• Main page
• News
• Projects
  • Projects of 2010
  • Projects of 2009
  • Tower Kronprinz
  • 9000 km
  • Art-Guide
  • Biomediale
  • Art of tortures and executions
  • Glukhomania
  • Projects archive
• Staff
• Contacts
• Partners
• Search
• Русский

«TOWER KRONPRINZ: SECOND ADVENT» 2010

As part of the projects of Kaliningrad museums «Museum Night» and the European Night of Museums which will take place on the night of 14-15th of May 2010 the Kaliningrad Branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts presents the Special project of the International programme «Tower Kronprinz: Second Advent» – installation by Bertrand Ivanoff (Paris / France). The project was carried out in the frames of the year «France-Russia 2010» with the support of French institute in Sankt-Petersburg.

Tower Kronprinz is a big and massive building that carries a strong defensive feeling. Eventually useful during the conception and former function of the construction, this value is no longer required. This military tower by definition is an enclosed structure from where the outside is visible but evidently the outside cannot so easily access to the inside.
The project concept breaks this architectural message. The series of light lines bond the various elements together and create circulations and movements in place of the original no man’s land surrounding space.
Build solid, impenetrable and resistant to the external environment, the outdoor now becomes a vital source for the building. The tower is not a protection any more but an exchange membrane with the external world.

The lines set at different levels and angles radiate from the core of the tower to connect with its settings. Air and trees, breathing and growing elements, are linked to the thick and passive edifice that can now absorb this vital energy. In a reverse movement, the inside reaches out the external world.
Going in, out and through, the lines connect the various sides of the building. The lights are pass ways between north, south, east and west. The physical structure of the building, like an access barrier, defines what is in and what is out, a before and an after, a front and a back. The light bridges these diverse areas thus changing what was a divider into a connecting platform.

Bertrand Ivanoff is a French artist specialized in the public art field. His site-specific installations provide an exceptionally far ranging perspective into the cityscapes, drawing on dialogues within local communities.Ivanoff moved from France to Brussels at the Royal Academy where he obtained a master degree in Fine Art in 1991. After he went to central St Martins in London, his research and production explored light and space as a sculptural language. Since then Ivanoff’s production is exploring both light potentials as well as materials interactions.
Teaching is part of the artist’s carrier development. In 1997 he was nominated professor at the Royal Academy in Belgium to create a specific Public Art Department, and following he became a consulting professor at the School of Fine Art in Toulon, France.In relationship with the «Open House» Project, in 2004 Bertrand Ivanoff has been invited to participate in a workshop with kids at a community development corporation «The Point».
Numerous temporary buildings alterations have also been conceived for various cities such as New York, Marseille or Charleroi which have been shown in the Bronx, in France as well as in Belgium.

The project was carried by Kaliningrad Branch of NCCA with the support of French institute in Sankt-Petersburg.
Curators of the project: Elena Tsvetaeva, Yulia Bardun, Anastasia Karpenko.
Technical realisation of the project: OOO «NeonikaN» (Kaliningrad).
Photo: Yulia Bardun, Oleg Blyablyas, Sergey Ryabkov

News