“Concrete & Samples I, II, III is a series of 16mm films on sculptural architecture. What the buildings and site in all films have in common is the idea of ‘architecture as sculpture’ and a very distinct use of concrete that seem to depart from the free form of the whole in a sculptural manner. In the absence of a traditional narrative, it is the space itself, that takes the role of the protagonist, while the camera proposes a narration through its travel and observation.
Blockhaus, the Eglise St.Bernadette-du-Banlay designed by Claude Parent and Paul Virilio in Nevers, France, has a compact form: monolithic, a cryptic building, a raw concrete bunker. Built upon a utopian idea, the inside with its ‘surface oblique’ (two oblique ramps) creates a spatial dynamic in the matrix of time.”
Auguste Orts
“In Konrad’s series Concrete & Samples I, II and III, the confrontation with sculptural architecture is enhanced and intensified by the specific structural and material properties of 16mm film. The first part of the trilogy examines the Church of the Holy Trinity in Vienna, designed by Fritz Wotruba. Concrete & Samples II Blockhaus presents the church Sainte Bernadette du Banlay in Nevers, designed by Claude Parent and Paul Virilio. In her series Aglaia Konrad traces an arc from modern architecture made of rough concrete via traditional sculpture to the site of the noble material and its extraction for use in art.”
Antje Sterner1
