Barbican

Marjetica Potrc

24 May - 02 Sep 2007

Courtesy Nordenhake, Berlin and Blow de la Barra, London
Marjetica Potrc
New Commission
24 May 2007 - 2 September 2007
The Curve

Acclaimed Slovenian artist and architect Marjetica Potrc, is renowned for installations that present socially driven architectural projects in a gallery context. Working at the interface of architecture, art and social science, Potrc is concerned with the fundamentals of human life; our need for shelter, well-being and community.

In this, her first solo exhibition in the UK, Potrc has created a dramatic new work for The Curve. A powerful evocation of Amazonian life in the twenty-first century, Forest Rising, is an ‘island community’ floated on some 40 trees, including a field, pier, helicopter platform and a school, complete with solar panelling and satellite dish .

In focusing on a commendable local response to de-forestation and rising water levels, Potrc’s commission inevitably points to the dangers of globalization, climate change and unsustainable urban growth. However, firmly imbued with an aesthetic of hope, Forest Rising shows how rural living can offer a model for the future; a vibrant community that is both self-supporting and globally connected.

Most positively of all, Potrc finds a commonality between the utopianism of the Barbican, with its high-walks and monolithic raised dwellings, and the inspired strategies of a community on the other side of the world.

Marjetica Potrc is currently based in Stockholm and Ljubljana. Her work has been exhibited widely in the Americas and Europe.

www.barbican.org.uk
 

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