Thursday, May 26 · 5:30pm – 8:30pm

Film has influenced architecture since the dawn of the modern era. The creative process for entertainment as well as spaces for life and work share common ground. Perhaps film influences the profession of architecture through its speculative spaces which are removed from the constraints of reality. These instances serve as inspiration in the creation of the architecture of tomorrow. Timeless looks at designers (filmmakers, architects, media artists) dealing with the mode and processes of “blurring the threshold of both spatial and temporal constructions.”

Visiting Curators: Ralph Spencer Steenblik & Martin Roy Mervel

Curatorial Team: Naomi Scully, Tiffany Shaw Collings, Chris Martin, Adriana McElwain, Christian Contreras, Henry Dominguez

[Image: Animation still from "24X7ATPHL: Codify" by Robert B. Trempe Jr., 2009]

Reception Tuesday, March 22nd 5:00pm – 8:30pm with refreshments. On view through May 20th 2011. This viewing at SUPERFRONT LA exhibits the full range of submitted proposals for SUPERFRONT’s Request for Proposals for a buildable project sited on 25 square inches of Detroit, located at 13949 Evergreen Rd, Detroit, Michigan, purchased in partnership with LOVELAND micro real estate. In addition to LIGHT UP! by Ellen E. Donnelly and David Karle selected by the interdisciplinary jury as the winning entry, this viewing also includes honorable mention proposals by Pedro Santa-Rivera and Tim Kindrat (below), as well as more conceptual strategies by Jerome Haferd, Alvaro Urbano, Jill Desimini (all below) and others.

Curated by Chloë Bass + Mitch McEwen
Opening January 20, 5:00 – 8:30PM

January 20 – May 20, 2011
Pacific Design Center (PDC) Suite B208 | West Hollywood, CA | 90069

The possibility of encountering Detroit along a line of thought or inquiry, happening upon parallels, rather than making Detroit a singular object of study, defines much of this exhibit. Detroit: A Brooklyn Case Study seeks, possibly, to develop a point of view that acknowledges a curatorial siting in Brooklyn, to deny the attempt to occupy a universal position from which to view Detroit. Consistent with the case study methodology, the exhibit aims to correlate the facts and point them in the direction of a problem to be solved or a future to be projected. In the instance of this exhibit, correlated works are pointed in the direction of more facts, as well as some myths, less a solution than an aggregation of possibilities that result in a few beginnings and no end.

Big City Forum at SUPERFRONT LA Sat. March 26 1:00 – 3:00pm

Detroit: A Brooklyn Case Study is enabled by generous donations from Brian & Suzanne Selmo, Betty J. Webb, and the SUPERFRONT Board of Directors.

We would also like to thank our Kickstarter backers: Vanessa Agard-Jones, Joy Akien-Prohaska, Eleanor Anderson, Jason Andrew, Nicolas Barrette, Alan Bass, K. Berg, Monica Bernheim and Daniel Gelb, Matt Broach, Isabella Bruno, Anne Bynoe, Pat Bynoe, Lynn Cazabon, Mollie Eisenberg, Mack Elder, Kira-Laura Ferrand, Rafael Gallegos, Rachel Gibbs, John Hartmann, Megan Hays, Drayton Hiers, Lee Ping Kwan, Ferentz Lafargue, Amy Lucker, Lee Mandell, Erica Mapp, Walter McEwen, Robert McKee, Sarah Millsaps, Kunle Owolabi, Paula Owolabi, Olukola Owolabi, Andrew Radin, Kate Ryan, Susanne Schnell, Risa Shoup, Brendan Spiegel, Rachel Stevens, Austin Thomas, Gia Wolff, Paul Zonca, and The Freedwomans Bureau.

The catalog is available for direct order, print on demand in softcover for $32.95 and hardcover for $44.95.

Curated by Chloë Bass + Mitch McEwen
Opening January 20, 5:00 – 8:30PM

January 20 – May 20, 2011
Pacific Design Center (PDC) Suite B208 | West Hollywood, CA | 90069

“Superdivision Detroit” Freeland Buck, Digital Prints, 2010, courtesy of David Freeland & Brennan Buck

DETROIT: A BROOKLYN CASE STUDY, SUPERFRONT LA’s first exhibit of 2011, considers Detroit both as a specific city and as a set of circumstances. Detroit: A Brooklyn Case Study invites not so much a comparison of Detroit and Brooklyn but a calculated misreading. How and where might the logics or circumstances of Detroit operate in Brooklyn? At what scale of intervention or performance could Detroit and Brooklyn become indistinguishable?

This exhibit investigates Detroit as not only a given typology – the shrinking city, abandoned city, reclaimed city – but also as an everyday environment, as a specific place with specific moments. Through cartography, documentary video, architectural proposals, photography, painting and other media, DETROIT: A BROOKLYN CASE STUDY explores urban typology and local specificity between places both known and imagined.  From intimately personal representations of Detroit to abstract mappings or urban-scale analogies, the exhibit produces a case study (an empirical inquiry that investigates a phenomenon within its real-life context) of a Detroit that may or may not exist.

“Fallow City Project, Aviary Tower” Berenika Boberska, mixed media, image courtesy of Berenika Boberska

The exhibit includes works by: Chloë Bass, Dana Bell, Brent Birnbaum, Berenika Boberska, Brennan Buck, Lynn Cazabon, Sara Conde, Philip Dembinski, Jill Desimini, Sebastian Fischbeck, David Freeland, David Karle, Erin Kasimow, Amanda Matles, Blake Morris, Juan Alberto Negroni, Paper Tiger TV, Kaleena Quinn, Jon Stevens, Brett Van Aalsburg, Anusha Venkataraman, Margi Weir, Audra Wolowiec and others.

Within this exhibit across art, architecture, and urban documentary, SUPERFRONT LA also presents the 25 Inch RFP (Request for Proposals) – results from an international call to develop new construction at SUPERFRONT’s micro property in Detroit. This fall SUPERFRONT invited artists and architects to propose a buildable project for 25 square inches of Detroit, located at 13949 Evergreen Rd, Detroit, Michigan, purchased in partnership with LOVELAND micro real estate. The winning entry, LIGHT UP! by Ellen E. Donnelly and David Karle, was selected by an interdisciplinary jury to be constructed by July 2011. The jury included Paul Amitai (New York), Andrea Bauza Hernandez (San Juan), Christina Heximer (Detroit), Jerry Paffendorf (Detroit), and Craig L. Wilkins, PhD AIA, ARA, (Detroit).  The jury selected proposals by Pedro Santa-Rivera (San Juan | Boston) and Tim Kindrat (Van Couver) for honorable mention.

“LIGHT UP!” Ellen E. Donnelly and David Karle, Digital Rendering, 2010, 25inch RFP

DETROIT: A BROOKLYN CASE STUDY opens January 20, with a reception from 5:00 – 8:30 PM. The exhibit will remain on view through May 27, with a conference on March 24. This exhibit is enabled by generous donations from Brian & Suzanne Selmo, Betty J. Webb, and the SUPERFRONT Board of Directors.

We would also like to thank our Kickstarter backers: Vanessa Agard-Jones, Joy Akien-Prohaska, Eleanor Anderson, Jason Andrew, Nicolas Barrette, Alan Bass, K. Berg, Monica Bernheim and Daniel Gelb, Matt Broach, Isabella Bruno, Anne Bynoe, Pat Bynoe, Lynn Cazabon, Mollie Eisenberg, Mack Elder, Kira-Laura Ferrand, Rafael Gallegos, Rachel Gibbs, John Hartmann, Megan Hays, Drayton Hiers, Lee Ping Kwan, Ferentz Lafargue, Amy Lucker, Lee Mandell, Erica Mapp, Walter McEwen, Robert McKee, Sarah Millsaps, Kunle Owolabi, Paula Owolabi, Olukola Owolabi, Andrew Radin, Kate Ryan, Susanne Schnell, Risa Shoup, Brendan Spiegel, Rachel Stevens, Austin Thomas, Gia Wolff, Paul Zonca, and The Freedwomans Bureau.

About SUPERFRONT
SUPERFRONT is a not-for-profit space for architectural experimentation and creative interdisciplinary exchange. Open in Brooklyn since January 2008, SUPERFRONT opened an additional satellite gallery at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles in the summer of 2009. SUPERFRONT LA is generously sponsored by the Design Loves Art program of the Pacific Design Center.

November 18th 2010 – January 6th 2011

SUPERFRONT is proud to present the first United States solo exhibition of the work of architecture-trained artist and curator Anthony Gross.  A London-based artist, Gross’ work operates across realms of digital and physical production, ranging from animations to furniture objects.  Moving across disciplines and media, the work produces a cognitive dissonance with the materials, forms, and narratives of urban culture. In Gross’ reading of globalization, design, and popular culture, the uncanny supplants the cosmopolitan.

At SUPERFRONT LA, Anthony Gross presents his 30-minute film “Kane’s Revolutions,” the 2nd in the artist’s Colombo film series. This recent iteration of the project deploys the ready-made television character – the detective Columbo – into a crime narrative that features the built environment of London as both scenic film set and victim.  A turf war between politicians, planners, gangsters and replicants has erupted in a South London of the near future – who does the shaping of the metropolis belong to? The film constructs a visual narrative from the London skyline interlaced with found Chinese comics, web browsing, London gang imagery and shared filmic conventions, freely associating between each to create a fast-paced new episode of ‘Columbo.’ Gross describes his Columbo films as ‘an experimental collage of live action, 3D computer animation and personal film fantasy that takes the viewer on a twisted ride through our collective cultural history’.

Anthony Gross: Crime Scenes (Film. Sculpture. Design.) presents this recent film work within the context of Gross’ ongoing work in sculpture and furniture.  Sculptural Units, a collection of objects that the artist mass-manufactured in China, develops a language of repetition, control, and variation, which reveals a material logic of Gross’ ongoing play between form and system.

Anthony Gross studied Architecture at The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, gaining both a BSc and an MA in Architecture, before completing an MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College. He lives and works in London and has shown widely in group and solo exhibitions in London as well as other national and international venues. He directs The Old Police Station, an 60-studio artist space and gallery in South East London, and was co-founder and curator of artist-run space temporarycontemporary.

This exhibit is achieved in part with the generous support of the Pacific Design Center’s Design Loves Art program, as well as support from Sarah Millsaps Towles, suckerPUNCH, Farrah Karapetian, Javier Roman, Nili Gilbert, Ariane Laurie Harrison, Stephen J. Payne, DJ Industrial Average, Jack Schonewolf, Lillian McEwen, and Laurie Stone.

"Sculpture Unit," detail, courtesy Anthony Gross

"Sculpture Units," detail, courtesy Anthony Gross

Production stills from Columbo in KANE’s Revolutions, 2010, HDV, 30mins. © Anthony Gross

Cinematographer: Evan Leed

SUPERFRONT LA’s first exhibit of 2011 considers Detroit both as a specific city and as a set of circumstances. Detroit: A Brooklyn Case Study invites not so much a comparison of Detroit and Brooklyn but a calculated misreading. How and where might the logics or circumstances of Detroit operate in Brooklyn?  At what scale of intervention or performance could Detroit and Brooklyn become indistinguishable?

This exhibit aims to investigate Detroit as not only a given typology – the shrinking city, abandoned city, reclaimed city – but also as an everyday environment, as a specific place with specific moments. To reconfigure the relationship between typology and specificity, we welcome Detroit studies of Brooklyn and Brooklyn studies of Detroit. Through a range of works from multiple disciplines, the exhibit aims to produce a case study (an empirical inquiry that investigates a phenomenon within its real-life context) of a Detroit that may or may not exist.

Artists (visual and performance), architects, planners, urban designers and other practitioners are invited to submit investigations, research, and existing work in any medium.

Call for entries – please submit work for consideration in any format. By email: submit links, text description, or attached files no larger than 2 MB to detroit@superfront.org . By hard-copy, submit to SUPERFRONT BK, c/o Chloë Bass, 476 Jefferson Street #202, Brooklyn, NY 11237.  Please do not send original work. If you request that materials be returned, please include a self-addressed stamped envelope.   For consideration, all materials must be received by November 22nd.

Architects, artists, urban designers, and planners selected for exhibition will be notified November 30th.

Detroit: A Brooklyn Case Study will open at SUPERFRONT LA at the Pacific Design Center in January 2011 (exact date TBA), and will be on view for 4 months.

This exhibit will also include submitted proposals for 25 sq in of real property.  See that Request For Proposals (RFP) here: http://losangeles.superfront.org/25inchRFP.htm

opening September 15th 5pm – 8:30pm
———-
surprise performance September 23rd 5:30pm – 8:00pm
==========September 15 – November 12, 2010
Pacific Design Center (PDC) Suite B208 | West Hollywood, CA | 90069

In the last century a new Modernist culture of architecture and design selected Rio de Janeiro as laboratory: a mythical paradise where the testing of a metropolitan lifestyle and its attendant architecture could be pursued as a collective experiment.  This exhibit considers Rio today as not just a beautiful city, but a place where we discover novel values and aesthetic conditions: the estranged, the exceptional, the surprising or the terrifying.

The title of the show refers to the surrealist game “exquisite corpse”.  Each of the contemporary artists and architects has contributed an an independent yet sequential idea about the city of Rio de Janeiro.  The second opening reception on September 23rd will feature a surprise live performance.

Including works by:
Hisako Ichiki
Berenika Boberska
Martha Read
Silvia Rigon
Chino Soria
Analia Zalazar

Luciana Vidal was born in Rosario, Argentina where she obtained her diploma on Architecture, Planning and Design UNR followed by a Masters in Architectural Design at UCLA. Prior to establishing an independent practice Luciana joined Frank Gehry’s office in LA where she worked as a Designer till 2007. In 2008 she joined Jerde Partnership’s Landscape and Urban Planning team with projects in Asia and the Middle East.

” – Would anyone like to have a little look down into the secret of how ideals are fabricated on this earth?  Who has enough pluck? . . . Come on!  Here we have a clear glimpse into this dark workshop.” -Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality

OPEN HOUSE | STATE SECRETS is about the dark side of architecture – ‘architecture’ in both the abstract political use of the term and the literal experience of normative buildings. Conceiving of this exhibition as a laboratory, Farrah Karapetian, Mitch McEwen, and architectural collective Bureau E.A.S.T will accumulate work in SUPERFRONT’s space between July 6th and August 22nd. SUPERFRONT’s space at the Pacific Design Center becomes a studio for the exploration of the parameters of photography, sculpture, mapping, and architecture.

McEwen’s architecturally-informed installation interrogates the relationship between architecture and truth-production.  Elements of a C.I.A. interrogation facility are constructed at one-to-one scale.  Referencing secret sites of U.S. military detention, the work incorporates testimony of deposition statements from detainees held in the “War on Terror”.  The work reproduces the multi-sensory experience of the facility typology analyzed, including multimedia elements such as white noise and rap music, as based upon evidence gathered of actual C.I.A. detainment practices.

Displayed as a projection of a series of analytic mappings, Bureau E.A.S.T.’s Ceuta and Mellilia research project focuses on the peculiar situation of the only territories on mainland Africa that belong to the EU. The project seeks to analyze the impacts of such hard edge geo-political border formations on the urban landscape of Ceuta and Mellilia and on their Moroccan hinterlands. In doing so, the project reactivates the discourse on physical borders, which has been spurned in the past decades by postmodern liberal theorists (Castell and O’Brian) who proclaimed the advent of a “liquid, borderless” world. Instead, this research unveils the emergence of an elaborate paradigm of mobility control characterized by a significant trans-border economic inequality and the deployment of an urbanism of surveillance and exclusion.

Mitch McEwen is both a practicing designer and the Director and Founder of SUPERFRONT, a gallery and project space for architecture and interdisciplinary projects.  Since founding SUPERFRONT in January 2008, she has curated more than a dozen exhibits and published 4 architectural catalogs, working with artists, historians, and architects from New York, Los Angeles, Berlin, Madrid, and elsewhere.  Her exhibits at SUPERFRONT have investigated the relationship between architecture and performance, as well as phenomenology, community engagement, and urbanism.

Bureau E.A.S.T. is a collaborative design practice based in Los Angeles, Toronto, and Fez, Morocco.  Founded by Aziza Chaouni and Takako Tajima, Bureau E.A.S.T. is a collective of architects, landscape architects, urban designers, planners, and engineers.  This diversity is reflected in the range of projects currently within their office – from the landscape master plan to revitalize a forgotten river to the intimate residential garden; from the renovation of a non-profit animal hospital to the adaptive reuse of a 17th century palace.  Their work has been published and exhibited internationally, including the International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam; INDEX: Design to Improve Life in Copenhagen; and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN HABITAT) World Urban Forum.

Order your Unplanned catalog before prices go up after the exhibit closes.  After July 2nd, the paperback will be priced at $45 and the hardcover at $65.  From now until July 2, the paperback is available at$36.95 and the hardcover at $52.95

Also, order the 156 page catalog paperback or hardcover here

All photos courtesy of WENDY GILMARTIN.