INSPIRATION 4: Villa(in)

The author of the last inspiration through architecture is Zuza Golińska (PL). Zuza deals with the relationship between humans, public space and architecture. Based in Warsaw, Poland, her work is strongly influenced by the way people behave in, and interact with, the public realm.

For the new project designed especially for Villa Tugendhat, Zuza Golińska assembles a minimal floor constellation. The shine of stainless steel objects lying on the floor shifts our focus; from looking for sculptures on pedestals we have to look under our feet so that we do not step on them. Each circular shape is individual yet remains in an inseparable relation to other rings.

The aesthetic of Piercers is referring to body jewelry, the rod ring is cutting through different steel shapes – balls, disks and cylinders. Deliberate choice of stainless steel, a material both hefty and durable, indicates on one hand a connection between the objects and public space and on the other resembles the elements of Villa’s functionalist design. Metal elements are a characteristic part of the Villa’s furniture – its chairs, tables and grab bars.

Form of Piercers connects to the slick and oppressive aesthetic while losing the pervasive function. Steel constellations could as well be an element of the Villa’s original interiors. Maybe the only element with a role yet to be discovered.

As an equal part of the intervention into the Villa’s structure Zuza Golińska and Czech visual artist Markéta Slaná create Villa(in), an uncanny performative narration that takes place inside the Villa’s historical interiors. Performance available for a limited group of visitors turns into a video and text that can be accessed by the public afterward. The story of Villa’s imaginary tenants and their intimate relationship with the space, told through the character of the Real Estate Agent, is a metaphor for contemporary dynamics between class and privilege. Zuza and Marketa fluently shift between the genres creating an alternative image of Villa Tugendhat.

Zuza Golińska is a polish multidisciplinary artist who explores the impact of architecture and public space on the human individual. She is a graduate of the Studio of Spatial Activities in the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. Her art reflects on the way in which human physical and mental wellbeing is influenced by the psychology of space in the time of civilisational acceleration and late capitalism. In her work, Golińska frequently disrupts the clear-cut division between the functional and the aesthetic as she examines the influence of spatial forms on emotions and decisions of users.

www.zuzagolinska.com

Markéta Slaná‘s work consists mainly of photographs, text and videos, which are often the result of a previous performance and a probe into diary entries. Her work oscillates within the processes of contemporary culture and is directly influenced by how brand, technology and power structures are shaping the generation of the end of the millennium. In her work, she thus explores how to respond to the precarity of the present, and through lyrical intimacy and the principle of blurring the line between vulnerability and irony, responds to the feelings of alienation and uncertainty in today’s world.