Swiss in Situ | Timothée Calame: Curriculum

Calame’s recent work concentrates on how space is designed and partitioned, using sculptural curtains, platforms, barriers and screens, which are often placed in dialogue with spectral paintings and small sculptures.

The main element of Curriculum is a labyrinthine architecture constructed inside 102 Franklin Street that occupies and divides the gallery.

Once used to conceal a number of vacant commercial properties, these panels were used to mask the casualties of a failed investment made before the financial crisis of 2008.

The walls of the structure are formed using large sheets of printed tarpaulin.

The interior is printed with artistic impressions of the near and far future – a vision that manages to include an alien spacecraft and cupcakes.

Calame’s labyrinth, seen from above, forms the shape of a paperclip. In order to comprehend the structure, one has to follow the architect’s path, moving through a series of narrow, looping passageways.

Parallels between the development of a city and a self are drawn in the center of the sculpture, where a small screening area shows a series of video episodes made in collaboration with Coralie Rouet.

Populating the gallery, there are also a number of masklike watercolor paintings of real and imagined faces by Calame, which are paired with contributions by artists Hugo Baud and Alan Schmalz.