The idea is to die young as late as possible. — Ashley Montagu — Saturday June 8th — —

“What art does — maybe what it does most completely — is tell us, make us feel that what we think we know, we don’t. There are whole worlds around us that we’ve never glimpsed.” Greil Marcus — Saturday June 8th — —

I love listening. It is one of the only spaces where you can be still and moved at the same time. — Nayyirah Waheed — Saturday June 8th — —

Under Black Carpets

Under Black Carpets is an incredible project by Ilona Gaynor, a designer with a critical attitude towards society. Gaynor’s work is centred around design as plot and with Under Black Carpets she has taken the role of the masterful architect of a major heist. Raising funds through Kickstarter for the final stage of the project, Under Black Carpets already received a lot of media attention and has gone through an initial two years of research in various stages. The first year was supported and funded by the Ridley Scott Associates Residency award. In it’s final stage the project takes the fascinating form of a collection of evidence created around a fictional meticulously calculated bank heist of five banks surrounding the One Wilshire skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles.

The first stages of work consisted the devouring of academic materials, context examinations and discussions with a variety of experts within the field of ‘heist’ crime. From Police commissioners, forensic scientists to criminal attorneys. Gaynor also searched for fictional accomplices in different relevant fields which included experts ranging from security camera manufacturers, magicians, escape artists and vault crackers to demolitions experts. The latter stage of research took place in Los Angeles and consisted of training simulations with the LAPD. The goal of the designer was to determine how police might respond to a robbery situation with recordings of response time, policy procedures, vehicle handling, civilian control and hostage negotiation creating the perfect dossier for the heist with the highest level of accuracy.

The exhibition of the research phase will be presented to the audience as a police investigation, detailing the remaining evidential material after the event has taken place, something that could be argued or challenged as material (evidence) in a court of law. The work itself will take form as sculptures, architectural models, technical drawings, films and photography. It will open as a solo exhibition (Special Project) at the Lisbon Architecture Triennale opening from September the 12th until December the 15th 2013.

The exhibition in Lisbon is the main reason behind the funds which are being raised through the Kickstarter campaign. Unfortunately the city of Lisbon is currently struggling economically and budgets for the entire Triennale event are being cut. The goal of the Triennale is to revitalise the city and allow Lisbon to continue to see through a long standing tradition of hosting this huge cultural event and Gaynor is determined to be part of the event in order to boost it with her highly interesting project. We support her vision to the fullest!

When the project is finalized Gaynor will be self-publishing a very small run of books to accompany the exhibition as a context to the outcome. The book will contain, photographic documentation, interviews and essays. As a backer, you can also pledge to recieve the limited Kickstarter copy of the book, in it’s full form after the exhibition opens.

Support Under Black Carpets here!