Portrait #2 [Casa Malaparte | Barcelona Pavilion]
For the second portrait Welz again is choosing a non-classical form of a portrait. Instead of addressing the architectural specifics of the Barcelona-Pavilion directly, Welz brings to life a very unique communication: a dialogue between two architectural icons - the Barcelona-Pavilion and the Casa Malaparte. Malaparte by itself is already considered to be a portrait of its original owner. In so far filming the curved wall on the roof of Casa Malaparte, the horizon, the large painting like windows, as well as the prominent staircase can be seen as portraying a portrait. Welz’ sculptural approach to installation converts on one hand the architecture into a sculptural device for the projections. On the other side the installation of Welz mediates between these two icons. It causes that the buildings resonate, comment and support each other. By doing so they allow the audience to take part in a complex discourse, shape a profound experience of modernism and create a more complex portrait of the modernist building instead of stopping at the ‚face/facade’.
Informed by his interest in questions concerning the body, space and the visualization of a dynamic between these fields, it has always been crucial for Peter Welz to trace back the profound connections between modernism, post-modernism, and altermodernism through the moving image and architecture. His complex video-installations often not only ask how specific forms like drawing, painting, dance, video and sculpture change and struggle in their ways of capturing movements in space. But furthermore intensely involve the observer and request new ways of thinking and experiencing the image, the spatial setting, the body, and movement.
Portrait #2 [Casa Malaparte]
Model 1:1, Mies van der Rohe, Krefeld, Germany, 2013
Photo: Studio Dannenmann, Michael Dannenmann, BFF + DGPh
