A crack has formed in the Barbican. Hundreds of them, actually, discovered deep in the concrete with ultrasonic scans by design collective Resolve.
And when they found those deep fissures, they knew they had something to mine for their Curve installation. For them, the cracks are a chance to pry apart a beloved, monolithic institution and rebuild it from the inside.
The Curve is lined with ramps and stages and benches, all bending and mirroring the gallery’s undulating walls. There are bookshelves filled with publications on Black art and architectural theory, worktables for making sculptures, stages for performances. Each structure is made out of reclaimed material from other cultural institutions. A bench is made out of cork from the Royal Academy, shelves from Goldsmith’s CCA, ramps made of discarded signs from Camden Art Centre. All these institutions’ rubbish has been appropriated, reshaped and remodelled into what Resolve see as a new kind of art institution.
The sticking point is that this is art about art. It’s institutional critique, and that’s only really interesting on an institutional level. For anyone not involved in cultural institutions, it's a little like having to listen to someone talk about their dreams.
But also, for the most part, this isn’t really an art installation, it’s an empty stage set, it's social architecture. It’s a performance space/art studio/reading room that needs performers, makers and visitors. Over the course of the show, it will play host to performances, screenings and talks, and that’s when it will be at its best. The rest of the time, viewers are left with a whole bunch of not much.
Resolve’s aim here is still full of potential. Instead of the stuffy, elitist, closed door approach of most cultural spaces, Resolve’s Curve is meant to be an open, accessible, equitable place, a space where anyone can come and learn, rest, dance, watch, create. This isn’t a closed, private world, it’s a wide open one. And that feels pretty vital.
