Project Presentation
Disembodiment:
1. To free (the soul or spirit) from the body.
2. To divest of substance.
Disembodiment is a process of becoming, a consequence of the body occupying and experiencing the city, and one that divests our bodies of their material existences, distorting and transforming our physical states by increasing the a priori un-sensed condition to a point where we are able to perceive more clearly the distance between and/or the border separating our bodies and our minds. The various environments and living spaces accommodated by the city provoke differing processes of disembodiment, and these generate processes of alienation within the body, and also, in human identity and behavior.
Disembodiment, a solo installation in 2008 at A trans Pavilion at Hackesche Höfe Berlin, curated by Isolde Nagel within the framework of the exhibition series An intimac(it)y, explores the obscure relationship between the body and its urban context.
The A trans Pavilion is located in a very particular urban condition. Its interior is directly exposed to the surrounding urban context, with which it manifests a strong connection. The installation explored the strength of this connection by generating an interior living space which exposed the individual’s personal and disembodied interiority to the embodied or disembodied context. The interior was experienced as an intimate lived space set on an elevated artificial level, one surrounded by high definition Ilfochromes presenting the relationship Body—Building—City within its skin. The installation photos capture the intimate relationship between the artificiality of the interior spaces we inhabit and the artificial urban context that surrounds our living spaces. The interior space projects onto the exterior becoming part of the urban context and the exterior urban context is perceptually integrated in the interiority of the gallery space. Indeed, the photos capture the perception and sense of space changing through time, as lighting conditions change the reflections and color interactions between the urban context and the gallery space, thereby reinforcing the interactions between our intimacy, living space, and urban context.
José Salinas is an artist and architect, founder of KNOBSDesign. KNOBS (Knowledge Based System) expands the boundaries of traditional architectural practice from buildings and urban design to gallery installations and augmented interactive environments. All projects are exploring inner living spaces, shaped by external machinist systems of information that transform and generate new topological configurations; and are equally concerned with new types of building systems.
The work of José Salinas has been exhibited internationally in numerous galleries, including: GLORIA Gallery, Madrid, Weissenhof Architecture Gallery, Stuttgart; A trans Pavilion, Berlin; The Architectural Association Gallery, London; AedesEast/Extension Pavilion, Berlin; Schafler Gallery, Pratt Institute, New York; Galeria Arificial, Madrid; Taubman College Gallery, University of Michigan; AIA Center for Architecture. New York; Batofar Multimedia Event, Paris; Wi-Fi in the Royal Gardens, Copenhagen.
José Salinas received his Master of Architecture from The Architectural Association and has taught at Universidad Europea, Escuela Superior de Arte y Arquitectura in Madrid; Cornell University in New York; MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston; Princeton University in New Jersey and Pratt Institute in New York.
In addition, he has lectured internationally including Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design (ABK), Berlin University of the Arts (UdK), GSD Harvard in Boston, The Architectural Association in London, Pontificia Universidad Católica in Chile, Frankfurt Academy of Fine Arts (Staedelschule), and Instituto Cervantes in Berlin.
