Nora Gantert, Mathias Wölfing
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iRRi ART at First Floor, Nanjing, August 10th, 2013.
The event One Year of Dots was in the first place summary of one year in China. One year of meeting people, getting in touch with the local art scene, producing shows in form and content; one year of various practical and theoretical discussions about art, art production and presentation; one year of interesting, exhausting and great moments. It was an evening to meet everybody again, talk about past and future and say good-by for the next six months till we get back to China.
Exhibition Design
There was no doubt this event had to take place in the art space we co-founded in February 2012, where we spend such a great time and so much energy to give Nanjing an open and independent art space and realize our ideas with our Chinese partners.
The room concept was very easy, as our main interest were the two exhibited works as such. The visitor can already from the outside see the large scale photo print of the “…” installation in the front room. The biggest of the 13 photo prints is arranged opposite to the entrance gate, to catch interest and pull the visitor in. On the walls to the left and right the visitor can discover detail pictures as he enters the exhibition.
Behind the wall in the middle of the exhibition space is the “…”, the second piece of the exhibition located. Now really within the room, within the topic of the exhibition the visitor stands literally in one year, the calender like wall installation spans all around him. Every day has a date and a plinth with a very personal left over.
Shape
By connecting the abundant liver spots into shapes, we created a map of his body as a time specific appraisal. The unique shape of the forms and patters created by connecting the liver spots can remind us of star signs, of road maps, of ant streets….. endless and divers the possibilities to connect the dots, ever changing the patterns depending on the person drawing and the imminent position of the spots on the body.
While traveling roads on the surface of the earth, traveling by plane, car, ship, bus, scooter, bicycle, the map on our body always travels with us also changing in time, but being visible only to the initiated. Some say that liver spots can tell us our future, that liver spots are our character traits inscribed into our body.
One Day
This is the reconstruction of one year in form of a belly button lint* diary to contemplate and to recapitulate the last 365 days.
Every evening Mathias finds a lint in his belly button. On some days, where he stayed in bed the whole day without getting dressed, or in summer when it is too hot to wear T-Shirts, or Mathias had to shower in the evening, there is no belly button lint at the end of the day. This diary collection is the physical record of one year passing by.
At the exhibition opening every visitor was invited to choose a day he remembers. With the pens provided in the middle of the room she/he could then note his event on the wall.
*A belly button lint is the rest of textile being rubbed off the clothing by movement during the day. The textile gets transported by the hair on the chest and belly to the belly button, where it accumulates into a lint.