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| Thick Space Anita Vanaga, Art Historian | |
| The 2012 Olympic Games, which will take place in London, are preceded by a four year Cultural Olympiad. It was launched with several cultural initiatives in England, and one of these - FRED - took place in September and October at the National Park of Cumbria, a northern region famed for its many lakes. 60 artists were invited to take part in this significant art event, one of Europe's largest al-fresco art shows. The installation Thick Space, created by architects of the FBRK bureau Laura Belēviča and Aaron Robin in collaboration with Feng Guochuan (China), and awarded with the Olympic brand Inspire Mark, stood out among the other participating works. The particular mode of inspiration points to an open-system work of art, or, as French deconstructionist philosopher Gilles Deleuze would put it, a rhizome in which a concept only has meaning relative to a specified context. A modification of the installation was previously exhibited at the Shenzhen & Hong Kong Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture in China. But even prior to that, one of the versions of thick space, The Egg, was exhibited at shopping malls - commercial spaces over-saturated with advertising, sounds and reflections - in China's biggest cities: Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. That installation consisted of helium-filled balloons that were floating in the air. The result, created from a thick space material, was not intended for external observation. The viewer had to enter the balloons to feel and understand what was happening. People responded surprisingly well, children showing a particular interest. The installation altered the familiar social distance, allowing people to be close to each other within a thick space. The idea of thick space did not come out of thin air. The architects took part in a competition for the conceptual solution of contemporary office space, and arrived at the discovery that thick space needs no agenda. "We found the courage to think cleanly," Aaron remembers. Thick Space is a reaction to the oversaturated visual environment that has become an integral part of everyday life. The installation is a chance to experience the world in a new light, if only momentarily, by means of an altered spatial medium. "One of the things we are fascinated by is the exploration of the ways people perceive space," says Laura. "People have to process a great deal of information in today's world, and that affects perception. There's an interesting paradox - the denser the information around us, the more selectively we perceive it. If a gallery were empty without any paintings in it - what would indicate space? Light, echo, temperature. We would trust our sensory perceptions more: our touch and smell. As the space and environment around us become denser with information, we choose to place more trust in our sight. We begin to classify things: this one belongs to this category, that one - to some other category. In a way sight helps us to perceive things from a distance, for example, the big lettering of advertising slogans. We think that as soon as people start relying on their sight, they lose their touch with the other senses. This affects the perception of space. If you perceive it mostly with your sight, the space becomes more ‘rarefied'. The more complex levels of perception seemingly stop functioning. Our installation attempts to play with this phenomenon, by creating moments in which sight is not as important any more. Filling a space with dense matter cancels the dominance of sight over the other senses. There are several ways to achieve this. The scale of the installation can vary, and that's why we're interested in continuing this experiment in a variety of sizes, practical applications and materials. | |
 Laura Belēviča, Aaron Robin, Feng Guochuan. Thick Space. Photo: Tony West | |
| "Thanks to our friends and collaboration partners - Zhubo Design of China - the installation was created from densely woven, elastic light-conducting polythene fibres in a configuration of 3x3m2. It can be lifted by two strong people. The installation can land anywhere, as if it's made of spider silk threads. That's why we called it a super-hero." Aaron adds, "This idea is ready to fly." Laura Belēviča and Aaron Robin met at Washington University in St. Louis, where they were both studying for their Master's degree in architecture. Laura had previously graduated from Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, while Aaron had completed his studies of Greek and Latin at the University of California in Los Angeles. It must be noted that he also speaks Spanish, Mandarin Chinese and Latvian. "There are special graduate programmes in the U.S. that allow students who have a Bachelor's degree in another discipline to pursue a Master's degree in architecture. It involves an extended, longer study process," explains Laura. "After completing 9th grade, I considered studying architecture and attended preparatory classes at the Latvian Academy of Art and Riga Technical University, as well as studied with Laila Bogustova. The School of Economics was a departure from the original plan, but it was a very positive experience. And it is especially useful now, when we have founded our own bureau in Riga." Aaron, on the other hand, says that among his many interests architecture "... was like a miracle. It was what I had to do. At first I looked for answers in the classical languages, and then I tried to put every-thing together. At long last I found architecture, when I started working in construction and attending art classes in the evenings. The summer school at Harvard University is also very helpful to those, who like me, are considering architecture. American universities select applicants on the basis of their portfolio. We were both offered grants. That is the way universities compete for the best students." Her graduation project - a design project for the Centre for under-age mothers in Talsi district - brought Laura an honorary mention for the Best Graduation Project, and another distinction - the title of Best Student, which is awarded to one student of architecture based on the votes of the entire body of professors. Laura chose her graduation project to help Reverend Dace Skudiņa whom she had met in St Louis. However, after the graduation Laura and Aaron did not immediately move to Latvia or New York, where they could get a job at a reputable bureau; instead, they went to China, to the city of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province. Aaron: "It was not a safe move, rather a step into the complete unknown, but our professor advised us to gain this experience." Laura: "This city of more than 13 million people has grown from a little fishing village in the 1930s, when the Chinese government decided to flirt with capitalism and drew a line on the map, creating a special economic zone. In real life this line was a fence, which does not exist any more. Actually, there is a lack of this thick space that we are creating, even in a place like Shenzhen, where the density of population is immense and there is this rarefied quality to space, because the visual stress numbs all other sensory perceptions. By using thick space, we bring people closer to all the sensations that a human being possesses." Aaron: "Much has been written about the senses and the perception of architecture. One of our favourite authors is Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa." Laura: "Spatial perception involves memory, associations, imagination. Various aspects overlap here, and one can arrive at existential questions very quickly. We acknowledge the practical things first - a roof over our heads, and heat when the weather is cold. But there is also another side, which deals with all the other aspects of life. Architecture is a way of thinking, not just practical knowledge." Aaron: "If need be, we can list differences among various countries, but I think it is not as important as the way we want to live, or all that is in our souls. What is important are the much broader factors. If we decided to compare Chinese and Latvian agriculture, we'd notice several dissimilarities. For example, the choice of construction techniques depends on the materials available locally. If we look at the urbanized situation and the large percentage of population that are city dwellers, there are a lot of differences among America, Latvia and China. This is an important aspect of complex structures in urbanization, economics and culture alike. There are apartment blockhouses and public housing suburbs in China, just like the ones in Latvia, but the quality of light and the atmosphere is different. To some extent it depends on the climate conditions. In Latvia, people think their windows need to be kept closed, to contain their lives within the walls and stop others from seeing into their home; but in the northern part of China, where the tenement situation is similar, people usually set up their kitchens outside the building, in a construction resembling a cage. In China things are much more on show outside, even in cold weather. The more I travel, the more I understand that people are very similar. And any cultural distinctions are fantastic - we should accept and enjoy them." Laura: "People tend to disassociate themselves from anything different, from what they cannot readily understand. But in other things - relationships, for example - we don't look for people who are exactly like us. In fact, we are attracted by what is different in the other person. Each of us wants to be valued for what is intrinsic to us, and at the same time to be complemented with what we lack. We would all benefit if we applied this thinking to the other cultures and peoples." /Translator into English: Līva Ozola/ | |
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