BUENOS AIRES.- Faena Art presents the story of four years of collaboration between Faena and the renowned Antwerp- and Amsterdam-based design duo Studio Job with an immersive exhibition that takes over the Sala Molinos, the main exhibition space of Faena Art Center Buenos Aires (FAC), and features highlights from the collaboration, including never-before-seen process drawings and renderings. For “Futopia Faena by Studio Job,” which opened to the public at FAC on July 23, 2015, Studio Job transformed the windows and floor of the Sala Molinos into an alternative cathedral of light and color that also serves as a roller-dancing installation, with celebration and revelry at its heart. Concurrently with the interactive floor installation in Sala Molinos, Studio Job has intervened with the triple-height, cathedral-style windows of FAC and created stained-glass designs that demonstrate the trajectory of Faena’s distinct symbology. A series of drawings, flags, and collage materials that provide greater context for Studio Job’s working process, also are on view.
“Studio Job’s visionary experimentation bridges the worlds of art and design and blurs the boundaries between the disciplines—that is why we invited them to work as our heralds and to create with us a constellation of signs and symbols that constitutes our heraldry and visual language today” says Ximena Caminos, chair of FAENA ART and executive director of FAC. “To us, the world created by FAENA ART represents a contemporary utopia – in the sense of those eternal human dreams and desires of harmonizing time and space in ideal enclaves. The utopia that flourished in unprecedented ways during the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the Belle Époque, rises again now, at the beginning of the 21st century, with a hope of reconciling culture and nature.”
Alan Faena, Principal of Faena Group, notes, “Studio Job and Faena’s ongoing collaboration is a true manifestation of the Faena mission to foster cross-cultural exchange. ‘Futopia Faena by Studio Job’ illustrates our personal path and stylistic evolution, and demonstrates the beautiful things we aim to share with the world. As we near the opening of the Faena District Miami Beach in November, we are particularly pleased to be able to present commissions they have created for that space with the Argentine public.”
Studio Job infuses the Faena Art Center with their unique cross-disciplinary approach and draw upon their long-standing connection to Faena to create a fully immersive environment— encompassing not only the design for the Sala Molinos floor, but also new works based on Faena’s symbology that occupy the monumental room’s floor-to-ceiling windows, generating a brilliantly colored stained-glass effect that bathes the space and visitors in multicolored light. DJ, singer, and producer Henri, known for her original productions and work with psychedelic krautrock band Thrillionaire, is spinning live music for roller-dancing.
“Working with Faena is not working….Playing with Faena is intellectual fun and the upcoming, multi-faceted exhibition at Faena Art Center showcases how our longstanding collaboration with Faena has been an incredible series of inspiring experimentations,” notes Studio Job.
This year’s roller dance installation follows a tradition begun in 2014 by FAENA ART and the artist collective assume vivid astro focus (avaf), embodying Faena’s commitment to mounting participatory and holistic cultural experiences. For its first exhibition in Argentina, avaf was commissioned to create a site-specific roller disco installation, titled “ángeles veloces arcanos fugaces,” in celebration of Faena Hotel’s 10-year anniversary. The exhibition comprised a neo-disco roller rink encompassing music, movement, lights, dance, and explosive color—embodying revelry, participation, transformation, and celebration of community.
FAENA ART serves as a platform for cultural manifestations, such as those created by Studio Job, that are housed in Faena Art Center Buenos Aires and its soon-to-launch sister venue, Faena Forum, opening in Faena District Miami Beach in the first quarter of 2016. Over the past four years, Studio Job has collaborated with Faena on custom symbology that appears on pavement, fences, wallpaper, sculptures, printed material, and banners throughout Faena District Miami Beach. Their commissions include four gates around the District perimeter, which are constructed from steel and weaved chain link, and feature symbols of imagination, life, passion, unity, and transformation—ideas central to the Faena mission. Studio Job also created two sculptural installations, The Tree of Life and Faena Fountain, which were commissioned for the gardens of Faena Hotel Miami Beach.
Studio Job was founded in 2000 by Job Smeets and Nynke Tynagel, both graduates of the Design Academy Eindhoven. Their collaboration has created highly expressive, mainly oneoff or limited-edition works, redefining the applied arts for the contemporary age. Studio Job’s work is widely exhibited in New York, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Paris, London, Milan, Miami, Shanghai, Abu Dhabi and Basel, and their designs are in collections of more than 40 museums worldwide. Studio Job is based in Antwerp and Amsterdam.
