METAGYMNASTICS/SCHUMANN & ZACHARIAS

Artists in Residence

GALLERY HOURS (MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED)

CLOSING RECEPTION TO BE ANNOUNCED

The luggage store welcomes the chlorophyllic art of Hamburg artists PER SCHUMANN and MALTE ZACHARIAS Marking this first US exhibition, METAGYMNASTICS…, Schumann and Zacharias wil create an immersive environment in which taste and smell, sight and speech, hearing and touch are engaged through a cross pollination of disparate art practices.

Curated by: Chris Fitzpatrick, Sham Saenz and Zefrey Throwell

OPENING RECEPTION APRIL 13TH

6-8PM: Schumann and Zacharias will prepare food for the public and discuss Metagymnastics.

SF Chronicle/96 Hours 4/12/07

SF Gate Cultural Blog Video

8PM: A special performance from Osaka based experimental musician

TETSUYA UMEDA curated by MIZUKI ENDO.

the performance will take place in Cohen Alley/GreenLab (dress for outdoors).

Thanks to SAN FRANCISCO BREWCRAFT for the empty 55-gallon drums.

MAY 4, 2007 6PM

SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE/LUGGAGE STORE present

PACIFIC PERSPECTIVES PUBLIC PROGRAMS WAITOO SOUNDS with TETSUYA UMEDA from Osaka

6:00 pm performance followed by

6:30pm presentation

FREE

San Francisco Art Institute, 800 Chestnut Street. San Francisco

EXHIBITION:
Metagymnastics: The secret relationship between plants and humans

This April, San Francisco’s Luggage Store Annex welcomes the chlorophyllic art of Hamburg artists Per Schumann and Malte Zacharias. Marking their first U.S. exhibition, Metagymnastics: The secret relationship between plants and humans creates an immersive environment in which taste and smell, sight and speech, hearing and touch are engaged through a cross-pollination of disparate artistic practices from drawing to horticulture.

Throughout the exhibition, “Odysseus Reise/Ulysses Journey” remains on constant display in the gallery’s storefront window, luring and addressing the viewer. The video, which follows a man as he navigates a neighborhood in Hamburg is overdubbed in German and subtitled in English, revealing a contemplative narration comprised of thoughts, findings, recollections, worries, associations, literary references, and memories elicited by his encounters on daily walks. His narration suggests the exploration of even the most familiar of environments to be an experience that is always changing, and that is as visceral as cerebral, as physical as emotional. Recalling early botanical drawings, “Dailyplants” is one of two series of drawings on paper that line the gallery walls, in which invented plants are integrated with similar interpretations and observations drawn from the aforementioned walks. Additionally, “Daycups”, coffee mugs with drawings inside, will be created on-site over the course of the exhibition based on their experiences, which can be used by viewers and participants to sample herbal lemonade and teas over the course of the exhibition.

The smell of fresh herbs permeates the gallery, at the center of which is a large “Herbkiosk” constructed from recycled wood. This structure serves as a laboratory and kitchen in which the artists will prepare vegetarian meals for the community (a list of ingredients will be posted on-site for consideration). Herbs are not only the exhibition’s primary visual ingredient but also infuse and inspire investigative culinary creations. Taking the consumptive nature of art to extremes, participants literally consume the exhibition by drinking beverages and eating food prepared with the herbs on display. Additionally, food and its preparation function to break down the formality typical of lectures, creating a comfortable and inclusive atmosphere for the exchange of ideas and development of future potentials.

Relational aesthetics are as, if not more important than visual aesthetics in what is not only a cross-disciplinary art exhibition, but also a cross-continental and cross-cultural expedition from which the artists are less interested in teaching than in learning through community engagement. For the opening reception, the artists have prepared a lecture outlining “metagymnastics”, a term they coined, which as stated in the exhibition’s title, denotes a secret relationship between plants and humans. During this lecture, they will illustrate their topic directly on the gallery walls through drawings and diagrams. Several more lectures will be held over the course of the exhibition, in which the artists will discuss past work such as “Hall-of-Silence”, “Philosophical Footbathes”, “The Mission: Art & Soup”, and Entwurf-Direkt, the art space they founded in Hamburg. Additionally, co-curators Chris Fitzpatrick, Sham Saenz, and Zefrey Throwell have invited other individuals, organizations, and educational institutions to participate at various levels.

For an exhibition fueled by community involvement and informed by site-specificity, there could be no better-suited site than the Luggage Store Annex. Located at 509 Ellis Street in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, the outer walls of the gallery are adjacent to Cohen Alley, which has been transformed from a seedy public right-of-way street into a lush outdoor community space. Grass, gardens, trees, and a stage for public performances have replaced a refuse-littered shooting gallery.

Promoting cultural diversity and neighborhood pride while reducing crime, Cohen Alley’s twenty-year overhaul was the vision of Laurie Lazer and Darryl Smith, founding curators of both the Luggage Store Gallery and the Luggage Store Annex. Known today as the Cohen Alley GreenLab, it continues to host a wealth of public services and spectacles from the free mending of clothing and monthly birthday parties for the neighborhood’s children to multimedia screenings, dance performances, and festivals. Both a physical reclamation of an abject space and realization of the potentialities waiting within, Cohen Alley GreenLab provides an appropriate setting for socio-ecological discussions and the development of pragmatic urban planning/redefinition.

The interplay between Metagymnastics and the Luggage Store Annex does not end with the exhibition’s close. Those remaining plants not consumed will be planted in the GreenLab while the recycled wood used in the exhibition will also be incorporated into the site structurally. Most importantly, the exhibition continues on through participants implementing their experience of the exhibition into their daily lives, experiencing their surroundings and perhaps themselves differently. As Schumann explains, the exhibition  cannot be described completely by words and pictures; what is there to be experienced relies on the whole consciousness.

Per Schumann and Malte Zacharias studied at Hamburg’s Hochschule for bildende Knste (HfbK) and have exhibited work in galleries, fairs, and universities in Berlin, Genua, Hamburg, and Rotterdam. In 2001, they founded Entwurf-Direkt, an experimental art space in Hamburg

TETSUYA UMEDA, 8PM

Umeda puts in motion systems and processes for creating sound, and intervenes within these. His sounds are always direct consequences of the systems he sets up – the process is as transparent as possible, without PA or playback of pre-recorded material. His installations use daily, commonplace objects – fans, tin cans, bamboo bowls, buzzers – and the acoustic properties of the space. He will be using 6 55-gallon drums for this performance.

Towards
the end of the 90’s Umeda started out by making abstract short films and participating in many art and music events held in the greater Osaka area. While he was a student at Osaka University of the Arts, he created primarily 3D pieces. From this he started to create sound objects that aimed to seek/test the range and bounderies of sound motion and thier possible outputs . He thus used these sound objects as mainly installations in exhibitions and events .Shortly after this he began to do performances using hand made sound tools at galleries, following this several opportunities arose to perform at live music venues and festivals. During this period he experienced many cross-over improvisational sessions with artists from different genres, and continues to do so today.

For further information

See :http://siranami.com/

Born in Kumamoto, JP and lives in Osaka, JP

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