The Primal Shelter is The Site For Primal Fears

26.Nov.2016

The Living Art Museum presents The Primal Shelter if the Site for Primal Fears an exhibition curated by Patrik Aarnivaara (SE) and Maija Rudovska (LV)

This exhibition looks at the subject of fear and horror in relation to spatiality and architecture. The house in particular and architecture in general as an object and possible stage for horror, a place for imagination, action, a cause for psychological triggers, a primal shelter or future ruin, a safe place yet unsafe at the same time, which can possibly turn into a cage, a prison, and a dead fall.

Inspired by Eugene Thacker, JG Ballard and other writers that give us ways to imagine the separation between us and the world, that which is never completely graspable, the “world-in-itself” and the “world-without-us”.

Playing with the idea of architecture as an entity in itself, in a contemporary space or future landscape inhabitable for, or devoid of humans, as if architecture has consumed or outlived its inhabitants.

The project evolved from an interest in horror films as a genre where certain aesthetics and fear are often constructed by means of architecture. Research was conducted on the topic during a collaborative residency at HIAP in Helsinki a few years ago, initially with the title Scenography of Horror .

Images, texts and videos were collected and presented in a joint lecture in Helsinki a year later. The material and conclusions are the foundation for this exhibition project, The Primal Shelter is the Site for Primal Fears, taking place at The Living Art Museum in Reykjavik.

Participants:
Darren Banks (UK), O.B. De Alessi (IT/FR), Shirin Sabahi (IR/DE), Alexandra Zuckerman (IL), Johan Österholm (SE), Christian Andersson (SE), Elin Hansdottir (IS), Yuki Higashino (JP/AT) and Barbara Sirieix (FR).