Impressions of “ECHOES of the FOREST” – LABINAC at ROYAL GARDENS OF VENICE

After a successful opening and first week we are happy to share some impressions of the exhibitions.

Come una Foresta
2019
marble, brass, aluminium
individual table appr. 145 x 75 x 67,5 cm (set of 4 as on the image 280 x 160 x 67,5 cm)
designed by Maria Thereza Alves for LABINAC

on top 4 vases by Maria Thereza Alves

ARBOLETIER
2021
stainless steel, Murano glass, glass, LED lights
appr. 200 x 220 x 100 cm
designed by Jimmie Durham for LABINAC

PINO (series)
2019
resin, bronze, steel
6 different editions, each an edition of 15 + 5 AP
dimensions variable
designed by Jimmie Durham for LABINAC

“ECHOES of the FOREST” – LABINAC at ROYAL GARDENS OF VENICE

MARIA THEREZA ALVES and JIMMIE DURHAM during the 17th VENICE ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE

The president of the Venice Gardens Foundation, Adele Re Rebaudengo and curator Chiara Bertola invited artists Maria Thereza Alves and Jimmie Durham to show selected works from their design collective LABINAC in the greenhouse of the Royal Gardens for the opening of the garden’s research center during the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale.

LABINAC has been commissioned to design research and work tables for the restored greenhouse of the Royal Gardens at Piazza San Marco in Venice, restored by Venice Gardens Foundation that takes care of its conservation and management. LABINAC designed for the greenhouse in accordance with the idea of the Venice Gardens Foundation, for which the gardens are a meeting place, where researchers and artists can develop the vast metaphorical concept of the garden, sowing signs, sounds and words, cultivating and nurturing new visions.

“Architecture must begin with a specific place, considering the nature of the surrounding, every building is made in a garden whether or not that is recognised.” -Maria Thereza Alves

The Royal Gardens commissioned by Napoleon adjacent to Piazza San Marco in Venice have been obscured in secrecy, left to decay and hidden from public eye for many years. Recently they have been restored by the Venice Gardens Foundation, with the support of Assicurazioni Generali, and open to the public on December 2019, reclaiming their botanical richness and nineteenth-century design grandeur. A historical and botanical gem comes back to life with a Mediterranean atmosphere. The gardens are surrounded by water facing the imperial rooms of the Royal Palace, the Archeological Museum and the historic Marciana Library.

For the Venice Architecture Biennale LABINAC will present a selection of works under the title:“Echoes of the Forest”. Exhibited will be twenty one tables specifically designed for the Gardens by the two artists, hand-blown glass vases, and a chandelier of broken Murano glass. The tables will remain as a site-specific permanent installation at the venue after the end of the Biennale.

Both Alves and Durham took as their inspiration the endemic Mediterranean Pine Tree. Alves designed research tables from Serpentine Green Marble to represent the trees as seen from above or below. Durham admits: ” We humans always need to know that the rest of nature is close.” LABINAC’s “Echoes of the Forest” scattered throughout the greenhouse opens the possibility of myriad lessons that Flora can teach us and remind us of the necessity and challenges to engage in an inclusive dialogue, which encourages relational practices.

The full press release can be found here:

LABINAC_Echoes of the Forest_Royal Gardens Venice_PRESS RELEASE_FIN

GREETINGS FOR A HOPEFUL NEW YEAR

exhibition “BROKEN – light shines through” open BY APPOINTMENT ONLY

Due to the new COVID19-regulations, the showroom is not open regularly anymore, but only by appointment.

For an appointment please contact us at

info@labinac.com

A Joy was There

A friend came by with a box of antique lace. He cleans out apartments for people who acquire them usually as an inheritance. The times change, customs change, fashion changes, and he was asked to take away the lace. While sorting it, I realized that the servant women responsible for the care of the clothes in these well-managed households had conscientiously retrieved lace, much of it handmade, from whatever article of textile that was withering away and would be disposed of. Collars from dresses, flounces from sleeves, borders from tablecloths and curtains were saved in this manner. Rescued by hard-working women who knew the labor involved in making lace: the strain on the eyes and the necessity of damp conditions to keep the linen thread pliable. I would imagine that they saved these pieces as a celebration of the fineness and skill of the lacemakers. It was saved, and saved and thought of and then after awhile it was no longer wanted in that household where perhaps ties of relationships and empathy had ceased.

While sifting through these intricacies of knotted wonders, I thought how to honor the labor and skill involved.

A Joy was There recuperates the lace.

LABINAC contacted Jiyoung Kim, the clothing designer based in Berlin, to collaborate with us in this honoring. If you send us an article of clothing, Jiyoung will send you two samples of lace applied to it that you can choose from.

To place orders and for more information please contact us at:

info@labinac.com

Highlights of meticulously crafted lace on linen shirt by Carla Fernández.

Alves’ mother gave her the Yves Saint Laurent 80s power jacket.
Some lace on the shoulders extends the discussion to include other fields of women’s work.

Bev Koski receives York Wilson Endowment

LABINAC congratulates Bev Koski, recipient of the York Wilson Endowment which will fund the acquisition of six bead works for the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto.

Lisa Meyers has written on how Koski`s practice extends Anishinaabe visual language through a context of materiality, abstraction, modernism, and the language of pattern.

LABINAC commissioned seven bracelets from Bev Koski in 2018, three of which were acquired by Centre national des arts plastiques, France.

Bev Koski’s beadwork is featured in multiple collections such as the Canadian Museum of History, Carleton Art Gallery, The Indigenous Art Centre Gallery, Thunder
Bay Art Gallery, Textile Museum of Canada.

LABINAC @ NOMAD VIRTUAL DESTINATION – Palais Bulles – online 28th September

We are excited to announce that LABINAC

participates in NOMAD VIRTUAL DESTINATION – Palais Bulles

with the work

Dichroic Glass Chandelier
Designed by Jimmie Durham for LABINAC
Made of dichroic glass & aluminum.

A rare selection of only 50 objects by 50 international galleries inspired by the extravagant Palais Bulles is on sale now, with part of the proceeds going to support the Design Museum.

28 SEPTEMBER – 11 OCTOBER 2020

The showcase is hosted on Phillips.com and can be accessed by clicking on the link

https://www.phillips.com/store/nomad