BRAD DOWNEY: I am you, you are me |
Spatial installation | Monfort Gallery Portorož | 23. 05. – 18. 08. 2024 –
Opening: Thursday, 23. 05. 2024 at 7 p.m.
Brad Downey: Non-Objective World, 2018, Metal sculpture based on the Tatlin Tower, excavator 360 × 285 × 170 cm
Photo credit: Hanneke Wetzer
At the Monfort Gallery Portorož, Brad Downey presents art objects and videos created in »collaboration« with other artists such as: Robert Smithson, Jože Plečnik, Dieter Roth, Vladimir Tatlin, Banksy and Antony Gormley. Downey (re)uses the art works of renowned authors with the aim of modernizing and expanding their artistic discourses, synchronizing them with the contemporary language of art and the social context that is ever-evolving.
Downey plays with aproportionist approaches in fine art by including in his own productions artists who, in his opinion, are key to the understanding and development of contemporaneity. A great example is the artist Robert Smithson, known for sculpture and Land art (the most famous work Spiral Jetty, 1970). By entering into space, thinking about the transience of the world, he changed the concept of perception of both art and architecture. Another artist Downey quotes is the Russian painter and architect Vladimir Tatlin, author of the unrealized Tatlin Tower (1919). It was to become a mobile monument dedicated to the Third International (1919), a symbol of the modern age, optimism and early revolution. Among others, we meet Dieter Roth, Roman Signer, Banksy, Antony Gormley, Aleš Župevc – Maxi and Slovenian architect Jože Plečnik, whose works Downey got to know during his long stay in Slovenia.
Brad Downey has exhibited widely in Europe, as well as in numerous international exhibitions, museums and biennials such as the Timisoara Architecture Biennale (2022) and the Tbilisi Architecture Biennale (2020). Among others, it is worth highlighting the collaboration at Kunstraum Kreuzberg Bethanien in Berlin (2019) and MU Hybrid Art House in Eindhoven (2018). In 2020, the world-renowned publishing house Hatje Cantz published a publication entitled Slapstick Formalism Process, Project, Object, in which there is an overview of Downeys 20 years of work.
The curator of the exhibition is Ana Papež (Piran Coastal Galleries). The production of the exhibition project was carried out by the Galleries in cooperation with external professional collaborator Rok Pahor.
The Coastal galleries of Piran would like to thank the Association for culture and education PiNA Koper, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and the Municipality of Piran for their help in the implementation.
