Traces of spaces

Nikolaus Gansterer was in residency in september 2010 and came back to Ghent in March 2011 to present the project 'Traces of Spaces' at Arts Centre Vooruit's festival 'the games is up!' . It was presented in the form of an archive of drawings and mapping stations and three mapping stations in the city. A set of drawings and mapping stations of the ‘Traces of Spaces archive’ is part of the timelab Collection.

The Vienna based artist Nikolaus Gansterer has a deep interest in the links between drawing, thinking and action. While having had an ongoing practice of mappings and diagrams, in his recent project for timelab he focused on the exploration of expanded drawing.

'Is it possible to let the inherent dynamics of space be recorded, mapped and drawn by themselves? Therefore, dynamic things in public space such as trees, wind, insects, etc., are tested to become drawing tools, capturing  unique described movements. Thus, for example, a writing tool suspended inside hardware inscribes on a paper the wave movement of a canal; drawing instruments held on stretched ropes are pressed onto paper by birds sitting on the ropes, papers attached to street cars brush through the city or even plain papers get buried in the park becoming a test field for microbial activities: All of these experiments offering a very specific insight on the otherwise invisible traces of the urban spaces. Each of the drawing stations distributed here in Gent is its own performative spot at which the observer can follow the process.' Nikolaus Gansterer
 

All the resulting material will be put together into a growing archive and can be seen in the context of a presentation and a series of performative installations at the festival “The game is up” in March 2011. Then the artist is also planning to compile his findings in a small publication.

http://www.gansterer.org