Oscar Lourens - PROJECT PROBE #2

OSCAR LOURENS PROJECT PROBE #2

SUZE MAY SHO 1

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OSCAR LOURENS GLIKONERI

SUZE MAY SHO ARNHEM

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CONTENT Glikoneri - three concrete dimensions • Dirk Hilbers GREECE MODEL ARCHITECTURE EXHIBITION INSTALLATION STUDIO VIEWS PROJECT PROBE • Suze May Sho COLOPHON

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Glikoneri three concrete dimensions Who would have guessed that the contemporary buildings of Greece’s expanding provincial towns would provide study material for architectonic explorations? Yet it was here that, in the concrete frames of houses-under-construction, an architectural exploration began into the foundations of structure. Before they are plastered in white and pink and hung with all sorts of tasteless ornaments, the Greek concrete skeletons are like modernist buildings, not unlike those of Mies van der Rohe. For the artist Oscar Lourens, they form a perfect study into the essentials of the use and the dimensions of space.

Like Darwin did in South-America with biological specimens, Oscar Lourens did in North-east Greece with houses under 9

construction: he registered and captured them, in Lourens’ case with the use of a digital camera. Back in his studio, Lourens meticulously reconstructed the buildings from the images on a 1:20 scale. Lourens’ aim however, was not solely to collect and file the buildings, but to investigate what would happen with the meaning of an object when it was resized and placed in a different setting.

Indeed, instead of copying the original structure, the reconstruction transformed the object. Even though Lourens never deviated from the original photographic blueprint, the result of his work was no longer the original semi-manufacture, a house on its way to completion, but a completely new and finished product. The model turned out not to be a model at all.

One of Lourens’ study objects was the prototype of all buildings: Glikoneri. It was 10

probably a garage-under-construction in the village of Glikoneri in Greek Thrace, and it was perfect in its simplicity. Glikoneri had all that is needed for a house, nothing more and nothing less: four columns and a roof on a concrete foundation. Oscar Lourens made models of Glikoneri in a 1:10 and 1:20 scale, as well as a 1:4 model.

The latter was interesting. By resizing the original to a 1:4 for scale, the archetypical building of Glikoneri was transformed into the basic structure something completely different. In the setting of Lourens’ studio, Glikoneri became a life size table.

The PROBE exhibition is an exploration of dimensions, in which everything - the exhibition room, its doors and all the works of art - is made on a 1:4 scale. Oscar Lourens exhibits the Glikoneri models in the PROBE exhibition room.

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But for PROBE he needed to make a model of the first model. The PROBE models relate to the actual structure on the scales of 1:40 and 1:80 - tiny cubicles of only 3.25 cm high. In the PROBE exhibition something interesting happens. When all dimensions are resized in the same way, nothing happens in the eyes of the observer. In harmony with each other, the changed dimensions uphold the appearance of the original size.

But what will happen when this harmony is broken and an odd-sized Glikoneri is placed in the room?

Oscar Lourens added the ‘table Glikoneri’ to PROBE; a 1:4 model in a 1:4 exhibition room. And indeed, in the scale confinement of PROBE, what appears to be a table in real life, transforms back into the garage. Quod erat demonstrandum: it is the relative size, not the actual that renders meaning to an object.

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GREECE

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Asprovalta

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Drama_03

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Drama_06

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Eleochori

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Glikoneri

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Livadia

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Petroussa_01

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Stavros_01 Chalkidiki

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Stavros_02 Chalkidiki

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Stavros_05 Drama

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MODEL ARCHITECTURE

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untitled (Eleochori) 2009 primer, MDF 125 x 82 x 50 cm

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untitled (Glikoneri) 2009 primer, MDF 18.5 x 14 x 13.3 cm / 1:20 edition 12 37 x 28 x 27 cm / 1:10 edition 6

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untitled (Livadia) 2009 primer, MDF 90 x 68 x 21.5 cm

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untitled (Petroussa_01) 2009 primer, MDF 74 x 48 x 40 cm

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untitled (Stavros_01) 2009 primer, MDF 137 x 70 x 35 cm

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untitled (Stavros - Drama) 2008 primer, MDF 37 x 57 x 31 cm

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GLIKONERI EXHIBITION

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GLIKONERI INSTALLATION AT PROBE

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GLIKONERI STUDIO VIEWS

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untitled (Glikoneri) 2009 primer, MDF 92.5 x 70 x 67.5 cm /1:4

1ste Wijkstraat

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untitled (Glikoneri) 2009 primer, MDF 4.62 x 3.5 x 3.25 cm / 1:80_edition 12 9.25 x 7.0 x 6.75 cm / 1:40_edition 6

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Probe 2008 acrylic, paint, underlayment 300 x 200 x 110 cm

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PROJECT PROBE Probe is a miniature exhibition space, with walls no higher then 1.10 m and a surface area of 6 m2. It is a test lab, an artistic skinner box.

Its small and practical dimensions enable artists to create works on scale that is unthinkable in real life.

The architecture of the space is flexible and wholly subservient to the exhibition: walls can be extended and doors can be removed.

Glass, mirror and wood floors are all at the exhibitioner’s disposal. Even the lighting can be fully controlled.

Probe’s flexible dimensions poses questions to the nature of space. Exterior, interior, architecture and sculpture become relative notions.

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For example, Probe can be wholly absorbed by the installation it contains.

Probe can also be used as an exhibition making tool. The height, size and sequence of several works can be researched without ever having to drill a hole. Sketches can be used as dummies, scale warps achieved in seconds.

Although Probe is a physical space, it can only be accessed on the internet. The photographic projection is the actual exhibition.

It can be visited on www.projectprobe.net Project Probe is an initiative of artist collective Suze May Sho. SUZE MAY SHO Rosell Heijmen Jessica Helbach Connie Nijman 157

COLOPHON This book was published on the occasion of Oscar Lourens’ exhibition Glikoneri in the Project Probe series at Suze May Sho, Arnhem, january 2010.

SUZE MAY SHO Beekstraat 98 NL - 6811 DZ Arnhem www.suzemaysho.com info@suzemaysho.com Rosell Heijmen Jessica Helbach Connie Nijman PROJECT PROBE www.projectprobe.net

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PUBLICATION Design: Oscar Lourens Text: Dirk Hilbers, Suze May Sho Photography: Oscar Lourens, Suze May Sho Printed and bound in the USA Published by Oscar Lourens Book Production Pastoor van de Loolaan 13-2 NL - 6823 BB Arnhem T + 31 (0)26 3892317 www.oscarlourens.nl info@oscarlourens.nl ISBN 978-90-814015-2-4 Š Oscar Lourens, Suze May Sho, 2010

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The artist would like to thank Rosell Heijmen, Jessica Helbach, Connie Nijman at Suze May Sho (Arnhem) and Dirk Hilbers at the Crossbill Guides Foundation (Arnhem).

Project Probe has received additional support from the Gemeente Arnhem.

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Oscar Lourens Book Production 164