Shortcut
by the participants of the Curatorial Training Programme Stichting De Appel: Mai Abu ElDahab, Francesco Bernardelli, Nikola Dietrich, Edit Molnar, Natasa Petresin and Basak Senova, 2002

“A spatial distortion or alteration of a pre-existing construction: It is how the borders of space are drawn and how space constructs itself through physical and mental processes. It is a shortcut."

sancho silva

The Inkijk is a skeletal structure, resembling the conventional representation of a house, yet deprived of the essential characteristics of a house/home. The space comprises physical qualities, which suggest certain dualities and dynamics; interior/exterior, in/out, public/private, watching/being watched, zooming in/zooming out, hiding/exposing, looking in/looking out. It is a place of similarities and contradictions, overlapping and superimposing each other. Sancho Silva’s project is a violation of this space; a re-articulation of its structure and function. Silva accentuates the metaphorical and physical implications, and the imposed limitations inherent to architectural constructs.

Sancho Silva’s body of work has continually developed a reinterpretation of Minimalist sculpture, and redefined the spectator’s role as epitomized in the Conceptual tradition of self-reflectivity. Two layers are evident when interpreting Silva’s previous works: the active role of the viewer and the implications of the institution. In recent years, artworks which are conceived and constructed architecturally have been favoured by art practitioners. However, the process inherent in Silva’s work is more an exploration of the role of the viewer as recipient and interlocutor than a reading of architecture as self-referential structures. Within his art practice, the spectator or viewer is a “user”. His approach to the institution is exemplified in his previous project at Manifesta 4 (Frankfurt). The “Gazebo” was imbued with the implications of the building in which it was housed (Frankensteiner Hof), the public area, the city, and the large-scale exhibition. Although both of these layers are present in his projects, the work is always conceived on the abstract level, even if the connection to the institutional background becomes somewhat evident later.

Silva’s work can also be read along the lines of institutional critique. In the case of “Shortcut”, the Inkijk’s special location in relation to the Rijksmuseum gave it the potentiality to be interpreted within this approach. Moreover, as a result of the evident impact of the delineation of space on perception, there is an allusion to power discourses. The shifting of the Inkijk from a space for art to a “Shortcut” can be viewed as a problematization of this dynamic. The attempt to shift the regular way we perceive and interpret space is intrinsic to the “Shortcut”. As with Silva’s older projects, there appears a playful element; the works are on the one hand beautiful architectural solutions, and on the other, they are subversive readings of the functionality of architecture.

After the initial encounter with the physicality of the space for which a project is proposed, Silva envisions the work on an architectural plan as a drawing superimposed on it. This drawing is always very dissimilar to the first architectural plan. The architectural reworking is a sort of mapping: a re-presentation of space.

The “Gazebo” offered two spatial possibilities to the viewer/user implying two very different perceptual experiences. This time, the user can also experience the work by taking the “Shortcut”, and also from within the Inkijk itself by using the building’s entrance. Therein, it opens up further possibilities of questioning the manner in which perception is channelled and conditioned.

“Shortcut” is a process: it is analytical of its content in the first instance, and then suggests critical factor. Two constructions of a different nature are brought together, one feeds off the other to the former’s disadvantage. It is like a parasite.

The passage is inside the Inkijk yet it belongs to the street, it problematizes the very existence of the building.

(This text is based on various conversations between the artist and the curators and was published in the exhibition catalogue: http://www.skor.nl/artefact-1018-nl.html)