PLSTCT
Unauthorized Reproduction for Functional Purposes – a tribute to Charlotte Posenenske
09.26.2020 – 11.09.2020
PLSTCT
Unauthorized Reproduction for Functional Purposes – a tribute to Charlotte Posenenske
09.26.2020 – 11.09.2020
studioconcreto, with the support of the PLSTCT collective, is glad to present the published version of the lecture series Performance di Parola tra Gesto e Architettura (Word performance between gesture and architecture) that saw the participation of Claire Fontaine, Roberta Mansueto (takecare), Marta Olivieri, Pietro Gaglianò, Simona Cleopazzo, and the art collectives Casa a Mare and Post Disaster. The publication was made in cooperation with Pigment Workroom and collects texts and images that document our project that focused on the analysis of the proxemics of non-conventional spaces. Such spaces elude institutional project planning, hence our analysis aimed at reconsidering the inter-subjective space of the street as a matrix for political and social debate.
The event will also include the launch of the art book Prima Casa by the collective Casa a Mare, published by Libri Tasso, as well as the inauguration of the Prima Casa series of tiles which was specifically created for the INA-Casa housing site in Lecce, that also hosts studioconcreto. Another publication is dedicated to the experience of the eco-sensitive workshop Corpotesto curated by Roberta Mansueto and Marta Olivieri. Finally, a third publication about the exhibition “I – WE – YES” hosts a previously unpublished text by the art collective Claire Fontaine.
To display the publications and the tile series created for Performance di Parola tra Gesto e Architettura, the art duo PLSTCT has designed a site-specific device called Unauthorized Reproduction for Functional Purposes – a tribute to Charlotte Posenenske which was designed as the physical base on which the dialogue between the various artworks will be highlighted.
The device is conceptually linked to Creatures of Habit, Breathing, the video that the duo from Taranto created last June for exscenario (https://studioconcreto.net/exscenario). Creatures of Habit, Breathing explored the act of breathing as a vital need which architecture – as a technology for bodily and spatial control – cannot overlook. Reproduction for Functional Purposes – a tribute to Charlotte Posenenske is a fundamental reinterpretation of a series of sculptures by Charlotte Posenenske, a marginal and controversial figure of minimal art. In the 1960s, Posenenske designed steel structures that took inspiration from the ventilation systems of buildings. These modular structures, called D series, were conceived to be assembled in endless combinations, according to the surrounding architectural space. In our case, the air conducts selected by PLSTCT are incorporated within the spatial features of studioconcreto with the aim of creating a displacement within a domestic space.
The reinterpretation by PLSTCT is not formal nor material, but rather a functional one. The modules conceived by Posenenske are reproduced trying to replicate the originals as closely as possible, but since they are no longer used as sculptures but rather as a showcase, they redesign their own meaning. The only difference with the artworks by Posenenske is the stamp put on each module. This operation basically cancels the sameness between unauthorised copy and original pieces. In a way, PLSTCT operates a kind of downgrading, from sculpture/exhibited artwork to platform/base for artworks.
In 1968 Posenenske wrote a programmatic statement on Art International where she explained the reason why she left the art scene to start a sociological research. In the statement she declared:
“The things I do can be modified, they are as simple as possible, [can be] reproduced.” Moreover, Posenenske deliberately shared the dimensions and the technical instructions of the modules she had designed. “Anonymity was important for her. Moving away from Minimal art towards Conceptual art, she saw her own function as the one of a supplier of raw material, who didn’t have to be present in the moment of artistic creation. It gradually became less and less relevant that her creations be identified as art.” (Martin Pesch – Frieze.com)
Further emphasising her idea of democratisation of art, PLSTCT decided to reinterpret Posenenske’s works as an open-source design tool to be used in order to create a display system. Starting from Posenenske’s intention to “downgrade” the artwork to an industrial object, the device by PLSTCT aims at triggering a reflection on the boundaries that separate art and design, functional and non-functional.
Unauthorized Reproduction for Functional Purpose – a tribute to Charlotte Posenenske is part of “Performance di parola tra gesto e architettura” è tra i vincitori della seconda edizione del premio “Creative Living Lab”, promosso dalla Direzione Generale Creatività Contemporanea, organismo del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali and funded as part of the extraordinary 2020 program in the field of culture and entertainment of the Puglia Region.