November 20 - December 19, 2003
Opening Reception: Friday, November 21st, 6-8:30pm
Exhibition opens to the public Thursday, November 20th, 11am

<< Superstudio, A Catalogue of Villas: Cubic Villa, 1967-68, photomontage

MAIN SPACE: Superstudio: Life Without Objects
Superstudio: Life Without Objects is a retrospective exhibition organized in collaboration with Pratt Manhattan Gallery and Storefront for Art and Architecture. The exhibition examines the work of the Italian avant-garde design group Superstudio, which was founded in Florence in 1966 by Adolfo Natalini, Cristiano Toraldo di Francia, Roberto Magris, Piero Frassinelli and Alessandro Magris. Through their designs, Superstudio produced provocative and subversive visions of the future, which were critical to the transformation of architecture and design from the late 1960s through the 1970s. Their output included films, collages, installations, and drawings, as well as buildings and furniture. Superstudio‚s work was characterized by skepticism toward the modernist ideal that enlightened architecture could change the world for the better. Instead Superstudio playfully envisaged a future in which people would live in neutral spaces devoid of the unnecessary objects that capitalism was foisting upon them. • Co-curated by William Menking and Peter Lang.

Superstudio exhibition continues at:
Pratt Manhattan Gallery
144 West 14th St., Second floor
Opening: Thursday, November 20, 6:30 - 8:30 pm

Storefront for Art and Architecture
97 Kenmare Street
Opening: Friday, November 21, 6:00 - 8:30 pm

Exhibition initiated by Design Museum, London and sponsored by Pratt Institute, School of Architecture. Superstudio: Life Without Objects is part of Artists Space's Architecture and Design Project series.

^Superstudio, Reflected Architecture: San Francisco, a Cube of Forest on the Golden Gate, 1972, photomontage	^Superstudio, Park Dedicated to the Resistance, 1970, photocollage	^Superstudio, Istogrammi (detail), 1969 - 2000

PROJECT SPACE:
Albrecht Schäfer: Malevich Museum Biberach

< Albrecht Schäfer, Malevich Museum Biberach, 2001, photographic wallpaper

Albrecht Schäfer's Malevich Museum Biberach originates from a fictionalization of historic events that led to one of the largest collections of works by Russian artist Kasimir Malevich in Western Europe. Using Malevich's architectural sculptures as a formal inspiration, Malevich Museum Biberach proposes a fictional building to house the works that were first shown in 1927 in Berlin and are now in the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Consisting of large-scale pencil drawings, photographic wallpaper, and a Styrofoam sculpture, the project not only exposes a tragic footnote in the history of modernism, but also touches on issues of art as a cultural commodity and museum architecture as a contested site of power and spectacle. This is Albrecht Schäfer's first solo exhibition in the U.S. • Curated by Christian Rattemeyer.

PROJECT SPACE: Katsuhiro Saiki

< Katsuhiro Saiki, Place #2, 2002, C-Print on pedestal

Katsuhiro Saiki uses photography to engage questions raised by the sculptural practices of minimalism. Saiki‚s representations of landscapes and skies are visually structured by principles of seriality and sequence and address questions of place and placelessness. He often combines his photographs with sculptural presentation, stressing his concern for the physical relation of the viewer to both the representational space of the image and the sculptural space of the object. This is Katsuhiro Saiki's first solo exhibition in the U.S. • Curated by Christian Rattemeyer.