Lecture SAC
Gabi Schillig: Responsive Architectures: Dialogical Spaces
Thursday, 4. May 2017, 19.00, Aula

HOSTED BY FOUNDATION STÄDELSCHULE FÜR BAUKUNST

Not only our objects are becoming more virtual but also our spaces. Genuine common action and communication, on the other hand, is closely linked to corporeality and to materiality, to the direct experience of the impact and significance of an action. Humans, as sensual and living beings, and their relations and interactions with space they are a part of and which they influence through their actions, are at the core of Gabi Schillig´s artistic investigations.

The question of body, materiality and physicality becomes an important criterion: the choice of material and the development of structure not only affect the geometric and spatial properties of objects and spaces, but also transport multi-sensory and atmospheric aspects that can be used to enfold spaces of communication: within exhibition and interior spaces, spatial installations, through instruments and in urban environments and landscapes. 'Dialogical Spaces’ are performative spaces that invite the viewer to become an active participant. Interactions not only establish corporeal, time-based, spatial or object-based relationships but also communicative and social relations between people. They enable another kind of perception of space and enfold potential spaces in which experimental spatial constructs act as mediating structures and surfaces.

Gabi Schillig studied Architecture in Coburg and completed her postgraduate studies at the Städelschule Architecture Class in the early 2000’s with Prof. Ben van Berkel, before founding the Studio for Dialogical Spaces in Berlin. In the past she taught Space-Related Systems and Exhibition Design at the Berlin University of the Arts’ Institute for Transmedia Design, as well as in the Architecture Class at Städelschule Frankfurt. In 2012 she was appointed as Professor for Spatial Design at the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences - Peter Behrens School of Arts (PBSA) at the Faculty of Design. Since 2015 she is the vice chairwoman of the Institute for Research in Applied Arts (IRAA) at the PBSA. Since 2005 she is teaching and lecturing in trans-disciplinary contexts, has exhibited internationally and received several fellowships and prizes, amongst others: Akademie Schloss Solitude Stuttgart (2007-08), Van Alen Institute New York (2009), Nordic Artists´ Centre Dale (2010),Weissenhof Architekturförderpreis (2010), KHOJ International Artists´ Association New Delhi (2011) and Largodas Artes Rio de Janeiro (2015). In 2016 she was a resident fellow at the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau. 

Both in her artistic work and teaching she investigates contemporary and future questions of spatial design such as the relationship between space and body, the emergence of spatial systems, the potentials of materiality and the experimental use of analogue and digital design methodologies. Her conceptual approach results in multi-sensory, dialogical structures and spaces of communication on multiple scales and in different spatial contexts. They lead to the concept of a multidimensional spatiality, based on social and physical processes and connect materiality and interaction in an immediate way.

Der Vortrag findet in englischer Sprache statt.