Filmmakers Neutral will present their first solo exhibition at the Architecture Foundation's Yard Gallery (see images below) in London, starting on 14 September.
The exhibition, called Neutral Moving Space, will celebrate Neutral's work on digital animations for architects including Zaha Hadid and Herzog & de Meuron.
Details below:
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Press Release
Neutral Moving Space
New installation by pioneering filmmakers Neutral premiers at The Architecture Foundation’s Yard Gallery
The first solo exhibition by filmmakers Neutral will go on show at The Architecture Foundation’s Yard Gallery from 14 September to 13 October 2007.
Neutral was founded in 1998 and has advanced the use of digital animation in interpreting and communicating architecture. The exhibition will feature a new spatial installation exploring moving imagery and non-real space, along with commissioned video animations for radical architectural designs by Zaha Hadid, Herzog & de Meuron and others.
Over the last decade Neutral has been commissioned by a number of visionary architects to visualise projects, from buildings to urban masterplans. Integrating digitally rendered environments with real footage the films both bring to life the imaginations of these space makers and also offer the viewer an unexpected, beyond-reality experience of buildings they may already know, such as an aerial tour of the new Tate Modern development, or a 3D exploration of the Allianz Arena in Munich.
Highlighting the extent of the studio’s art based commissions the show will premiere a new video installation in the gallery. Upright simulates an infinitely ascending journey. Reacting to the growth of cities such as Dubai and Shanghai, the experience created by large surrounding animation screens explores timely ideas of moving vertically through urban landscapes and the future of cities expanding upwards. Neutral’s installations combine readily available and new technologies with imagined worlds to create landscapes that merge the digital and physical, the real and the unreal.
Outside, Neutral will be using the courtyard as a project space in which to develop their ideas about architecture, cities and space that extends from, and beyond, their digital work. Moving Space will be the last exhibition at the Yard Gallery, a temporary experimental space created by The Architecture Foundation.
Neutral director Tapio Snellman, says “we are using The Architecture Foundation’s Yard Gallery to test new ways of experiencing space. Additionally it is exciting to us to be able to collect previous architectural animation work into a new ‘curated’ composition, to be viewed as an independent expression of creativity, detached from the architectural projects the animations were commissioned to explore.’
Elias Redstone, Curator at the Architecture Foundation explains “"Neutral has continually redefined what is possible in communicating architecture, accessing digital technologies to visualise and animate complex spaces. With the world increasingly occupying virtual spaces – with the likes of Second Life, gaming technologies and online social networks – The Architecture Foundation is pleased to be able to host this exhibition at the Yard Gallery to allow them to extend their practice further."
Title of show: Neutral Moving Space
Dates: 14 September to 13 October 2007
Private view: 6.30 – 8.30pm, 13 September 2007
Opening times: Tuesday – Friday 10am-6pm; Saturday 12-6pm
Address: The Architecture Foundation’s Yard Gallery, 49 Old Street, London EC1 9HX
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7253 3334
Admission: Free
Website: www.architecturefoundation.org.uk
Notes to editors
Neutral
Neutral was founded in 1998 by Christian Grou and Tapio Snellman, who, driven by a fascination with mobility, cityscapes and human interaction, met whilst studying architecture and urban planning in Stuttgart and London. Former and current challenges include self produced video projects, art commissions, collaborations with other creatives in the field of architecture, 3d animation, video and web presence and corporate media work, and long term collaborations with architects such as Herzog & de Meuron, Zaha Hadid and David Chipperfield, on animation projects that range from renown public buildings to urban masterplans.
Recent projects by Neutral include a large triptych projection in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern, as part of the Global Cities exhibition, film installations for the Venice Architecture Biennale 2006, the installation ‘rescape’ in My World at the Lisbon Experimenta, and ‘Place to Passage’ 360 degree production in collaboration with fashion designer Hussein Chalayan. Corporate work has attracted clients such as Toyota and Lufthansa German Airlines, commissioning video-animations, interface design and animated graphics. In December 2005 the re-branding of Lufthansa’s in flight entertainment system was completed. www.neutral.gs
The current exhibition programme is supported by the late John Eldridge, who was a passionate enthusiast for architecture. We are hugely grateful for this generosity, which was entirely characteristic of him, and hope that this exhibition will be a fitting tribute to his spirit of adventure and inquiry.
Yard Gallery
The Yard Gallery was launched in July 2005 as a temporary space for experimenting with ways of exhibiting and communicating architecture. Critically-acclaimed exhibitions have included the Hairywood installation by 6a Architects and Eley Kishimoto, I Shot Norman Foster, Jamie Fobert’s Brass Eye and the Renegade City season. Having fulfilled this role it will close following the Neutral exhibition, allowing the AF to develop larger scale and longer term projects in 2008 and beyond.
The Architecture Foundation
The Foundation promotes and encourages the best in contemporary architecture and brings it to a wide public. It runs a rich programme comprising exhibitions, talks, events, design initiatives and competitions, research, policy work and films. Established in 1991 as Britain's first independent architecture centre, The Architecture Foundation actively bridges the gap between decision-makers, design professionals and the public. The Architecture Foundation is building a new centre for architecture in Bankside, designed by Zaha Hadid and currently has a temporary experimental gallery, The Yard at 49 Old Street in London. www.architecturefoundation.org.uk
For further information and high resolution images please contact Oliver Basciano on 020 7253 3334 or 07735 938 191 and via oliver [at] architecturefoundation.org.uk