100cm x 100cm

THE MULTIPLE FACES OF A WINDOW

In the centuries before, art was destined for architecture; it came to complete a space.
Can contemporary art be incorporated into architecture?
Can contemporary architecture accept contemporary art, so that the two can serve each other and produce a better result?
Fifteen artists have accepted an imaginary commission. They all provide a solution to the same issue, according to each one’s views and sensibility.
The ‘Thema’ gallery has set a subject.
The subject is a window or window frame made of wood or iron, measuring 100cm x 100cm.
This window lies on the outer wall of a building. The wall is white.
Each artist will take this window frame and keep it for a few months, work on it and return it to be exhibited with the proposals of the other artists.
The window may not be functional. It may not open; then again, it may open, too.
It does not have to provide light.
Yet what can a small window mean, with an area of one square metre?
Is it a hole on the wall? A point of escape from the space within?
Or is it a point of escape from the external space inward?
Is it a superfluous piece of decoration?
Is it a sign?
Is it a challenge?
Is it too high, in which case its size is even smaller? And what is its relation to man?
Is it low, within reach of our hands?
The white wall is big, and the architectural design does not restrict us to place it wherever we want.
Is it a window? Is it a canvas? It is certainly a problem.
It is not architecture – or is it?
It is definitely art, though.
Can we see through it? Is it our means of communication with the other side? Or do we not want this communication?
And in the night can we see it?
We have a given frame of 100cm x 100cm. A frame or a canvas. A window or a hole. A sign, a problem or superfluous decoration. Does it have a clear outline? Does it?
Is it clean? Has it been soiled by bird droppings and red rain? And how are we going to clean it up there? Of course it will get dirty. And we’ve built it to last as long as the building. And in the end, we don’t care if it gets dirty ­– or do we?
Are we interested in the opinions of those who will be seeing it every day – in the emotions it will generate in them?
Is contemporary art interested in architecture? What is a white wall?
A small imaginary hole on a white wall is waiting for ideas.

Popi Krouska
Athens, May1994