Exhibition Catalog / 2002

Bridges - Interspace – Sky

Pruess & Ochs Gallery, Berlin, Germany

Jaana Pruess

Within the XXIst World Congress of Architecture UIA 2002 in Berlin, the project, space, time and architecture¡° takes place in 25 galleries. The sequence of exhibitions, strongly connected to architecture, is initiated by the involved galleries and the BDA - Bund Deutscher Architekten.

Finding ideas in the collaboration with Ik-Joong Kang, the Buro 213 related to the collides of different worlds in the works of the artist and to the bipolar ways of working which the artist uses. Starting from an existing, not renovated and therefore not developed construction - a building of period of promoterism in Sophienstrasse 18 - the intention of the Buro 213 is to give the thoughts and ideas of the artist an adequate platform.

The challenge of trying hybrid and non-disciplinary working operations in the areas of development and concept, lead in April of 1997 to the foundation of Buro 213. Since then, the architectures Schell and Ziegler are working together with fine artists as with theorists, software experts and graphic designers. The interest is focusing on locations offside, new relations, coherence and interspaces which needing more attention.

In this context, the two unused towers of the stairways in the second yard of Sophienstrasse 18 (Berlin Mitte, where both Pruss & Ochs Gallery and Buro 213 has their location) were discovered as the starting point for the exhibition. The stairways, pointing each other vice versa, offer an ideal structure for the bipolar ways of working, characteristically for Ik-Joong Kang. They can be connected in different ways. The inside of the staircases will be re-activated: the wall of the staircase will be used as an exhibition area, the opposite banisters will form a continuous wall covered by a special material reflecting the opposite exhibition space.

In the outward area, all floors of the both opposite staircases are being connected through a scaffold. The visitors can move from one side to the other and pause there. The structure is playing with the idea of traditional Asian architecture connecting in- and outdoor areas. Not only the buildings of the neighborhood, also the sky is becoming part of the project.

Ik-Joong Kang is replying to this platform with different works; new works, which he has developed in the new areas created by the architectures and existing works like 100, 000 dreams, which have been showed in the demilitarized zone between North- and South Korea.

Integrated in the 'Bridge-Situation', a workroom for children will exist in a small shed in the garden of the gallery. The project 'Amazed World' is to be initiated from here; the arising drawings will be collected for a later installation.

Bridges - Interspace - Sky

The unexploited towers of the staircases in the second court yard of the gallery were rediscorved as a starting point for the row of exhibitions. The staircases offer an ideal structual option for the bipolar working ways of Ik-Joong Kang, who lets different worlds in his work - East - West, North and South Korea - collide. The staircases are facing display surface. The view onto the roof is also lined with a mirrored layer. The Two opposing staircases are connected onto the outside with scaffolding. Visitors can move from one side to the other on the scaffolding and linger on it. The structure plays with the idea of traditional Asian architecture, connecting inner and outer spaces.