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Delfina Foundation presents its final exhibition before a major
renovation by London-based architects Studio Octopi and Cairo-based Shahira
Fahmy Architects. In 2013, Delfina Foundation will expand from its current
location at 29 Catherine Place, near Buckingham Palace, into an adjacent
townhouse at 31 Catherine Place, doubling its exhibition space and creating
London’s largest programme of international residencies for artists,
writers and curators.
Opening during Frieze Art Fair week,
Study for a Garden is the first UK solo exhibition by the
Toronto-based Iranian artist Abbas Akhavan. During a 10-week residency at
Delfina Foundation, Akhavan has produced new artworks in response to 31
Catherine Place. The exhibition will offer a unique experience of the
building before Delfina Foundation’s expansion and re-opening in
autumn 2013.
Akhavan’s practice ranges from site-specific
ephemeral installations to drawing, video and performance. Much of his
early works explore the relationship between the house and nation state and
how the trauma and systemic violence enacted upon civilians can be
inherited and re-enacted within the family lineage. More recent works have
shifted focus onto spaces just outside the home—the garden, the
backyard, and other domesticated landscapes.
Folding the border
between the garden and the domestic space, Study for a Garden
explores the intrusion of nature into the house where familiar spaces have
gradually been invaded by foreign elements. The trespass of water and
vegetation into various rooms of the house is a continuation of
Akhavan’s research into the relationship between foreign and
familiar, hospitable and hostile, domestic and wild. From the front door to
the upstairs bedroom and back to the basement, the installations made of
invasive plant species and hedges govern the audience’s movements,
rendering them at times as guests and at times trespassers. These
territorial gardens are about the naturalisation of barriers; every garden
is a guarded space, an enclosure, a compound. Water, vegetation and
gardening tools create discriminatory spaces, keeping some species alive
and others dead.
The residency and exhibition are in partnership
with Canada House Arts Trust and Iran Heritage Foundation. The opening
reception is in association with The Third Line Gallery (Dubai,
UAE).
Press contact
Miranda Sharp, miranda@delfinafoundation.com,
T + 44 (0)207 233 5344
Ana Vukadin, ana@suttonpr.com, T +44 (0)207 183
3577
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