vienna is pop-up

two magazines have published about vienna the last weeks.

01: MONOCLE
monocle is a business and lifestyle related magazine and it is written in english.

pic taken from www.monocle.com

in their current edition #35 they have a special column about vienna (p.93-96). therein they describe the city as the ‘culture city’. but not in the context of their history preservation, it’s more about their contemporary approach to qualitative city life:

‘it’s electronic music and pop-up galleries causing all the buzz.’

so they argue about the viennese cultural changes in their preface. further in the article they profile design offices and club-owner to demonstrate the creative power. see the excerpt of the website:

text-pic taken from www.monocle.com

02: ART – DAS KUNSTMAGAZIN

art is a german magazine which focuses on art-related issues. it is written in german.

taken from www.art-magazin.de

in their current edition of august 2010 they describe the current cultural development in vienna more provocative: ‘wien rockt!’ (vienna rocks!). this article is the leading article in the current edition. and they also emphasize on the temporary activity like pop-up galleries and off-spaces (page 22-32). furthermore there is a specific spotlight on young viennese artists who support the young radical art-scene in vienna.

because of the magazines monocle or art, the question rises: does a city of today need the temporary qualities of the young generation in order to have a vivante cultural scene? therein is the big question. how can the young designers or art-students publish or create their work? they have to take advantage of the off-spaces because they do not have the money yet to rent a gallery space or office space in the center. first of all they have to have a name to earn money. therefore they search for off-spaces and cheap backyard spaces in order to use it as a pop-up gallery or a pop-up shop. they show their work and one month later they are gone to another place.

as I’m from vienna and do this blog about pop-up dynamics, I had to show the current spotlight from magazines on vienna and their temporary art- and music-scene.

living in shops

pop-up dynamics is busy in the moment. in the meantime pop-up dynamics is looking for people who are living in formerly ground floor shops (like on the pictures). when you know somebody living in such environments please contact me on my email adress popup.dynamics@gmail.com. I will collect pictures and write an article about it

david byrne speaks about architecture

great ted talk of david byrne. ‘how architecture helped music evolve’. the importance of the context, but at the same the inspiration for the break-up too.

thoughts in trains?

via vimeo: trains of thoughts teaser

the new movie-sound experiment by director timo novotny is called ‘trains of thoughts’. after the great movie ‘life in loops‘, this time the footage is again shot in several world cities like new york, tokyo, berlin, vienna, and others. but the attention now is set on the subway. the subway is a space which is always in a flush of people. but actually there is less public attention on the underground spaces, because no one, except the workers, spend much time there. it’s used to be a temporary stay in order to get somewhere quickly. there is a potential of more public installations and pop-up-performances on the subject ‘subway and its public spaces’. so it’s less in cultural use but the possibilities are there!

colour against crime

[images via favelapainting]

since 2005 the artist duo haas&hahn (jeroen koolhaas & dre hahn) did a lot of favela paintings in brazil. recently they finished a project in the district “santa marta” in rio de janeiro. 34 houses have been painted in the style of coloured rays. the nice thing is the painting can be extended over the whole district; the inhabited hills of rio de janeiro with painted houses everywhere. colour pop-up over the whole favela. maybe over rio. or further?

“They wanted to give color to the community”, Dre recalls, “and we wanted to give art to the community. I see no reason why we cannot recreate this idea across 300 houses, 3000 houses, whether its in Rio, Johannesburg, Mumbai or anywhere in the world.” But first plans are to return to Rio to realize the dream that started the whole project and of which praca cantao can be seen as a start: painting an entire favela!
[via pressrelease]

but the sense of the project is deeper. there are a lot of social problems in some favelas, so maybe the project can also be seen as social upgrade. creating a friendlier environment to grow up or even to make the district more attractive to some people to live in.
“This work of art can make a colorful difference in the lives of local individuals, the community and the city of Rio. It has the potential of working as a catalyst in the processes of social renewal and change” said dre hahn.

jeroen koolhaas is a graphic designer who studied graphic design in eindhoven. in his portfolio there are some works for big companys like the fashion brand “prada” or the news magazine “new yorker” (well known for their graphic illustrations at least since saul steinberg). [check jeruniverse]
dre hahn is working in different fields like art and journalism .

earlier projects:

[all images via favela painting]

experimental tendencies

[via website: http://www.architekturtage.at/2010/index.php]

“the exhibition “new frontiers” will be displaying 28 of the latest works by young, experimental architects and artist groups from austria and slovakia in a cross-border examination of town planning, architecture and art.”
[via website:  http://www.new-frontiers.cc/]

exhibition from 31.05.2010 – 25.06.2010 in the zumtobellichtforum vienna

[all via website: http://www.architizer.com/]

temporary adidas

adidas closed the doors of its one-week-pop-up stores in vienna last weekend. lots of party, hipsters and a whiff of subculture. here are some images of the reused shops and of the temporary urbanity on the street

flea market and pop-up commercial

paper chase to find the shops

temporary adidas shop

temporary exhibition and food

flea market

exhibition

public graffiti

pop-up dynamics was also there

exp – algorithm and sound

via vimeo: http://vimeo.com/11929023

frank bretschneider is one of those who are always thinking visually when they are making sound. trained as a graphic designer he is always redefining the relationship between music and images. together with his collegues olaf bender (byetone) and carsten nicolai (alva noto) he is running the label raster-noton since 1996. with his new album callded “exp”  he also creates a collective universe of sound and video.

“EXP explores this concept [interaction of sound and video] with an 18 minute video, which uses particle algorithms to generate oscilloscope-like renderings of the album’s tracks. abstract and mesmerizing, the visuals perfectly match the scientific approach of the album, for which bretschneider has used sounds of mechanics, electricity, magnetism, light and other radiation as sources for his microscopic samples.”
[via http://www.zero-inch.com/blog/Frank_Bretschneider_EXP/10301]

background info raster-noton for the curious folks

via vimeo: http://vimeo.com/706633

pop-up working space

via vimeo: http://vimeo.com/4197108

pop-up working space for a temporary urban use. you don’t have to pay any rent or sign any documents. just get your transportable working space. artwork done by liddy scheffknecht and armin b. wagner called pop up, 2009, cardboard, tape, 94 x 275 x 400 cm.

trust in public interventions

[image via http://www.raumlabor.net/%5D

raumlabor from berlin is famous for their urban interventions and temporary installations. Either there is a public sclupture which has a public funcion or there are transformations or adaptions to public places. quite in terms of the situationist raumlabor is keeping the city alive and interesting through their public discussions and installations.
since the end of 2009 raumlabor has an ongoing public intervention in st. pölten, a city not so far from vienna austria. in the context of the festspielhaus st. pölten they are invited to do public discussion, workshops and installations with the inhabitants.

“We want to gather holiday narrations, we need help to discover unknown, hidden places in a world where everything seems to be already found and we need advices about moral, philosophic, dialectic and ethnologic questions. We want to take benefit from the treasures of the city and of its inhabitants, from many adventure books, novels and travel guides, we want to know how one works while travelling, how one builds a network in a foreign land and how one documents meaningfully its trip.”
[via text on the website: http://www.raumlabor.net/?p=2379%5D

the project is called “die expedition” and will last for 3 years. further details: http://www.raumlabor.net/

[all images via website: http://www.raumlabor.net/?p=2379%5D