Proxemia

PROXEMIA

Proxemics is the study of spatial proximities that individuals maintain in various social and interpersonal situations and how this behaviour varies depending on environmental and cultural factors.
Nikolaus Gansterer and Monika Grzymala first met during the recent exhibition Drawing Now at The Albertina Museum in Vienna, where they both were fascinated by the lines of connections between their work. It was then that they started to plan a joint exhibition project to be presented at Gallery Marie-Laure Fleisch for the first time. PROXEMIA – The Co-creation of Space, is an experimental project in which the two artists transform the exhibition space in Rome into an empirical entity researching on the significance of gestures and distances within non-verbal communication. Following philosopher Henri Lefebvre’s thesis on space as a complex social construction (based on values and the social production of meaning), which affects our habits and spatial perception, the gallery is mapped and decoded as a social, physical and psychological structure.

Gansterer and Grzymala both explore the conditions of creation and perception of space by investigating into distance and proximity in their individual visual languages. These processes are shared by both artists and are translated through gestures and actions to co-create their joint exhibition: PROXEMIA. Forming, re-forming, de-forming, writing over, erasing, re-drawing and re-creating are all graphic representations which become visible traces of their on-going work. In order to explore individually and jointly the spatial dimension and to create new works, Galleria Marie-Laure Fleisch will be transformed for a week into a part of the artists‘ bodies and interpersonal interactions. The result of this experimental dialogue will establish a reciprocal relationship between the artists‘ bodies and the gallery space (as the theoretician Erin Manning would define a Relationscape) and between the art work and the visitors of the exhibition.

Exhibition: „Proxemia – The Co-Creation of Space“ is a site specific collaboration between the two artists Nikolaus Gansterer and Monika Grzymala.

Venue: Gallery Marie Laure Fleisch, Rome, Italy

Duration: 9th December 2015 – 6 February 2016

Press release: Download the full press release here.

Reviews & articles:

– „Creare insieme lo spazio“, Francesca Castiglia, in: Arttribune 20.12.2015

– “La centralità dello spazio con proxemia”, Giulia Zamperini, in: ArtNoise 2015/12
– “Proxemia. The Co-Creation of Space”, Emiliano Zandri, in: ZERO Magazine 2015/12
– “Pause d’attenzione”, Ludovico Pratesi, in: Exibart Magazine 2015/12
– “La co-creazione dello spazio”, Arianna Papale, in: Juliet Art Magazine, 21.01.2016