Mackey Apartments for the Garage Exchange Vienna-Los Angeles exhibition series.
Artists
alfredo barsuglia
Alfredo Barsuglia currently lives and works in Vienna, Austria. His works have been shown among others at mumok, Vienna; CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China; MACRO, Rome, Italy; Meštrović Pavilion, Zagreb, Croatia; and at Artplay Design Center, Moscow, Russia. Barsuglia was a MAK Center Artist-in-Residence in 2006 as well as a JTHAR Artist-in-Residence in California in 2008. In 2014, he teamed with the MAK Center to present the popular Social Pool, an eleven-by-five-feet wide swimming pool in the Mojave desert, open for anyone to use.He has received honors including the Art Award of the City of Graz (2007), the Theodor Körner Art Award (2013), the Art Award of the City of Vienna (2015) and the Austrian Federal Grant for Fine Arts (2017).
alice könitz
German-born, Los Angeles-based artist Alice Könitz has presented work in numerous exhibitions including the 2008 Whitney Biennial; the 2008 California Biennial; the 2014 Made in LA Biennial at the UCLA Hammer Museum; the Main Museum at Beta Main, Los Angeles; Galerie Nächst St. Stephan, Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna, Austria; Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena; Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles; LA><ART, Los Angeles; Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects and Susanne Vielmetter Berlin Projects; the Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany, and Museum of the City of Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany. In 2012, Könitz founded Los Angeles Museum of Art (LAMOA), an experimental exhibition space that she describes as a “platform for an organic institution that lives through participation.” LAMOA was featured in the Hammer Museum’s Made in L.A. 2014 and won the Mohn Award.
This exhibition series is made possible by the Austrian Federal Chancellery.
This project was also supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.