Unmapped,
A-Side B-Side Gallery,
London, UK,
December 8th - December 13th 2016
Unmapped shows the work of two Italian artists and architects, Martina Ferrera and Carla Motola, curated and organised by Rossella Forle’ and Silvia Gentili.
Martina and Carla discuss the concept of architectural and how the space is perceived and experienced in its different possibilities in the urban landscape. The resulting dialogues and contemporary crossovers between art and architecture lead to new, informal forms of collaborations and ways to understand the urban context.
Martina Ferrera’s photographic project explores the vulnerability and the obsolescence of architectural spaces; the projects discuss the notion, both visually and conceptually, of architectural elements. The architectural structures, in her photos become the transitional forms that decontextualized from the place of origin get a new meaning in relation to form, function and size. The initial photographs represented these structures as transient bodies, in an uncertain state between being and not being, retaining their fundamental material characteristics while their function is compromised.
The work of Carla Motola, investigates instead the social value of architectural public spaces. Subversive Folly re-claims Canary Wharf through a temporary occupation disguised as a series of public realm follies. In some cases the narrative refers to the intrusive form of control within Canary Wharf’s boundaries; in others to contemporary struggles of insecure employment or housing. The video project draws on the local history of the London Dockers Strike of 1889, in which hundreds of thousands of Dockers protested for their work rights, marching in front of their workspaces.
Her project documents a protest, aimed to define new special geography and give new meanings to places often controlled by global laws and globalized economic interests that are eliminating worker rights and community spaces in favour of loss of identity and cultural vibrancy
