Modus Moduli – English

MODUS MODULI

The exhibition „Modus Moduli“ revolves around the concept of the module, originally used in connection with the so-called “Classical orders” of Greek architecture. It had a particular relevance in Renaissance architecture and continued to serve its purpose for the excessively lyrical constructions of Historicism. The term module referred to the part of an architectural structure which acted as a unit of measurement for the structure as a whole.

Ancient treatises describe the module as that part of a building which – divided, doubled, and multiplied – determined the dimensions of the architectural structure’s other elements, including height and width. This was based on the hierarchical principle of proportion. According to Vitruvius’ theoretical text on the subject, the principle of proportion ruled that certain individual parts needed to exhibit a precise and predetermined relationship with the dimensions of the whole (1). Tradition knows a variety of systems and theories of proportion, beginning with the idea that perfect proportions might be the key to ideal beauty. Much of classical architectural and art is founded on this idea, while in the 20th century Le Corbusier applied a concept of proportion more closely aligned with rationalist thought and utility.

In contemporary architecture, the term module defines a standardised element – occurring at regular intervals or in rhythmic succession – that lends formal cohesion to a building’s exterior. Whereas the module of antiquity was associated with hierarchical order, the contemporary use of the term simply implies a structure of relationships. In line with the ideas postulated by the Bauhaus movement, most of contemporary architecture uses clear, unornamented forms – based on the recombination of a module – to explore the interrelationships of different volumes or the relationship between interior and exterior space. It is this sort of module, a standardised and unified part of a greater whole, that provides the exhibition „Modus Moduli“ with a representative symbol and theme.

„Modus Moduli“ invites the viewer to speculate about architecture. Not so much the architecture we inhabit but the architecture we pass by, walk around or across, or look at. Facade architecture, architecture as visual experience and as a theatrical or cinematic backdrop to our everyday reality.

Such urban architectural “scenery” offers a striking metaphor for the modern age. The historical and hierarchical city – also known as the “panoramic” or “museum city” (2), and displaying its unique character in guidebooks and postcards – makes way for the “standard city”, post-modern, a hybrid and without individual personality.

The facades of contemporary architecture, as well as the exterior design of modern infrastructure, plainly reflect the dynamics of contemporary post-industrial society and its culture, including our altered perception of the world and everyday practice. In this society, the transfer of people, goods, and capital, as well as the exchange of information occurs at a rapidly accelerating pace. The centres of economic and political power – interconnected and interdependent – are becoming increasingly decentralised, creating new models for the organisation and implementation of power (3). This society obeys the standards of TV culture and has become geared towards the mass audiences of mega-sport or mega-art events and of tourism, resulting in a homogenisation of attitudes, though-patterns, and ideologies. This society has access to the almost inexhaustible source of information embodied by the Internet but, at the same time, employs „post-modern thinking“ to call into question established, hierarchical and institutional knowledge, subverting its authority through scientific and academic method.

The global reality of contemporary post-industrial, technocentric society and its post-modern culture presents itself as a non-hierarchical, non-territorial, standardised whole. And the city, the site of constant change and the creation of many new forms of social cohesion, is experienced as a fragmented, dynamic, and interrelated reality – much like its three-dimensional expression, architecture.

Although the work of Claus Prokop and of Esther Stocker uses a very different idiom – video as opposed to painting – both artists employ the module as an instrument in their investigations. In addition, they arrive at artistic conclusions that share a certain “architectural” element.

The work of Esther Stocker poses one of the classic question of painting: What is the nature of the process taking place between perception and recognition? – in other words, a theoretical investigation of the relationship between what is “depicted” in the canvas and what is “generated” by the mind of the viewer; carried out by means of non-representational structures that are contrived and fundamentally architectural in quality.

In each of her works, Stocker analytically and systematically arranges and composes modules – highly condensed in shape and palette – into an autonomous structure based on the distinct relationships between geometrical planes, segments, and lines. In each of her paintings, each (progressive) series of paintings, and in every installation within actual space, Stocker explores the interrelation between these modules (objective, real) and the effect produced by their composition as a form of perception (subjective, illusion).

Very simple compositions based on elementary geometrical patterns and reduced to a palette of black, white, and grey: Esther Stocker’s painting employs extreme formal reduction to achieve a radical restructuring of the perception of space.

Faced with Claus Prokop’s work, one particular element is seen repeatedly to reoccur throughout his work, on canvas, in spatial installations, and in video. It is a basic module element, the constant repetition of which signalises that it has a much stronger presence than its apparent decorative function implies.

On closer consideration, Claus Prokop’s painting displays all these individual elements – with minimal and unique variations – the underlying tectonic structure as well as the different layers of material. As such, each element could be a painting in its own right, while simultaneously remaining within the limits defined by the greater painting as a whole.

It is fascinating to observe how the inquiry into this particular principle induces the artist to develop different pictorial idioms – with very different results. Starting with the photograph of the fragment of a painting – scanned and arranged in rows on a transparent wall – Prokop intervenes in architectural space as if he was dealing with pictorial space. Even though it is the background seen through the transparent wall (rather than the ordered rows of the module element) that provides the mutable element, Prokop once again manages to address two-dimensional space in terms of tectonic structure – as he did in his paintings.

Recently, the artist has produced a number of video works, including the three shown at this exhibition, that integrate sound and movement. In the most recent of these works („Raumgitter“, 2006) Prokop adds certain cadences and syncopated movement sequences to his basic modules, lending them a three-dimensional effect. Employing the recurring principle so typical of his entire oeuvre, Prokop once again achieves new and unexpected artistic results.

This catalogue also contains a number of photographs by Annette Munk. I first came across the work of Annette Munk in April this year, at a Vienna gallery showing part of her joint project with Romana Hagyo „Standard life/living standard“ (2005-2006), which the two artist had previously presented at Tabor, Berlin and Krakow.

Munk that day presented several photo series of facades and elements of ‘urban furnishing’ likewise emphasising the idea of standardisation, serial repetition, and uniformity, i.e. concepts very closely related to those at the outset of „Modus Moduli“. As this exhibition project had already been decided upon, I asked Annette Munk if she would permit the publication of two of her photo series in this catalogue. I would like to use this opportunity to thank her for her kind cooperation.

Notes

1 A. Blánquez: Vitrubio y los diez libros de Arquitectura, 1980

2 M.Mora: Formas de la Urbe/Observaciones sobre las urbes contemporáneas, 2005

3 M. Hardt, A. Negri: Imperium, 2002

4 P. Jardí: Revista Lápiz/213, 2005

5 www.hagyo.at/standard

(Catalog MODUS MODULI)