Peter Friedl Rehousing 101

Rehousing (101), 2016. ABS, polyurethane resin, PVC, stainless steel, wood, acrylic paint, 21 x 30 x 24 cm. Unique. 

Peter Friedl’s Rehousing, project is the result of the artist’s interest in finding artistic solutions to problems of modernism that have never been fully resolved in the course of the movement’s history. It consists of minutely detailed, scale models of housing projects which are case studies for a mental geography of different forms and modes of modernity. Among the ten models showcased in Taipei Biennial 2016 four of them are new works: one of the few derelict buildings left from Vann Molyvann’s “100 Houses” project completed in 1967 for workers of the National Bank of Cambodia in Tuk Thia, Phnom Penh (101); a dingzihu or Chinese “nail house,” an architectural landmark in times of rampant redevelopment and social change (Holdout); a dome from Drop City, the short lived counterculture community founded in Southern Colorado in 1965, which transformed Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic design principles into a DIY version (Dome); and a recently installed container home from a refugee camp in Jordan, a case study of contemporary political architecture (Azraq). 

Peter Friedl Rehousing Dome

Rehousing (Dome), 2016. MDF, Plexiglas, polyurethane resin, PVC, wood, acrylic paint 18 x 45,5 x 45,5 cm. Unique.

Peter Friedl Rehousing Holdout

Rehousing (Holdout), 2016. MDF, Plexiglas, polystyrene, polyurethane resin, PVC, wood, acrylic paint, 27,5 x 13 x 30 cm. Unique.

Peter Friedl Rehousing Azraq

Rehousing (Azraq), 2016. MDF, Plexiglas, polystyrene, polyurethane resin, PVC, wood, acrylic paint, 16 x 31 x 22 cm. Unique.

Peter Friedl Postcards Gwangju Biennial b

Postcards, 2007. 7 color photographs, each 62 x 83 cm. Edition of 7. Exhibition view, 7th Gwangju Biennale 2008.

Peter Friedl’s Postcards series (2007) consists of scanned, enlarged and reprinted postcards. One set of seven prints – images of pets: dogs and (toy) cats – was sent from Switzerland by the artist’s mother to her young son in 1963 (the titles include the exact dates). The other set shows castles, harbors, cliffs, historic sites, artworks (one postcard is a reproduction of a landscape painting by J. M. W. Turner), and tourist attractions across Europe, sent by Friedl to his mother in the summer of 1976. Closing the gap between document and artifact, the Postcards series deals with intimacy, memory, and loss: images are made public but the written contents on the rear are censored. 

Peter Friedl Postcards Gwangju Biennial c

Postcards, 2007. 7 color photographs, each 83 x 62 cm. Edition of 7. Exhibition view, 7th Gwangju Biennale 2008.

Peter Friedl’s Postcards series (2007) consists of scanned, enlarged and reprinted postcards. One set of seven prints – images of pets: dogs and (toy) cats – was sent from Switzerland by the artist’s mother to her young son in 1963 (the titles include the exact dates). The other set shows castles, harbors, cliffs, historic sites, artworks (one postcard is a reproduction of a landscape painting by J. M. W. Turner), and tourist attractions across Europe, sent by Friedl to his mother in the summer of 1976. Closing the gap between document and artifact, the Postcards series deals with intimacy, memory, and loss: images are made public but the written contents on the rear are censored.