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Thomas Demand

“What kind of relation is existing between people, thoughts and the space in which they are? Who knows whether there is any: a real,deep relation caused by both cause and effect on which one can say: ‘if that’s like this, then it must be like this’ instead of having to state: “it may be like that but could be any other way too.” – Ettore Sottsass

In “Black Label”, Thomas Demand’s project for CCA Kitakyushu, the artist connected two otherwise unrelated sites in the city of Kitakyushu with each other: a bar named “Black Label” situated in the neighbourhood of the Shinkansen Station in the city center (Kokura) and CCA Project Gallery in Yahata about 6 kilometers away.

The show takes place in two parts: a picture of a reconstruction of the CCA’s empty project space will replace a mirror currently hanging in the bar, while three views onto the “Black Label” building will be presented in the project room back at CCA. All the images are of reconstructions made out of cardboard to the same scales as their reproductions, made by the artist following his residency in Kitakyushu in January 2008.

The small bar named “Black Label” first raised the artist’s curiosity because of its surprising, septagonal shape, which did not seem to relate to anything around the site. The three-storey house has just enough space for a tiny bar with five seats and two karaoke rooms upstairs; it is a replacement of an identical structure that was demolished 10 years ago, some 100 meters away from its current location. The city offered the owner this act of reconstruction as compensation for willing to move from another spot to be developed into a shopping mall. Concurrent with the exhibition, it will be decided by the authorities whether the bar has to move again, as it has become an obstacle in Kitakyushu’s street layout.

In a curios parallelism, the generic feel of the project space at CCA, a white cube like any other, transports itself into a local bar to become a temporary exhibit amongst its other decorative items.

CCA Project Gallery is open from Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the “Black Label” is open daily after 6 p.m. until 2 a.m. (or the last guest left).

This post is also available in: Japanese