Pavement
Pavement is an exhibition space housed in a former drapery store. The window space, which cannot be entered by the public, provides a highly visible stage for the display of international contemporary art. Any threshold existing between the institution and the outside world is absent; the work can be seen by the public, day and night. A distant glance engages the viewer and the work invites their scrutiny. Pavement will allow for the exploration of potential differences in the relationship of contemporary art to an unconventional institutional setting. The work on display will seek to utilise and exploit its position of visibility in order for its significance to be explored and to generate a wider response.
Antoni Muntadas
8th December 2011 – 1st February 2012
Pavement Gallery presents the piece WARNING: PERCEPTION REQUIRES INVOLVEMENT by the acclaimed artist Antoni Muntadas. The work is part of an on-going project 'On Translation', which has been shown internationally.
The highly visible platform that Pavement Gallery provides is particularly appropriate for this piece, which works as both an instruction and challenge to the viewer. The course of everyday urban life is accompanied by a mass of signs and signals, all of which seek to persuade, explain, cajole and influence the way in which we exist in the city. The Muntadas piece acts as a deliberate warning to the viewer, suggesting perhaps that we need to re-think our understanding of ordinary things.
Muntadas examines the possibilities and complications of language and communication in both art and life. With the piece exhibited in Pavement, the text is written large scale onto the surface of the city; a visible reminder that we should not take anything at face value.
