ACHACU is a staged art institution based on the architectural installation "A chair has a concrete use" in the old garage of Altes Postfuhramt West. From 1 May 2015 - April 29 2016 the installation has functioned as a platform for collecting of material, research and history of structural and architectural issues in the art market, through exhibitions and short time residencies by artist, architec
ts, choreographers and musicians. DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER is a series of events hosted by ACHACU in May and June 2016. Based on the one year of collecting of material the events expose and re-phrase the theory, history and contextual identities, viewed through the artists in residence. Berlin Gallery Weekend 2016 marked the opening of the project ACHACU - Dissociative Identity Disorder.
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PRESSTEXT:
DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER - ACHACU
DID_THE ARCHITECT_RE-INTERPRET THE SPACE AS SITUATION_
1. DID: "Dissociative identity disorder (DID), previously known as multiple personality disorder (MPD),[1] is a mental disorder on the dissociative spectrum characterized by the appearance of at least two distinct and relatively enduring identities or dissociated personality states that alternately control a person's behavior."
2.THE ARCHITECT: The summer and fall of 2016, in Berlin Schöneberg: Altes Postfuhramt West, the old post building and functionalist landmark of Schöneberg, is being transformed into apartments and concept stores by Graft Architects. Graft architects drew Brad Pitts house in LA.
3. RE-INTERPRET THE SPACE AS SITUATION: The spring of 2015: The architectural sculpture ‘A chair has a concrete use’ is developed for the exhibition Concrete Utopias in the Altes Post. The installation is developed from a system of rules stemming from the functionalist nature of the building: A windowsill, a rounded wall, a concrete grid, a column, are turned into a formula that creates an architectural script of altered domestic and public architectural programs. The installation functions as the back room of the exhibition. The installation is activated as a living installation of the behind-the-scenes economy of the art market: as studio, film set, a place for art selling and dinner parties, and as a bedroom for artists in need of a place to stay in Berlin. The project is called ‘The Green Room´.
4. SHOW BUSINESS: ´In show business, the green room is the space in a theatre, or similar venue which functions as a waiting room and lounge for performers before and after a performance, and during the show when they are not engaged on stage. The origin of the term is often ascribed to such rooms historically being painted green.[1][2] The modern "green room" is usually not green at all.´
5. SYSTEMS OF ANOTHER ORDER: September 2015: During the busiest week for art selling and dealing in Berlin ‘A chair has a concrete use’ is exposed as the entrance room of the group exhibition ´Systems of another order´ in Altes Post. The exhibition uses functionalism-modernism as backdrop to distract the visitor from the absent curatorial concept. ‘A chair has a concrete use’ is used by the curators as a tool to push the price of a large-scale modernist painting installed inside the sculpture.
6. SHOW TIME: April 2016: "Berlin Gallery Weekend has managed to establish itself as a magnet for international collectors. Up to 20,000 visitors from all over the world come to Berlin to experience the capital's creative scene. The Gallery Weekend especially attracts art collectors from Russia, China and the U.S."
7. POP-UP SHOP: "Pop-up retail, also known as pop-up store, or flashing retailing[1], is a trend of opening short term sales spaces in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. A "pop-up shop" is "here today, gone tomorrow". Pop-up retail is the temporary use of physical space to create a long term, lasting impression with potential customers."
8. MULTIPLE IDENTITY DISORDER: The term multiple identity disorder (MPD), now known as Dissociative identity disorder (DID), is also borrowed as metaphor for interchanging identities of architectural designs. The space, based on what it is perceived as, changes the status of the visitor. For example in a pop-up shop, the visitor will engage in the space as if it has a sense of belonging, even if it is unfamiliar with its spatial dentity. The term is also used in the cases of when a space is treated as a mere mention to itself, as a flattened billboard, rather than a full-fleshed environment. It also is used to bring emphasis on the arbitrariness implied in treating something as novelty.
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During Berlin Gallery Week 2016 the installation was transformed into two spatial chapters each of the exhibiting days:
Saturday April 30th as a durational performance of the artist living in the installation, at the same time hosting as a pop-up store. On Sunday May 1st as a sculpture in the empty building, exposing the system that made it. The night was concluded by a performance by Pan Daijing. The project was initiated through 3 different facebook events, addressing it as a designer pop-up store in an art installation, as a durational performance of the artist living inside the installation, and as the setting of a site specific performance.
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DID - ACHACU is an art project run by Goro Tronsmo. The architectural installation "A chair has a concrete use" is developed in dialogue with artist/architectural designer Laida Aguirre, based on a collaborative research. Curatorial and production assistant: Stefan Dreher.
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Goro Tronsmo is an artist working between architecture, visual art and performance art. Her work is concerned with extracting and staging institutional structures through large scale context specific living installations. Her architectural work changes and highlights contextual identities through light, manipulated entrance points, and levels built in correspondence with the architecture of the building. It deals with architectural program and its correlation to movement. Her performative work is concerned around creating complete illusion of situations through media strategy, graphic design and hidden staged situations. Laida Aguirre is an artist/architectural designer based in Los Angeles. Her work takes the form of architectural research and printed media dealing with construction elements and raw materials as symbols of tectonic language of site. Stefan Dreher has background in music, interior design, hosting and production management, and works with analysis of social structures initiated through interior, audience choreography and relation between the audience and the performed act. Participating artists: GFS, Ina Hagen, Daisuke Kosugi, Neda Sanai, Allistair Watts, Sophia Baader, Kandis Williams, Tilda Lovell, Pontus Lindvall, Johanna Karlsson, Anne Kathrine Bindesbøll, Zoë Claire Miller, James Greenway, Sophie-Therese Trenka-Dalton, Magnus Bjerk, Mika Risiko, Camilla Vatne Barrat- Due, Stefan Dreher, Marte Reithaug Sterud, Rannei Grenne, Sigrid Vettelsaa Vesaas, Kine Lillestrøm, Sille Storihle, Bendik Giske, Shiaz Legz, Tanja Novikova, Daniella Gallegos (Aerea Negrot), Pan Daijing and Camille Lacadee. Carpenters: Marco Buhlman, Max, Ronnie
Light installation in collaboration with Matthew Antezzo
Assistant architectural choreography: Jorge Gonçalves
Produced by Goro Tronsmo
This work would not have been possible without the generous support and trust of the builders team, the organizers of Realismus Club and Trockland/BRICKS Schöneberg. ACHACU - DID is supported by Arts Council Norway.
