CONVERGENCE
2014
Three panels of vinyl flooring were torn out of a decaying temporary pavilion which had been exposed to the weather in a courtyard for months, then reversed and hung up on the walls of a neighboring building‘s courtyard, their reverse side forward-facing. This reverse side of the flooring, hidden up to that moment and now laid open through a simple gesture, shows traces of the applied glue, environmental influence and dissolution as well as cutouts, evidence of a formerly functional use.
By dislocating the three pieces of cheap building material, they become part of a complex architectural context: The courtyard where the installation is set up belongs to an old manor, which itself was constructed on top of the ruins of a medieval castle and today hosts the Archaeology Museum of the City of Locarno. A fragment of the castle‘s base is still visible in the courtyard, the other widely branched ruins of the wall have been covered with asphalt when the building was adapted for new use and thus remain hidden below ground.
The vinyl pieces act as a substitute ground to be revealed. Though relics of a recent construction period, the cheap material resembles the historic walls in their process of aging.
Vinyl | 395 x 145 cm, 410 x 135 cm, 165 x 145 cm
Exhibition view: Casorella, Locarno, 2014
