Rotor: Questioning Waste and Products
Carwan Gallery in Beirut presents Belgian collective Rotor in an exhibition called ‘Purple, Turquoise, Pink (Brown Along the Edges)’.
Carwan Gallery in Beirut presents Belgian collective Rotor in an exhibition called ‘Purple, Turquoise, Pink (Brown Along the Edges)’. The exhibition showcases Rotor’s found and obtained objects from dismantled buildings and building sites.
When brought into a gallery, the carefully composed and exhibited found materials, pieces of industrial waste and elements previously used in everyday buildings question the relation of waste and products, precious and common, and material and object. As such, the exhibited selection of objects resists simple classifications and questions the function and legitimization of established codes in the design practice. ‘Purple, Turquoise, Pink (Brown Along the Edges)’ consists of Rotor’s works previously presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Barbican Centre and Fondazione Prada, but also new commissioned works produced in Lebanon.
Carwan Gallery, founded in 2010 by architects Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte and Pascale Wakim, is the first contemporary design gallery in the Middle East. Along with the Rotor exhibition, the gallery unveils its new premises in an previous industrial building built in the 1930s.
As such, the location in a massive industrial building follows the mindset of Rotor better than well. The Belgian collective, a group of architects, designers and other professionals interested in material flows in industry and construction, tests and applies creative strategies for salvage and waste reduction through workshops, publications and exhibitions. Among other projects, Rotor has previously represented Belgium at the 12th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennial in 2010, and curated and designed the OMA/Progress show in the Barbican Art Gallery in London. •
‘Purple, Turquoise, Pink (Brown along the Edges)’ runs at Carwan Gallery in Beirut, Lebanon, from 23 October–14 November 2015.
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