Brise-Soleil - issue 1 - EXPIRING

issue 1spring / summer 2013

E X P I R I N G

brise-soleil.tumblr.com/magazine

Cities featured in this issue

PARIS 48.8742° N, 2.3470° E

BERLIN 52.5233° N, 13.4127° E

LONDON 51.5171° N, 0.1062° W

BRISTOL 51.4600° N, 2.6000° W

GUIYANG 26.5831° N, 106.7167° E

BARCELONA 41.3857° N, 2.1699° E

BOLOGNA 44.5000° N, 11.3500° E

CARDIFF 51.4780° N, 3.1771° W

“She was speaking with the voice of a non-architect about how a new medium [. . . ] and a new sensibil ity -postfeminist certainly, but more acutely one of intense affect- could simply and with devastating generosity sl ip itself on and over the old medium of architecture and its even older sensibil it ies of authority and autonomous intellection, thereby enveloping the increasingly archaic figure of the architect in an entirely new cultural project.” (S. Lavin, Kissing Architecture, 2011)

Architecture is a delicate issue. Swinging between imagination and restraint, its balance is precarious, its grace slowed by ways of reason and rules, airy wishes and a pretence of permanence. To our untrained eyes, its intimate struggle is a poetic plea. To this day, our appreciation of architecture remains touristy, and fi l led with wonder.

From this unguarded point of view, we have wished to photograph. With what Sylvia Lavin calls “the voice of a non-architect” when she describes Pipilotti Rist ’s projection Pour Your Body Out (7354 Cubic Meters) on the walls of the MoMA, in order to record and offer aspects of architecture often overlooked, that mostly move us. Themes of fragil ity and softness, of ordinary beauty and transience and cherished memory of a personal rather than collective k ind.

With Brise Soleil we hope to suggest, both through our subjects and mediums of choice, a different perspective to the masculine sensitivity that sti l l seems to prevail in architecture photography. To a logic of glossy huge scales and vaunted immortality, we aim to respond with a more soothing and pliant, emotional and artless one, that we feel would resonate more gently with our modern awareness of the tender, f leeting nature of man and the manmade.

In our first issue Expiring we’ve discovered the bittersweet pleasures of analogue photography, the disposable value of snapshots, the tactile quality of Polaroid. We’ve visited aging buildings draped in memories, and temporary sites where future dreams grow. We’ve hoped this way to share a bit of the finite, hence so precious, nature of all human creation.

SILVIA BOMBARDINI

E x p i r i n g

editorial

drawingsKristian Fletcher

p.2-3p.130

1st floor poetryMY LOVE IS BUILDING A BUILDING by E.E. Cummings

2nd floor city talesBERLIN BABYLON

3rd floor city talesALL PALACES ARE TEMPORARY PALACES: BERLIN

4th floor sightsSILHOUETTES AND SHADOWS

5th floor sightsWENDY HOUSE

6th floor sightsSATURATED VIEWS

7th floor sightsCELEBRATIONS

8th floor interviewTHE QUALTY OF PRESENCE: CHELSEA HOTEL an interview with Dmitry Komis

9th floor collectionPALE SOUVENIRS

10th floor poetryMORNING IN THE BURNED HOUSE by M. Atwood

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BRIS

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M Y L O V E I S B U I L D I N G A B U I L D I N G

poem by E . E . C u M M I N G Sphotography by A B I G A I L Y u E WA N G & S I LV I A B O M B A R D I N I & u N K N O W N

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1st floor poetry

0908

1st floor poetry

08 My love is building a building around you,a frail slippery

1st floor poetry

house, a strong fragile house.

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a skilful uncouth prison,

(beginning at the singular beginning of your smile)

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1st floor poetry1st floor poetry

a precise clumsy prison

(building thatandthis into

thus,

around the reckless

magic of your mouth)

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poetry1st floor poetry

my love is building a magic,

a discrete tower of magic

and

(as i guess)

1st floor

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1st floor poetry1st floor poetry

when Farmer Death (whom fairies hate)

shall crumble the mouth-flower fleet,

he’ll not my tower,

1918

1st floor poetry

laborious, casual

poetry1st floor

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1st floor poetry

where the surrounded smile hangs

breathless.

1st floor poetry

2nd floor city tales2nd floor city tales

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2nd floor city talescity tales2nd floor

B E R L I N B A B Y L O N

image BY H u B E R T u S S I E G E R T

tex t by S ILVIA BOMBARDINI

Bris

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J ust l ike sandcastles on a tender ground, there seems to be

a muted promise of impermanence in Ber l in’s architecture,

caressed as it is by its t idal f low of reason and hope, and

delicately laid on hypersensit ive soil . As the Wall comes down in 1989,

in the centre of the capital unfolds a newly emptied space: a tempting

sl iver of naked land f lanked on the one side by the austere buildings

of Soviet modernism and on the other by democratic glass facades.

Hubertus Sieger t ’s documentar y fol lows through the 90s the actors

of the new architecture as it r ises there, in their wish to unify the city,

their wish to remember and their wish to move on, the natural pr ide

that defines their discipl ine and a self-conscious, German wariness of

any seed of hubris. And while renowned architects the l ikes of Rem

Koolhaas, Helmut Jahn or Renzo Piano discuss their views on site, it ’s

st i l l the patient, t ireless murmur of a healing city in the background

that we’re real ly l istening to. Upon its ruins, once more Ber l in grows.

Stock footage of post-WWII demolit ions proves that it ’s far from its

f irst t ime. I ts pace is attentive, organic, ever so careful : nowhere is as

much attention paid as in the German capital to the hidden metaphors

of concrete. But Ber l in l icks its wounds, and Sieger t por trays a city

where memories are given space, but so are dreams. From Potsdamer

Platz to Lehr ter Stadtbahnhof, to the Jewish Museum and the

Academy of Ar ts, the camera gl ides al l over the city in lul l ing aer ial

sweeps, as an incredible soundtrack composed and per formed by

Einstürzende Neubauten (Collapsing New Buildings) guides us through

the unexpected, methodical elegance of its many construction sites.

To one of these, captured in t ime-lapse photography, a female voice

whispers, softly, Walter Benjamin’s 1940 vision of The Angel of Histor y.

“ The phenomenon that we cal l progress” she says, as the camera looks

up to the veiled sky “is this mighty storm”.

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BERLIN BABYLON (2001)

d o c u m e n t a r y

director HUBERTUS SIEGERTmusic EINSTüRzENdE NEUBAUTEN

RestoRe the building. What it houses is something else.

--- Karsten Klingbeil , former building contractor

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2nd floor city tales

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2nd floor city tales

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3rd floor city tales

A L L PA L A C E S A R E T E M P O R A R Y PA L A C E S : B E R L I N

photography by A B I G A I L Y u E WA N G & S I LV I A B O M B A R D I N I

Bris

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C ities are, and that is well-known, rather layered beings.

Usually unhurr ied and a bit r igid at t imes, but their

growth is precise, and unrelenting nonetheless, of a

cer tain reassuring botanical k ind. R ing after r ing, they dilate above

their suburbs with promises of infinity, guarding a tender, antique

hear t at their core. This isn’t true of course, for Ber l in. Ber l in was

split open and laid bare, its layers fractured along with the Wall,

scattered across the ground in a constel lation of ruins. Ber l in

grows urgently, intuit ively, passionately. I ts hear t beats impossibly

close to the sur face, its facades are clear, pellucid. Ber l in reveals

and rel ishes in its ephemeral nature, just l ike love does: it ’s a

city built of feel ing and instants, and we’ve wished to por tray it

accordingly.

All Palaces Are Temporar y Palaces , instal lation by Rober t Montgomer y at

C/O Berl in 19.01.2013 - 08.03.2013.

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i.concrete


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3rd floor city tales3rd floor city tales

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ii. glass


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city tales3rd floor

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iii. instant

3rd floor

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city tales city tales3rd floor

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4th floor sightsBR

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IL4th floor photos

photography by S I LV I A B O M B A R D I N I

S I L H O U E T T E S A N D S H A D O W S

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4th floor sights

4th floor sights4th floor sights

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sights5th floor

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W E N D Y H O U S E

photography by S ILVIA BOMBARDINI

sightssights 5th floor5th floor

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S A T U R A T E DV I E W S

photography by A B I G A I L Y u E WA N G & S I LV I A B O M B A R D I N I

6th floor sights

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sights6th floor

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C E L E B R A T I O N S

photography by A B I G A I L Y u E WA N G & S I LV I A B O M B A R D I N I & u N K N O W N

sights7th floor


i. new Year’s eve. guiyang.

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7th floor sights 7th floor sights

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7th floor sights

ii. christmas. london.

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sights

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7th floor

iii. came Upon

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sights7th floor

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sights7th floor

iV. time of rituals

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interview 8th floor8th floor interviewBr

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T H E Q U A L I T Y O F P R E S E N C E : C H E L S E A H O T E LA n I n t e r v i e w w i t h D m i t r y K o m i s

inter v iew by S I LV I A B O M B A R D I N I

images by M I G u E L V I L L A LO B O S

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From Apri l 27 to Apri l 29 2012, The Quality of Presence was tak ing place -quite

l iteral ly, quite rebell iously so- at the Chelsea Hotel, New York , Suite 302. dmitr y

Komis, its br i l l iant curator and a former resident of the Chelsea, told me about

space and l iterature, closets and bathtubs, the way memories can glue l ike

wallpaper to cer tain rooms and what to project on the ruins.

“In its countless alveoli space contains compressed time. That is what space is for.” wrote Gaston Bachelard in his The Poetics of Space, in 1958. And if there’s anywhere time and poetry would come to rest or shelter, hiding out in dusty corners or lingering in shadows, it couldn’t be but the Chelsea Hotel. In which ways do you believe its history and presence, its domesticity and mysteries affected the ar tists you invited to your suite? I ’m glad you mention Poetics of Space, as it is a huge influence on this show

and my prior work , par ticular ly in look ing at so-cal led marginalized spaces and

explor ing the ways in which l ived-in spaces affect the viewer experience.

The ar tists al l responded to the space in their own ways. Alan Ruiz and desi

Santiago are both par ticular ly interested in subliminal and somewhat i l legible

spaces, each transforming storage/closet spaces for the show. Alan built an

inver ted mirror structure to br ing attention to the expanding potential of a so-

cal led static space, whereas desi highlighted the cocoon-l ike feel ing of being

inside a closet by creating an other worldly and spir itual object that ver y much

inhabited and metamorphosed the space.

the obsession With neW is not paRticulaRly inteResting; neitheR is nostalgia. change is on a continuum.

Colette was drawn to the intimacy and

sense of displacement of the bedroom;

she wanted to f i l l that void and evoke her

Living Environments from the 70’s. She

manipulated the or iginal fabrics from the

70’s for her instal lation, and I was blown

away by the result .

Was your choice of artists influenced as well by these surroundings? How did you know they would fit so well in the space, and together?Absolutely. Although the show came

together rather quick ly under the weight

of my own misfor tunate evacuation, many

of the ar tists and I have had ongoing

discussions about the space and its

potential. Most of the ar tists deal with

issues of identity and domestics in their

own practice and we spent a great deal of

t ime nur tur ing site -specif ic instal lations.

I did not want to re -create anything for the

show or to force a nostalgic retrospective,

but rather to evoke a cer tain mood and

al low the histor ic and borrowed pieces – by

Paul Thek , Rober t Mapplethorpe, Francesca

Woodman, Alvin Baltrop, Tennessee

Wil l iams – to shape the context of the show

and inform the work of younger ar t ists.

Jen deNike’s bathtub projection, Cold Cold Hear t , is an example of a piece that

seamlessly marr ies ar t and architecture

and encapsulates the unsettl ing spir it of

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interview 8th floor8th floor interview

the show. That same bathtub was also

the site of many photoshoots for Miguel

Vi l lalobos, whose image of Mattias

Lauridsen is instal led alongside a por trait

of an ex, which has incidental ly been

instal led in the bathroom since 2005.

You wil l notice that most of the f igures

in the show are veiled, submerged,

abstracted, bisected, or hidden; I did not

want the viewer to identify with anyone

or anything in par ticular.

There is also a decadent squalor feel ing

that only the Chelsea can evoke. Job

Piston was interested in the architecture

and the so-called ghosts of the Chelsea;

his video meditates on the inter ior and

presence that the staircase conjures. His

androgynous f igure could be seen as

the wandering ghost of Candy darl ing,

or as I prefer to look it , a more f leeting

representation of youth and glamour a la

Tadzio from Death in Venice . Projecting

his video onto the decaying Chelsea

walls amplif ied this disjointed feeling.

Walter Benjamin’s theories on the vanishing “aura” of an artwork in our present time were your point of departure, and found their most per fect architectural metaphor in the decadent appeal and uncertain destiny of the Chelsea. However,

the very title of your exhibition, The Quality of Presence, seems to allude to new values, new possibilities perhaps to be found and projected -quite literally in Jen DeNike’s case - in our coming future. What’s left then, once the “aura” is gone?The tit le is purposefully ambiguous and can be read in multiple ways. In fact I

came up with the t it le before I knew the Benjamin reference. The Benjamin essay

has been pretty much referenced to death so I wanted to take it in a different

direction a bit and think about how we navigate space.

I ’m not ver y optimistic by nature, I guess it is a cultural value I was not born with,

I do not see it as a great agent of transformation. The obsession with new is not

par ticular ly interesting; neither is nostalgia. Change is on a continuum, so I guess

I am more comfor table somewhere in the middle. In the case of Job’s haunting

video, we wanted to l iteral ly project it onto the decaying walls, onto the ruins so

to speak . Not to erect anything new or to whitewash the past, but to build on it .

Another reference of yours was Anthony Vidler’s The Architec tural Uncanny . How much do you reckon our emotional response to a certain space, our mix of tensed curiosity and slight disquiet while we climb up the grand staircase at the Chelsea Hotel, could affect our perception and sensitivity to a work of art? How did it affect your visitors’?People talk about the Chelsea as i f i t has an anthropomorphized presence. For me

it is obviously a ver y personal space, having l ived in it for years with my boyfr iend.

I t is where I fel l in love and wil l forever be etched in my memor y. At the same time

it is a ver y public space, one that is beloved and visited by strangers ever yday.

Living there was awkward as I never quite felt at “home”; it is that feel ing of

estrangement that I took away from The Architectural Uncanny .

The other context of the show is the constant presence of ar t at the Chelsea, which

is how residents and visitors al l remember it – the lobby, staircase and hallways

were completely covered with ar t . The feeling there now is ver y different. Walk ing

around and seeing empty walls, and the trace of where ar t once hung is ver y odd

and moving. In a galler y or museum, when am exhibit ion comes down, you paint

over the wall or build a new wall, and with it the presence of ar t disappears and for

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8th floor interview

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8th floor interview

the most par t you don’t miss it . I t doesn’t work the same way in a l ived-in space,

as the personal memories stay with you longer. At the Chelsea it became so bleak

because there was nothing to replace the ar t , the energy, and the memor y ; so

ever y day and ever y hour you pass, you continually think of what used to be there,

not what wil l be.

A few months ago, all of the many artworks that adorned the Hotel’s halls and lobby have in fact been suspiciously removed from its walls, and visitors and residents were left behind, staring perplexed at their empty spaces. And yet in art, empty spaces could sometimes be all there needs to be: the Mona Lisa herself gained much more audience when it was stolen in 1911 and there was nothing to look at. They seem to brim both with memories and potential and appeal to our emotions, resolution and imagination. What do you think, what do you hope will happen next, at the Chelsea Hotel?Exactly. I hope the owners real ize that it is the ar tists and writers who made

the Chelsea the stuff of legend in the f irst place, they should work with and not

against them, but there is a sensit ivity that is missing there so I ’m not sure they ’ l l

ever get the message. Most of the residents I was close with do not want to stay

there under the current conditions. Is that the goal of the new landlord, to make

people unwelcome in their own homes to the point where ever yone wants to

leave?

The Quality of Presence , with: Alvin Baltrop, Carol Bove, Kathe Burkhar t , Tom Burr, Colette,

Anne-Lise Coste, Jen deNike, Graham dur ward, Ryan Foerster, Scott Hug, Veruschka von

Lehndor ff, Rober t Mapplethorpe, Megan Marr in, Thomas Øvlisen, Walter Pfeiffer, Michael

Rouil lard, Job Piston, Alan Ruiz, desi Santiago, Marc Scr ivo, Joshua Seidner, Paul Thek ,

Panos Tsagaris, Johanna Unzueta, R icardo Valentim, Miguel Vi l lalobos, Christ ian Wassmann,

Tennessee Wil l iams, Francesca Woodman, zaldy, diego Singh and Robert Wilson.

All photos by Miguel Vi l lalobos.

Inter view first published on asvof.com on 11th May, 2012

8th floor interview

collection9th floor

103

PA L E S O U V E N I R S

P hotography and

architecture both were

born longing for eternity,

with val iant promises to shield

and preser ve. There is something

impossibly tender, somehow

reassuring, in the inevitable fai lure

of their ambitions. A new k ind of

emotional investment, a maudlin,

romantic quality which is acquired

by the building or image when

dragged back into the course

of t ime. We come to feel for it ,

we almost identify. I ts aura is

restored, and we wish to take it

home: a t iny piece of the Ber l in

Wall, a fading negative from far

away and ver y long ago.

photography by uNKNOWN

collection9th floor

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collection9th floor

collection9th floor

( Part of the garden, not very tidy, with the washing and the rubish. did I tell you that I had a roundabout for my washing. )

collection9th floor

FROM THE START, TO KEEP THIS THOuGHT IN VIEW AND TO

WEIGHT ITS CONSTRuCTIVE VALuE: THE REFuSE- AND DECAY-

PHENOMENA AS PRECuRSORS, IN SOME DEGREE MIRAGES, OF

THE GREAT SYNTHESES THAT FOLLOW.

--- W. benjamin, The Arcades Project 1999

collection9th floor

9th floor

collection9th floor

As weathered as the t ime they once

stood in, these negatives and sl ide

found in second-hand markets, or

taken by the untraceable individuals,

st i l l keep the vibrance of t ime intact.

See our posit ive B&W scans from the

previous page.

M O R N I N G I N T H E B U R N E D H O U S E

10th floor poetry

poem by MARGARE T AT WOODphotography by ABIGAIL YuE WANG & SILVIA BOMBARDINI

in the BUrneD hOUse i aM eating BreaKFast.YOU UnDerstanD: there is nO hOUse, there is nO BreaKFast,Yet here i aM.

the spOOn which was MelteD scrapes against the BOwl which was MelteD alsO.

nO One else is arOUnD.

where haVe theY gOne tO, BrOther anD sister,MOther anD Father? OFF alOng the shOre,perhaps. their clOthes are still On the hangers,

their Dishes pileD BesiDe the sinK,which is BesiDe the wOODstOVewith its grate anD sOOtY Kettle,

eVerY Detail clear,tin cUp anD rippleD MirrOr.

the DaY is Bright anD sOngless,

the laKe is BlUe, the FOrest watchFUl.in the east a BanK OF clOUD rises Up silentlY liKe DarK BreaD.

i can see the swirls in the OilclOth,i can see the Flaws in the glass,thOse Flares where the sUn hits theM.

i can’t see MY Own arMs anD legsOr KnOw iF this is a trap Or Blessing,FinDing MYselF BacK here, where eVerYthing

more films:

b r i s e - s o l e i l .t u m b l r . c o m / m a g a z i n e

in this hOUse has lOng Been OVer,Kettle anD MirrOr, spOOn anD BOwl,inclUDing MY Own BODY,

inclUDing the BODY i haD then,inclUDing the BODY i haVe nOwas i sit at this MOrning taBle, alOne anD happY,

Bare chilD’s Feet On the scOrcheD FlOOrBOarDs(i can alMOst see)in MY BUrning clOthes, the thin green shOrts

anD grUBBY YellOw t-shirthOlDing MY cinDerY, nOn-existent,raDiant Flesh. incanDescent.

editorsilVia BOMBarDini

Issue 1Spring / Summer 2013

design / art directionaBigail YUe wang

photographyaBigail YUe wangsilVia BOMBarDinihUBertUs siegertMigUel VillalOBOsUnKnOwn (FOUnD phOtOs)

printing assistantaKMa shaDilla

printingprint centre, Uwe

newspaper clUB

paperpapercutz white card 160gsM

papercutz white card 240gsm

paper crafter Marble transluscent Blue 100gsm

paper crafter white Vellum 100gsm

newspaper club

acetate Film 100gsm

thank you toalistair OlDhaMJUDith astOnMarK BartOnDOMinic grantKaren lawZanDer MaVOrKristian FletcherMOnica giUnchihUBertUs siegertDMitrY KOMisMigUel VillalOBOssUZanne MOOneYMarc KreMes

bindingalFreD harris BOOKBinDing

cover image silVia BOMBarDini

table of contents imageaBigail YUe wang

fontscode 3x rYuji adachi 9031.com/fonts

Orator, 1987-2001John schepplerlinotype

Myriad pro, 2000christopher slye & Fred Bradyfontshop

featured drawings on p.2-3 & p.130 Kristian Fletcher

co-editoraBigail YUe wang

DIgItal verSIon avaIlable at / For the complete project:

brISe-SoleIl.tumblr.com/magazIne

writersilVia BOMBarDini thank you to

Margaret atwood and the random house of canada for Morning in the Burned house.

thank you to edward estlin cummings and the liveright publishing corporation for my love is building a building.

and many many thanks to all the participants and contributors for the development of the magazine and the complete Brise soleil project. cameras used

pOlarOiD 660FUJiFilM instax 100pentax MxFUJiFilM x10canOn 7DiphOne

chinese calligraphyYiDi caO

[email protected] [email protected]

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Brise-Soleil - issue 1 - EXPIRING

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