Different Kinds of Water Pouring into a Swimming Pool

Andrés Jaque and Office for Political Innovation explores the potential of post-foundational politics and symmetrical approaches to the sociology of technology to rethink architectural practices.

The office is currently devoted to the study of connected domesticities such as politically-activated urbanism and gartenstadts or garden cities. According to Jaque, while domestic spaces function as private places, they also participate in the construction of the collective: these are ideal spaces to generate opinion and dismantle consensus. These spaces have been the hotbed of many revolutions, as the architecture functions not only as a space for experimenting with new technologies, but also in the realm of thought and political activity.

For his project Different Kinds of Water Pouring Into a Swimming Pool at REDCAT, Jaque interviewed a number of L.A. County residents, discussing their use of various architectural and household elements in their yards. His installation will feature a selection of big box store domestic materials together with elements culled from the history of garden cities. These elements will be assembled according to their function in bringing bodies and communities into the political arena of the public sphere. Highlighting the usage of water, accumulations of basic elements of Angelenos’ back yards as contemporary iteration of gartenstadt, the project will consume the exhibition space in the form of a model garden-city-home.

About Andrés Jaque

Andrés Jaque (Madrid, 1971) is the director of Andrés Jaque Arquitectos and the Office for Political Innovation. He is currently Visiting Professor at GSAPP Columbia University (Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation) and also teaches at the School of Architecture at the UE Universidad Europea de Madrid.

Andrés Jaque Arquitectos’s IKEA Disobedients was recently acquired by Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 2012, the group presented PHANTOM. Mies as Rendered Society at Mies van der Rohe Pavilion, Barcelona. In 2011, the research and prototype-making project Sweet Parliament Home was presented at the Gwangju Biennale and, Fray Foam Home was presented in 2010 Venice Biennial. Their work Tupper Home was a finalist in the European Award Mies van der Rohe and Casa Sacerdotal Diocesana de Plasencia received the Dionisio Hernández Gil Prize and was a finalist in VIII Bienal Española de Arquitectura y Urbanismo.

About REDCAT

The Gallery at REDCAT focuses on experimentation through new commissions that often represents the artist’s first major presentation in the U.S. or Los Angeles. The exhibition program ventures to cross-pollinate shared concepts and critical discourses that connect art to other fields in service of an interdisciplinary program. Using different scales and temporary structures, the exhibition formats are flexible and constantly reformulated. REDCAT’s publishing program features major monographs and art books on contemporary artists. Starting in 2013, a new series of small-format publications will serve as guides for the exhibitions at REDCAT. These publications work as critical tools that open points of interest and contribute to the constant reinterpretation of the issues addressed in the exhibitions.

Gallery at REDCAT is open Tuesdays through Sundays from noon to 6 om or until intermission. It is closed Mondays and major holidays. Admission is always free.

Opening Reception on Saturday, September 21, from 6 pm to 9 pm.