Gropius’ Impington | ROCKFLUID
Education between Modernist Walls
An intervention by Cristina Bogdan, as part of Elena Cologni’s residency at Impington College
21.10 – 1.11.2015
Impington, UK
The research is conducted as part of Elena Cologni’s residency at Impington College to contribute to the 75th anniversary of the only British building by Gropius, adopting an ‘art as interface in society through dialogue’ approach. Gropius modernist building’s use by the rural community (eg. agricultural workers migrating to the area in the 1930’s) will inform workshops, performances, sculptures, a roundtable, a screening, events and publication.
This activities are conducted by Elena Cologni and produced by Rockfluid. This is an umbrella project addressing the relation memory-place, outcome of a residency at Faculty of Experimental Psychology, Cambridge (ACE Grant, Escalator Live art and Visual Art, 2011-13) . A substantial body of work was developed including: Spa(e)cious (Wysing Arts Centre, MK Gallery, UK; Performace studies international, Stanford USA; Bergamo Scienza, Italy, 2013; Institute for Artistic Research, Berlin, Germany 2012), L’elastico, Anglia Ruskin (curator Bronac Ferran) ‘Navigation Diagrams’, MK Gallery; ‘Balancing’, Doppelgaenger Gallery, Bari, Italy; Athens Biennale (2013-14) curatored by Vessel.
Overall Rockfluid is a project for artistic research in dialogue with other disciplines, involving general public, other artists and academics. This residency allows Cologni to frame her work within the dialogic approach, and underline the crucial role of art in society.
In response to the architectural complex of the Impington Community College, which triggers both notions of experimental education and community practices, Cristina Bogdan develops an alternative reading of its physical and imaginary space. Using the simple technique of QR codes, she disseminates images throughout the building, which she invites visitors to discover by taking her guided tour. The images thus interfere with the architecture only by the visitors’ choice. Chosen from historical archives, artists’ photography and film, or feature films, these images suggest connections between the typically modernist space of the College and developments in education throughout the 20th C.
The interventions are:
From utopia to dystopia, from politics of the body to working notions of the community, from physical space to collective imaginaries, the installation opens up a historical place to contemporary readings.