Exhibition
READYMADES BELONG TO EVERYONE

Organizer: gta Exhibitions and Swiss Institute, New York
Date: Saturday, 23 June 2018 to Sunday, 19 August 2018
Location: Swiss Institute, 38 St Marks Pl, New York
 


Merlin Carpenter, Curator on the Phone, 2012. Curator, phone. Edition of 1 plus a.p. Courtesy Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York.


Curtain: Inside Outside / Petra Blaise, Don’t pinch!, 2018, exterior view. Curtain with readymade material. Courtesy of the Inside Outside / Petra Blaisse with Peter Niessen and Aura Luz Melis. Posts: architecten de vylder vince tallieu, YELLOW, 2018. Yellow construction posts. Courtesy of the artists.


Claire Fontaine, Anonymous, 2016. Mannequin, padding, eyelashes, mask, wig, scarf, combat trouser, trainers, socks, t-shirt, bicycle chain, hoodie, leather gloves, lighter, smoke bombs, handkerchief, mallow, toilet paper, pot with chain and plinth. Courtesy of the artist and T293, Rome.


On monitor: Lucy McKenzie, De Ooievaar Digital Render, 2017. Digital film, no sound. 7 min 56 sec. Courtesy of the artist and Cabinet, London.


READYMADES BELONG TO EVERYONE, installation view.


Left: Aldo Rossi, Prototype for Cabina, 1981. Painted wood. Courtesy of Drawing Matter Collections. Right: Reena Spaulings, Gate, 2018. Oil paint on walk-through security gate. Courtesy of the artist.


Left: OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen, Aluminum Bistro Chairs, 2018. 12 aluminum slat back chairs. Courtesy of the artists. Right: Heimo Zobernig, Untitled, 2004. Gold gravestone paint, plywood, steel. Courtesy of Petzel Gallery, New York. On Wall: Sauter von Moos with Herzog & de Meuron, Villa Hammer, Mock-Up Window Ornament, Scale 1:1, 2017 Common spruce, 3-D milled. Courtesy of the artists.


On wall: Sylvie Fleury with Lady Pink, MORE FEMINISM LESS BULLSHIT, 2018. Graffiti on wall. Courtesy of the artists. Foreground: Sylvie Fleury, Yes to All, 2004. Steel with 24 Karat gold plate. Courtesy of Beth Rudin Dewoody.


Trix and Robert Haussmann, Maso Chair, 1967 / 2018. Metal frame by Ray and Charles Eames with ikebana flower studs. Courtesy of the artists.


READYMADES BELONG TO EVERYONE, installation view.


Richard Sides & Gili Tal, Deep down the masters have always been anarchists, 2018, detail T-shirts, image transfer, cardboard boxes, polythene bags. Courtesy of the artists.


Claire Fontaine, Pinocchio, 2016, detail. Mannequin, padding, mask, false eyeballs, eyelashes, wig, hat, bowtie, suit jacket, trousers, shirt, handkerchief, leggings, brogues, socks, gloves, metal base, armature, pot with chain, patterned stick plastic and fake grass. Courtesy of the artist and T293, Rome.


Background: Klara Lidén, Untitled (loveseat), 2018. Wood, paper. Courtesy of the artist and Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York. Foreground: Wade Guyton, Untitled, 2003. Tubular steel frame with polished goldstone finish and plastic guides. Courtesy of Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins.


See Serpas, brooklyn baby, 2018. Bathtub. Courtesy of the artist.


READYMADES BELONG TO EVERYONE, installation view.


Mathieu Malouf, Marxist Leninist Gentleman, 2018. Silver-plated fiberglass. Courtesy of the artist and House of Gaga.


Flannery Silva, Poser Tube Doll Limited Edition, 2018. Offset print on corrugated cardboard. Courtesy of the artist.


Kaspar Müller, (Untitled (V1), 2018. 3D print PLA Fillamentum, RAL 3027 Courtesy of the artist. On wall: Caruso St John Architects, Studio House, North London, 1994. Inkjet print. Courtesy Caruso St John Architects.


Jennifer Bolande, Conjunction Assemblage, 1988. Refrigerator door, speaker facing, speaker cloth, framed color photograph. Courtesy of the artist.


Maria Eichborn, Three Paper Bags, 2009 / 2018. Collecting empty packaging of products which have already been consumed; Data Quest Apple Premium Reseller paper bags, product packaging collected during a specific period of time. Courtesy of the artist.


READYMADES BELONG TO EVERYONE, installation view.


Smiljan Radic, My first tower, 2015. Plastic, metal. Courtesy of the artist.


Smiljan Radic, Gryphon, 2015. Ampoules, wooden violin. Courtesy of the artist.


READYMADES BELONG TO EVERYONE, installation view.


Oliver Payne and Nick Relph, Technical Taxi, 2007. Metal bicycle wheel and plastic stool, pedestal. Courtesy of Shane Akeroyd Collection, London.


READYMADES BELONG TO EVERYONE, installation view.


Left: Daniella Betta, Readymades Belong to Everyone, 1992. 4 chairs, jacket, label. Courtesy of Massimo Minini, Brescia. Right: Alain Clairet, Untitled, 1987. Screenprint on paper and title card with text: “Alain Clairet 1987.” Courtesy of Greene Naftali, New York.


Jan Vorisek, Paranoid Parade, 2018. Motor siren, pulse timer, ceiling fan speed control. Courtesy of the artist.


READYMADES BELONG TO EVERYONE, installation view.


Left: Rem Koolhaas, Field Trip, 1971 Digital Slideshow. Courtesy of the artist. Center: Koo Jeong A, Untitled, 2018. Red sofa, bubble roll. Courtesy of the artist. Right: Martin Wong, Traffic Signs for the Hearing Impaired (Xing), 1990. Aluminum. Courtesy of the Estate of Martin Wong and P.P.O.W.


Foreground: Cecilia Puga, Casa Bahia Azul 1, 2016. Stoneware. Courtesy of the artist. Cecilia Puga, Cancha 1, 2016. Stoneware. Courtesy of the artist. Background: Adriana Lara, Sheraton, 2009. Nylon flag. Courtesy of the artist.


Wall: Klara Lidén, Untitled (sounds like a whisper), 2018. Wood, paper. Courtesy of the artist and Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York Left light: Klara Lidén, Untitled (instant), 2018. Mixed media. Courtesy of the artist and Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York. Right Light: Klara Lidén, Untitled (instant decaf), 2018. Mixed media. Courtesy of the artist and Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York.


On shelf: LaKela Brown, Multi-colored Teeth, 2018. Plaster, glitter and acrylic. Courtesy of the artist and Lars Friedrich.


Sergison Bates Architects, Prototype for suburban houses, 1998. Plywood and veneer, print on paper. Courtesy of the artists.


Foreground: Ken Lum, Untitled (The Red and the Black), 2018. Mixed media. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Marc Jancou. Background: Emanuel Rossetti, Ubu, 2017. Stainless steel, rivets. Courtesy of the artist and Jan Kaps, Cologne.


MOS Architects, Yes and No, 2018. Lenticular Print; Powder-coated Aluminum Stool; Mirrored Aluminum Ladder. Courtesy of the artists.
Photos by Daniel Pérez


Swiss Institute Architecture and Design Series: 3rd Edition
READYMADES BELONG TO EVERYONE

Curated by Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen
June 23–August 19, 2018

Including works by Architecten De Vylder Vinck Taillieu, Lutz Bacher, Alan Belcher, Daniella Betta, Petra Blaisse / Inside Outside, Jennifer Bolande, Arno Brandlhuber, LaKela Brown, Merlin Carpenter, Caruso St. John, Christo, Alain Clairet, Claire Fontaine, Maria Eichhorn, Sylvie Fleury with Lady Pink, Wade Guyton, Trix and Robert Haussmann, Koo Jeong A, Pierre Joseph, Christian Kerez, Rem Koolhaas, Lacaton & Vassal, Adriana Lara, Klara Lidén, Ken Lum, Mathieu Malouf, Chloe Maratta, Lucy McKenzie, Sveta Mordovskaya, MOS Architects, Kaspar Müller, OFFICE Kersten Geers David Van Severen, Oliver Payne and Nick Relph, Cedric Price, Cecilia Puga, Smiljan Radic, Emanuel Rossetti, Aldo Rossi, Sauter von Moos in collaboration with Herzog & de Meuron, Sergison Bates Architects, Ser Serpas, Richard Sides & Gili Tal, Lena Tutunjian, Flannery Silva, Reena Spaulings, Jan Vorisek, Martin Wong, Lena Youkhana and Heimo Zobernig.

With public programs by Adjustments Agency, Yuji Agematsu, Germane Barnes, Beatriz Colomina, David J. Getsy, Gordon Hall, Helen Molesworth, David K. Ross, Martino Stierli, Aurora Tang of The Center for Land Use Interpretation, Chandraguptha Thenuwara, Jan Vorisek and more.

gta Exhibitions and Swiss Institute are delighted to announce the exhibition READYMADES BELONG TO EVERYONE. This marks the third edition of Swiss Institute’s Architecture and Design Series as well as the inaugural exhibition at its new home in the heart of the East Village, located at 38 St Marks Pl. Curated by Niels Olsen and Fredi Fischli, READYMADES BELONG TO EVERYONE features more than 50 artists, architects and collectives from 16 countries with 17 new commissions. The exhibition extends contemporary understandings of the readymade, as it has filtered through histories of art, design and architecture to become mutated, redoubled, and accelerated in urban environments of commerce and control.

It has been more than a century since Marcel Duchamp reorganized aesthetic categories with his seminal Fountain (1917), creating new attention to context and found or manufactured materials. By the 1980s, such artistic conversations had evolved into strategies of appropriation even more explicitly associated with critique, especially in regard to mass-produced objects and commercial imagery. During that decade, the immediate neighborhood of Swiss Institute’s new location in the East Village became an epicenter of experimentation with readymade forms: David Hammons sold snowballs to passersby in his Bliz-aard Ball Sale on Cooper Square in 1983; and works by artists such as Jeff Koons, Haim Steinbach, and Jennifer Bolande, featuring everyday items, were shown at galleries such as International with Monument, started by artists Kent Klamen, Elizabeth Koury, and Meyer Vaisman, and Nature Morte, run by artists Peter Nagy and Alan Belcher.

The project from which this exhibition takes its name, readymades belong to everyone®, founded by artist Philippe Thomas, also debuted nearby in 1987, when Cable Gallery was transformed into a public relations agency that adopted the modes of advertising production for art. This exhibition includes works ‘produced’ by the agency, in which collectors were transferred authorship of the work that they purchased.

Just as Duchamp was responding to the rise of industrial production with his readymades, so too were architects reflecting on the reality of the machine age in their work. For Le Corbusier, the objet trouvé of the steamboat became the ultimate ideal for architecture, a fetishization of the innovation made by engineers in this time. Later, Alison and Peter Smithson formulated their own concept of the “as found” in architecture, Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi published Learning from Las Vegas (1972), and Charles Jencks and Nathan Silver established a manifesto for improvisation with Adhocism (1972).

READYMADES BELONG TO EVERYONE creates a cityscape of readymade objects, staging an urban environment that emphasizes issues of security, real estate and surreality, echoing everyday life in many of today’s major metropolitan areas. Architectural contributions that employ readymade forms and styles as political or playful gestures include Rem Koolhaas’s Field Trip (1971), which takes the Berlin Wall as a found object of study, and Aldo Rossi’s Prototype for a Cabina (1981), which uses a vernacular beach hut as a model. To reflect the contemporary role of the readymade in architecture, the exhibition draws upon recent practices such as Lacaton Vassal’s appropriation of an existing industrial building for the FRAC museum in Dunkerque and Smiljan Radic’s Duchampesque use of found objects in models. Notional readymades employed by artists in the exhibition include street performers, garbled t-shirts aimed at tourists and teenagers, and the branding of international hotel chains. Jennifer Bolande’s Conjunction Assemblage (1988) constructs hi-rise architecture from appliances associated with domestic labor, while videos by Lucy McKenzie and Lena Youkhana present subversive variations on the property tour.

As the first exhibition in Swiss Institute’s new building, READYMADES BELONG TO EVERYONE includes objects that belong to both interior and exterior spaces, creating a transitive zone in which viewers quickly pass through markers of institutions, corporations and homes. Shifts in scale and time period are also employed throughout. In this disorientation, the exhibition creates a model of the contemporary city, a readymade in itself.

READYMADES BELONG TO EVERYONE is made possible through the support of Department of Architecture, ETH Zürich, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in Fine Arts, the Consulate General of Sweden in New York, and the SI Architecture and Design Council: Annabelle Selldorf, Chair, Andreas Angelidakis, Marc Benda, Felix Burrichter, and Alexandra Cunningham Cameron (list as of June 1 2018) for special support. Swiss Institute, Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen also thank Bob Nickas, MAMCO Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Genève, Claire Burrus, and Project Native Informant for their insights and advice. Swiss Institute extends its deepest gratitude to the lenders to the exhibition: the artists; Cabinet, London; CHOLE Atelier; Drawing Matter Collections; the Estate of Martin Wong; Galerie Lange & Pult, Zürich; Greene Naftali, New York; Hélène Binet; Jan Kaps, Cologne; Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins; Massimo Minini, Brescia; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; Petzel Gallery, New York; P.P.O.W., New York; Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York; Shane Akeroyd Collection, London; T293, Rome; Hit and Run Productions, New York.