“Space Invaders” :: it’s not what you think…

22a :: (initiated in 1996): Named after their original studio “location” in the industrial area of Poblenou, Barcelona; this curatorial/artist group seek out new ways to promote artistic production and to question traditional exhibiting models.

Space Invaders :: “The central, driving idea is to invade the space of others or just as well of common spaces, so as to share, co-inhabit, live with, communicate, participate in, interact. If the art space is desacralized, if art is wrenched out of its specific space, all that is left for us is the street, the public space, the social space, in the purest and most direct confrontation with reality…”

The project Fuerte Europa (Fortress Europe), by artist Anee-Britt Rage, proved to be a significant piece of work which exemplified 22a’s objectives. The politically provocative event included flying 15 kites with the faces of extreme right European politicians (Haider, Le Pen, Anglada, ...) on the beaches of Barceloneta and Bogatell. This was supplemented with the dispersion of literature regarding xenophobia in Europe and the decline of various right-wing movements around the world.

Initiatives like 22a demonstrate how a new sociology of public space can emerge through the integration of an unsuspecting public + an unequivocally socially-engaging piece of art. The strength of 22a stems from it’s ability to separate itself from the other more common forms of public art - such as graffiti art – in two main ways: 1) It's transient status: the event and 2) It's ability to spatially transform it's surroundings through its materiality.

InvadedSPACE ::
Similarly, there has recently been a couple of “Space Invaders” outside of my studio in the main foyer of the Architecture Graduate building! Student prank or serious stuff? ...

ReadingSPACE ::
Space Invaders: Artistic Interventions in Barcelona by 22a
Navigate it!: http://www.22a.org/ (in Spanish only)

Architecturaluncanny would like to note that she likes the installations and that prior to having them in the school she was thinking that she was getting “BDBD” or what is more commonly known as: Badly Designed Building Depression (BDBD: n. depression and/or decrease of inspirational or motivational faculties due to a lack of stimulation, heat, daylight, practicality, personality/character, in your space of work!).

Thank goodness for my classmates or I would’ve stabbed myself in the eyeballs with my drafting pencils a long, long time ago!

Note: (for non-Carleton people) there are two separate buildings at our School of Architecture. I assume that they wanted to grant the Masters of Architecture kids the new sterile building for all their hard work and $’s invested over the past 4 – 5 years…thanks, Carleton...boooo!