*DENKMAL noun 1 : German for monument 

*DENK noun 1 : German for thought 2 verb: the imperative of denken, to think. 

*DENK MAL(AN): “think about it”. 

Walking around Pankow with Vera Schöpe and Hanae Utamura,  we encountered an odd and mysterious object embedded in the sidewalk. A metallic frame, too tall to be intended for locking bikes, too awkwardly positioned to hold advertisements. Hanae swung from it, Vera photographed it, I measured and sketched it, we interviewed passersby about it. Even after learning its original intended use, I’m still drawn to it, still making drawings of it and still drawing attention to it and all its possible different uses and meanings. By restoring it and honoring its presence in a more ‘official’ way, I’m hoping to set it in motion in a way that it remains untranslatable, unknowable and in process; oscillating between the banal and the valuable, fixity and movement, being a relic and a monument.


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Denk mal #1

Prototype of a custom-made scrolling device that allows me to draw and write in a single continuous line as I stroll around without having to turn pages or lift the pencil. The idea is that the next version has the ability to automatically vary the speed of the paper’s movement based on how fast or slow I walk.

*In collaboration with Ken Campbell


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Stroller+scroller

This is the second series of experiments in the collaborative project with Vanessa Enríquez inspired by the notion of the body as compass.

Zirkel 2.0 tracks three bodies via two large ephemeral chalk drawings realized on site at the Galerie Kollaborativ in Berlin, one of which was rehearsed daily during the week leading up to the opening date (December 14, 2012) and was continued to be erased, re-performed and photographed for the next 7 days. The other drawing, double in size, is the result of 7 experiments that were documented in detail to offer an in-depth view into our process. 

http://vimeo.com/56174316


Zirkel 2.0

Zirkel (German for compass) is an on-going and open-ended collaborative project with Vanessa Enriquez for which we use the most readily available drawing tool we have: our own bodies.

We experiment with a series of gestural inscriptions and erasures using chalk on blackboards. Each piece entails a sequence of a minimum of three types of circular bodily movements defined by structured decision-making, using a matrix of variables of motion and form. The blackboards allow us not only to construct areas proportional to our own reach and size — a key element in the conceptual structure of the work –, but also to experiment freely and learn from the process through a never-ending response to each other and the material.

Through the exploration of angles, rotations, extents and limitations of our body articulations and positions, we map and superimpose our particularities and differences. Each drawing not only is a fertile ground to study gesture and composition, but also becomes a space of negotiation. In this way, Zirkel acts as a device for measuring, anchoring, navigating and locating.

In the context of our exhibition at the Embassy of Mexico in Berlin (April 4 – May 11, 2012), Zirkel 1.0 presented five impermanent drawings performed on site, a series of photographs of our first 28 experiments, a stop-motion video documenting our method, and the notation system that will continue to be developed, re-calibrated and adapted as we keep introducing new types of movements into our shared practice.


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Zirkel 1.0

Series of oil paintings that have been repainted over and over again since 1992.

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Palimpsests II (Endless)

Dear… is a series of spoken love ‘letters’ I made for those who I was afraid I might never see again. Wavering, I soon trashed the sound files but kept the visuals. I’ve recently decided to print and mail them out to the original intended recipients.

Dear...

The walker on the left is my dear friend Sara Zimmerman walking down a path while watching a video of me walking down that same path while watching a video of her walking down the same path as she watched a video of me walking down the path…

The walker on the right is me walking down the path as I watched a video of Sara walking down the same path as she watched a video of me walking down the path as I watched a video of her walking down the path…

All while trying to match our steps with the ones on the screen.

http://vimeo.com/47181453

Co-walking

Still in the first stages of development, this project consists in the production of hundreds of handmade, life-size, realistic-looking and bio-regionally-correct ceramic mushrooms and their distribution at an undisclosed site. Instead of mushroom picking, the idea is to discreetly go “mushroom placing” every night for a whole month during the next rain season. Those attentive to their surroundings — or those simply lucky — will end up with a one-of-a-kind offering.

Myco-gifti(n)g

Hand painted text* on canvases that have been painted, scraped off and repainted over and over again since 1992. 
Study of one of the paint chips scraped off from one of the canvases.

Text:*"Parcs Interiors. L'Obra de Set Despintors" by Perejaume.

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Palimpsests. (The Archaeological Work of a Wandering Scribe.)

On the road to Vila Nova de Cerveira, the “land of deer” in northern Portugal, I spotted one of those ‘deer crossing’ road signs. I asked if there were many deer in the area. The reply: hunted to extinction. So story (very, very) short, I embarked on a mission to draw the original settler back from exile by way of a 4+km outline of a royal stag over the whole town. After months of walks around the area to map the territory, I realized that the combination of old and modern streets would provide me with all the lines I needed (and much more). The drawing itself was described by an unannounced and nocturnal “deerwalk”, for which I wore specially crafted ‘hooves’ that stamped  a golden ‘deer track’ at every step. The trek was mapped out to start and end at the same spot (i.e. in front of the entrance to the castle, between the two antlers) and was documented by curious passersby.


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http://vimeo.com/47168515

Deerwalk  (The Return of the One Who's Always Been Around.)

Proposal to de-pollute Mexico City air(space).

De-pollution

As a constant traveler, I find my way around unknown spaces by wandering around map-less and by finding/making correspondences with the landmarks of the city where I was born and know fairly well. Sometimes the associations are quite literal, sometimes poetical, but more often than not, they only make sense to me.

During my time in Barcelona, I made two maps: one of downtown Mexico City and the other of downtown area of my new environment. At least that’s what they read. At closer look though, the map that says ‘México D.F. Centro” is actually the map of Barcelona and vice versa. Street names such as Alameda Central and Passeig de Grácia replace Las Ramblas and Paseo de la Reforma.

I gave away a few of these professional-looking pocket maps to unsuspecting visitors in each of the cities to assist them in finding alternate ways to transit space. Hopefully, at least one person welcomed the invitation to get lost and stumbled across happy accidents and undiscovered gems.

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Welcome. Get Lost. 

...it's art.

This is an ongoing site-specific project first developed during a residence at the Banff National Park, in the Canadian Rockies. The idea is to use materials derived from the same objects to be represented, thus creating a ‘circle of conservation’ of both matter and form.

In this case, a 15m tall Douglas Fir rising from its own charcoal.

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Phoenix Trees

Using my childhood drawings as my 'blueprints', I build three-dimensional and life-sized 'houses'. So far, four different constructions, on eight occasions and in five different countries have been installed.

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Ilya Noe