The Chinese Box by Map Office and Ian

Map Office
The Chinese Box 

In coordination with IaN+ 

curated by: Emilia Giorgi and Anne Palopoli 

Opening: Friday the 16th of April 2010 at 7.00 p.m. 

Officine Farneto, via dei Monti della Farnesina, 77 – Rome 

The Chinese Box leads us to discover the urban and rural landscapes of contemporary China. It presents a collection of various recent work by MAP OFFICE, a multidisciplinary platform established in 1996 in Hong Kong by French architects/artists Laurent Gutierrez and Valerie Portefaix. 

The Chinese Box is a journey that, through photographs, drawings, comics, videos and objects, suggests us a careful reading of spatio-temporal anomalies and documents how human beings subvert and appropriate space.  

For the first time in Rome, Map Office’s urban-anthropological investigation enters into the space arrangement designed by the studio of architecture IaN+ (Carmelo Baglivo, Luca Galofaro e Stefania Manna), which for many years shares with the group of the French artists the same ideas and visions.  

IaN+ proposes us a new reading of Map Office’s work through a three-dimensional field where each visitor is called to define his own cognitive path. An abstract grate that scans the space of ex Magazzini di Casermaggio, designed by Enrico Del Debbio, according to conceptual islands- fictitious and not physical boundaries.  

It’s a site-specific exhibition in the midst of Art and Architecture. It’s the expression of a fast paced dialogue between Map Office and IaN+. And at the same time it’s also the expression of the city as the dynamic result from the meeting of the inhabitants, the architecture and the history of the hosting places. The Chinese Box wants to be the first appointment of a travelling cycle of exhibitions in which Italian architects will interpret the work of international artists.

The exhibition -curated by Emilia Giorgi and Anne Palopoli, published by Fondazione Volume! and Officine Farneto – will be preceded by a meeting on Wednesday the 14th of April 2010 at 7.00 p.m. at the Goethe-Institut Italien of Rome.

Talkings: Map Office and IaN+; moderator: Bernd Hunger (Berliner architect specializing in “re-use the city”). 

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue curated by Emilia Giorgi and printed by Edizioni Volume! with essays written by the curators, by Filippo Salviati and by IaN+; other contributions by: Stefano Boeri, Maurizio Bortolotti, Didier Fiuza Faustino, Hou Hanru, Ilka&Andreas Ruby. A conversation between Map Office and Ai WeiWei will close the volume.

Informations:

Opening: Friday the 16th of April at 8.00 p.m.

The exhibition will be open till the 7th of May 2010;

opening hours: from Monday to Friday, from 8.30 a..m. to 8.00 p.m-closed on public holidays

place: Officine Farneto, via dei Monti della Farnesina, 77 - Roma

free entrance