Andreas Bunte, Erosion, 2016. Installation view at SFU Gallery, 2016. Photo: Blaine Campbell.
Andreas Bunte: Erosion
September 13 - November 18, 2016
SFU Gallery
Andreas Bunte's work takes up the interplay between technology, architecture and the body. In thinking about how this interplay is reflected in our physical environment, Bunte turned to SFU's Burnaby campus as the site of a new film work entitled Erosion that addresses a specificity of place and the complex artistic, philosophical and environmental dialogues that engage our current moment. We have long considered how architecture and art both contribute and respond to social, cultural and political life. It is only more recently that we recognize that human activities-artistic and otherwise-have altered geologic conditions and processes. Erosion, shot in January 2016, treats SFU's iconic and internationally recognized Brutalist architecture as a geological formation.
University architecture is commonly judged on its ability to provide a productive learning environment and to promote an active social life on the campus. However, Erosion does not focus on the campus buildings in this respect. In asserting that architecture is geology, Bunte is interested in how we have interfered with our planet's materials such that we have literally transformed the earth's geomorphology. Erosion provides insight into the geological implications of SFU's building over the social experience of the site to articulate a new vision of art, architecture and our current epoch, the Anthropocene.
Understanding the campus as a geological fact-like the mountain rock on which it is located-Erosion is a meditation on the specific temporality of architecture. Architecture is not only subject to trends that relegate buildings to their specific decade and architectural movement, it is also exposed to natural processes that yield an understanding of them not as static forms but as constantly in flux.
Andreas Bunte is a Berlin based visual artist who works primarily in film. He recently completed his PhD at the Academy of Fine Art in Oslo, examining the genre of so-called Scientific-Research-Film and its attempt to subjugate film to the idea of utmost realism. He was a past Audain Artist in Residence at SFU (2014) where he began a dialogue with SFU Galleries about his interest in its campus architecture. His work has been exhibited at Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna; Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin; Museum of Art & Design, New York; Or Gallery, Vancouver; Cornerhouse, Manchester; Kunsthalle Basel; ar/ge Kunst, Bolzano; Bielefelder Kunstverein; Kunstverein Hamburg: Berlinale Film Festival and will be included in Skulptur Projekte Münster in 2017.
Curated by Melanie O'Brian
The work Erosion was co-produced by SFU Galleries, SFU's School for the Contemporary Arts Audain Visual Artist in Residence Program, and Cineworks.
Events
Andreas Bunte: Erosion Opening Reception
Saturday, September 10 2016, 12 - 4pm
SFU Gallery, Burnaby
Andreas Bunte: Artist Talk
Saturday, September 10 2016, 1pm
SFU Gallery, Burnaby
Film Screenings
DIM Cinema, The Cinematheque 1131 Howe Street
Program One: All That is Solid
Wednesday, September 28, 7:30pm
Programmed by Melanie O'Brian and Michèle Smith.
A Idade da Pedra (The Age of Stone), Ana Vaz/France-Brazil 2013. 29 min. HD Video
No Damage, Caspar Stracke/USA 2002. 13 min. HD Video
Substrait (Underground Dailies), Gordon Matta-Clark/USA 1976. 30 min. 16mm transfer
All That is Solid, Eva Kolcze/Canada 2014. 16 min. 16mm transfer
Program Two: Experiments in Education
Wednesday, October 26, 7:30pm
Programmed by Melanie O'Brian and Michèle Smith. Introductory remarks by Aoife MacNamara, Dean of the Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology at SFU.
Walk-Through, Redmond Entwistle/Great Britain 2012. 18 min. DCP
Rochdale College, Raphael Bendahan/Canada 1970. 21 min. 16mm
Stereo, David Cronenberg/Canada 1969. 65 min. 35mm
Tickets $11/9 + $3 membership. Co-produced with DIM Cinema. For more information on the screenings, click here.
Support Material
Video
Andreas Bunte: Artist Talk
Saturday, September 10, 1pm
SFU Gallery
