shelter.avi

Date: Wednesday 25th November 2009Time: 6.00pm - 9.00pmLocation: Northbank
HIVE PROJECTS | T1+2 Gallery presents Los Fundamentos, the third part of Javier Rodriguezs three-month residency at The HIVE, and Anja Henckels Perspektivenweschsel | Change of Perspective.Inhabit calls attention to the life of one urban site St Pauls Walk, an underpass on the North Bank of the Thames. Slated for regeneration - considered unused and lifeless - it provides shelter for homeless persons, illegal immigrants and refugees of all descriptions. The temporary artworks commissioned by HIVE assert the life of this non-place, engaging with the conditions of marginal existence. Javier Rodriguez's intervention Los Fundamentos will take the form of a built structure or shelter made from wooden pallets. In addition, the walls and columns of the North Bank underpass will be pasted with the poster, which gives the installation its name. Its image, taken from a fascist military manual is a didactic graphic illustration of the effects of ill hygiene and human vices. This attack on 'degeneracy' will exist in suggestive conjunction with the structural piece, asserting a relationship between narratives of urban regeneration and social exclusion.Anja Henckel's Perspektivenwechsel | Change of Perspective reflects upon the tension between opposing functions of the North Bank site; sanctuary and hardship. Her piece comprises two interrelated elements, cardboard carpet-islands reflect upon the isolation, arrivals and inadequate comforts of the place, whilst a womb-like shelter of soft-furnishings brings into relief the very fabric of comfort and home.This will be the second in a series of interventions that HIVE is staging on this site as part of an ongoing dialogue with the urban landscape and City of London Corporation. It marks the location's final week as a 'public space' before a semi permeable wall is put in place as part of a five year regeneration strategy which will significantly change the status of the space. The term urban 'regeneration' carries undertones of resurrection. That is to say, it purports to bring 'life' back to an area. But who diagnoses its absence? To paraphrase Mark Twain - Have reports of its abscondment been greatly exaggerated? HIVEs innovative artistic education programme will continue to engage with the site as it moves towards regeneration with a series of exhibitions and events scheduled to occur throughout 2010.Inhabit will take place from 6-9pm on Wednesday the 25th of November. As part of this intervention there will also be a soup kitchen, staffed by HIVE workers and students from the nearby Courtauld Institute of Art.

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Nonprofits & Activism

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