QUOIN: A CONTEMPORARY KEYSTONE
Competition for Romanian Creative Week
Location: Tonitza Gallery, Iasi
Year: 2024
Surface : 60 sqm
Almost a square, a self-sufficient outline; a “room” that you have access to from the urban space. The Nicolae Tonitza Gallery opens perpendicularly to the pedestrian, and develops inward along its length. The morphological elements and the details present complete the experience and denote the lack of a key element, at the same time as all the energy of the space is concentrated towards the center. To reinforce the rule, each surface becomes an element. The side walls are relieved of the existing closures and re-finished with a well-defined surface, detached from the floor, ceiling and sides, as an exhibition plane. The background becomes multi-functional through a furniture that keeps access to the warehouse, large products (drawing sheets, canvases, etc.) and a white screen for a video projector. At the same time, in the scenario of some openings and events, this background can be covered by a curtain.
In order to include all the shades, the new functions proposed to this space, the decision was to introduce an element that would support the entire exhibition structure, that would fix the discourse, that would link traditional art to decorative objects, ceramics, jewelry and last but not least that would generate space, an interior route and a moment of surprise. The multi-functional furniture, built in veneered panels, has the shape of a triangle in plan and develops its sides to accommodate various activities - selling art objects/consumables on each side, a sales space, a seating area and a countertop with personalized lighting that can be used both for selling and displaying albums, books, objects, etc. In the context of exhibitions, conferences, workshops, this object becomes a common table that brings together participants, where discussions can be held or which can be surrounded and populated by guests. The placement at an angle, slightly rotated, allows for the imposition of an interior route.
The Quoin expresses an active duality – it conveys an idea of permanence, as if it had always been there, but at the same time it maintains its character as a reversible intervention. It is an object that can be closed, opened, decorated according to present and future needs.