- This event has passed.
Big Red by Assemble
June 19, 2021 - September 26, 2021
Location: The Bentway (250 Fort York Blvd)
Opens June 19 (approx)
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Check out this installation. Step up. Slide down. Whirl and twirl. Hang out in the spaces between. What feels possible when nothing is impossible?
In 1968 the architect Lina Bo Bardi produced an evocative illustration of her design for the Museum of Art, São Paulo (MASP), depicting a number of play objects occupying the public space created by the structure of the building itself, which was elevated on four striking ‘stilts’.
The sizing of the play objects is unusual, depicted as they would be in the imagination of a child, rather than to any realistic scale. This is a fantastical universe, one rendered impossible by the political context in which MASP was built, where such collective expression writ large was in reality unthinkable. As such the drawing is a tool to speak about civic life under military rule and the power that the lens of childhood allows in thinking about the making of alternative worlds and a space designed for inclusivity.
Inspired by this now-famous drawing, this project interprets and makes real one of the play sculptures from Bo Bardi’s original illustration acting as a device to challenge the civic context found at The Bentway. Assemble considers play to be a form of critical enquiry; Bo Bardi’s image is inspiring because it demonstrates a way to imagine, create, and live an impossible reality.
Commissioned by The Bentway Conservancy and Nottingham Contemporary and presented
Big Red is a part of The Bentway’s Playing in Public season, a collection of outdoor and online projects that invite you to rediscover “play” in the city.
About Assemble
Assemble is a multi-disciplinary collective working across architecture, design and art.
Founded in 2010 to undertake a single self-built project, Assemble has since delivered a diverse and award-winning body of work, whilst retaining a democratic and co-operative working method that enables built, social and research-based work at a variety of scales, both making things and making things happen.
Big Red is co-commissioned by:
Big Red is supported by:
