Anamorphosis architects

The Snow Show is a unique artistic collaboration between artists and architects of international renown, a first-of-its-kind exhibition that explores the exciting structures that result when artists and architects experiment with building in snow and ice. The results of this global cultural project are on view in Finland’s Lapland from February 11th in Kemi and Rovaniemi, Finland through 31st March 2004.
Chief Curator: Lance M. Fung
In the context of the Snow show, Anamorphosis architects in collaboration with the artist Eva Rothschild created an installation of snow and ice in Kemi.

Exhibition: The Snow Show Kemi - Rovaniemi, Finland
Opening: Tuesday 10th February, Kemi, Wednesday 11th February, Rovaniemi
open to the public: 10.00 to 22.00 daily, from 12th February through 31th March 2004
The Snow Show - Origo, Rovaniemi, Finland
A selection of the participants' works that were on display in Venice and New York are now available to view at the Rovaniemi Art Museum.
open to the public: 6th February - 28th March 28, 2004

participants Architects + Artists
ANAMORPHOSIS + EVA ROTHSCHILD, TADAO ANDO + TATSUO MIYAJIMA, DILLER-SCOFIDIO + JOHN ROLOFF,
FUTURE SYSTEMS + ANISH KAPOOR, ZAHA HADID + CAI GUO-QIANG, HOLLMEN-REUTER-SANDMAN + ROBERT BARRY, ARATA ISOZAKI + YOKO ONO, LOT-EK + TOP CHANGTRAKUL, MORPHOSIS + DO-HO SUH,
ENRIQUE NORTEN + LAWRENCE WEINER, OCEAN NORTH + ERNESTO NETO, JUHANI PALLASMAA + RACHEL WHITEREAD, STUDIO GRANDA + LOTHAR HEMPEL, WILLIAMS & TSIEN + CARSTEN HOLLER, LEBBEUS WOODS + KIKI SMITH
participants winners of the International Student Competition
PERNILLE LOUISE KLAUSEN + HALLDOR ARNAR ULFARSSON, UNIVERSITY OF INNSBRUCK + GABRIEL DE LA CRUZ MARTIN [Advisor: Arch. Erich Gutmorgeth]

Selected model photos of the Anamorphosis/Eva Rothschild installation as presented at the UNESCO Snow Show preview exhibition, Palazzo Zorzi, Venice Biennale.
Venice Biennale press days: 11th-14th June, 2004

In our case, what brings art and architecture together is the engagement with the morphic process itself, that is a quiet, non-ironic, critique of both the formalist and counter-formalist paradigm. Both Eva and Anamorphosis have no preconceptions about form. We neither create/impose “our own” objects, nor deconstruct them, nor copy-paste them. Rather, we reveal form as the prose of the civilised world. And this alone suffices to create a common ground for collaboration, and why not, of exchanging positions, not just “ideas”. The aim of our approach is not to mould or cast a “frozen object”, an object that could be equally made of stone, concrete or glass... For us snow/ice is not just an unbounded material. We want to understand its own morphic language, discover what's in there in front of our eyes - not in our minds - and let it become our principle of creation. We want to animate the “frozen”, see it as an active psychic process related to belief - at once mythic and ordinary.

Why snow? Snow/ice is lovely, amazing and playful. There is a psychic dimension in such a playfulness. We like playing with snow/ice because it liberates us from the anxiety of presence or absence, the anxiety of perfection, namely the narcissistic obsession with the object; because it is the material of collectiveness/ sharedeness rather than ownership or belonging. Enjoyment and play rather than pleasure. Pleasure is directed and egocentric. Enjoyment is plural and fulfilling, a kind of spatial energy. Snow/ice is a material of changing states, of transformation, availability and abundance..., desire rather than need. It costs nothing, it melts and this perhaps is its most important principle. We make “objects” out of it, objects which are destined to be thrown, dissolved. In psychoanalytic terms snow/ice is a material of lack - it is shared, morphing and recurring.

Snow is a falling, added landscape; a landscape in excess; an animation of the natural landscape by itself; a simultaneous sense of nature and the artifice. A possible theatre of the excess of the natural form. Eva’s crystal is not an object, neither is the snow. It is a morphic principle of the natural: both mythical and structural - ranging from invisible to large forms.
The snow/ice landscape instigates a static and simultaneously collective sense of function. When playing naturally with snow we become static, don't run, just slow down. The material itself brings people together, even encourages interaction amongst them. We even make human figures out of snow... Collectiveness /performance indicate the second morphic principle. Anamorphosis’ archaic theatre is not a symbolic form but the morphic principle of collectiveness and performance. It animates the landscape, like snow does. It is an organic ex-tension of the existing landscape, turning it into a performance of itself. It is both artificial and natural.
Playing, enjoying, performing… per-forming more!
We invert the theatre twice
a) Outwardly: terraces become screens: a possible stage of a light/shadow play as people walk through them; an ice-screen theatre addressing to the far away visitors and city pedestrians.
b) Inwardly/outwardly: terraces become a sheltered alcove and a hill. A canopy theatre facing the surrounding projects/pavilions.
When it is “snowing” Crystal and Theatre speak the same morphic language; in two instances: material-ising and gathering, making and functioning...
When it is “snowing”, art and architecture exchange roles: Architecture "decorates" and "sculpts" the landscape. Whereas Art "builds" and "materialises" it.

Nikos Georgiadis

Ice photos

ANAMORPHOSIS Architects:
Nikos Georgiadis, Tota Mamalaki, Kostas Kakoyiannis, Vaios Zitonoulis

Design Development, Models and Drawings:
Andromachi Damala, Con Kallos, Thomas Knigge, Roula Kotsillati, Melisa Callau Escuer, Eleni Marouli

ANAMORPHOSIS Architects wish also to thank:

Satu Teppo
Project Assistant, The Snow Show

Noémie Lafaurie
Assistant to the Chief Builder, The Snow Show

the architecture student volunteer builders who worked on our installation:
Michel Gorman, Alberto Javier Villar Watty, Hallstein Guthu, Ole Gabriel Schanche Gilje, James o' Hare, Simon Vanoutyrve, Cindy Stelmach, Awena Krell, Amanda L. Whittemore, Laurel Jackson, Leen Apers, Thimothy Austin, Sabine Debeury, Johannes Gomille, Gregor Schmidtauer, Robert Speight, Katy Kleinspehn, Alexandra Nafpliotis, Barbara Gasser, Anne Le Bleis, Katrijn Baeten.