_resized.jpg "Layla Curtis")
Traceurs. to trace, to draw, to go fast - London festival of architecture
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June 2008
Futurecity presents Traceurs, a film installation by artist, Layla Curtis. Heat-seeking cameras trace the navigation of the urban landscape by parkour experts revealing an unconventional view of the city.
The installation is being exhibited at Chelsea Futurespace, a new exhibition site created as part of Futurecity's cultural strategy recommendations for the Grosvenor Waterside development in Westminster.
In 2007 Westminster City Council appointed Futurecity to commission an artist to explore the urban fabric of the borough.
Traceurs explores the navigation of the urban landscape through parkour. Using heat-seeking cameras, Layla Curtis filmed the unorthodox movements and alternative routes of traceurs, urban jump groups, through the city.
Curtis investigates the potential of using thermal imaging cameras to record the heat traces of footprints and hand-marks left on obstacles and buildings. This series of films captures the untraceable, recording the tracks and routes left by traceurs through a variety of locations in the City of Westminster - investigating 'alternative' routes, and new ways of moving through the city.
The resulting series of films are beautiful and grainy, a kind of temporal drawing in black and white, contrasting with the more familiar highly coloured palette of thermal imaging. The viewer is invited to watch almost still, greyish images of walls, trees, and roofs until a shock of white fills the screen for an instant as the traceurs leap between obstacles. Gradually all traces fade away and we are left once again with the grainy blank façade of the city.
Traceurs offers a unique view of the city through the movements of these unconventional architectural critics of the urban landscape.
Futurecity is a leading cultural consultancy interested in notions of urbanism and place-making. Our work is embedded in the city and involves collaborations between artists and other disciplines, including architecture, and science within the built design industry.
A screening of Julie Angel's documentary about the making of Traceurs, followed by a discussion with Layla Curtis will take place at the ICA on Saturday 21st and Thursday 26th June 2 - 3.30pm
Additional activities connected to Traceurs to be announced on the Futurecity and London Festival of Architecture websites.
The installation is being exhibited at Chelsea Futurespace, a new exhibition site created as part of Futurecity's cultural strategy recommendations for the Grosvenor Waterside development in Westminster.
In 2007 Westminster City Council appointed Futurecity to commission an artist to explore the urban fabric of the borough.
Traceurs explores the navigation of the urban landscape through parkour. Using heat-seeking cameras, Layla Curtis filmed the unorthodox movements and alternative routes of traceurs, urban jump groups, through the city.
Curtis investigates the potential of using thermal imaging cameras to record the heat traces of footprints and hand-marks left on obstacles and buildings. This series of films captures the untraceable, recording the tracks and routes left by traceurs through a variety of locations in the City of Westminster - investigating 'alternative' routes, and new ways of moving through the city.
The resulting series of films are beautiful and grainy, a kind of temporal drawing in black and white, contrasting with the more familiar highly coloured palette of thermal imaging. The viewer is invited to watch almost still, greyish images of walls, trees, and roofs until a shock of white fills the screen for an instant as the traceurs leap between obstacles. Gradually all traces fade away and we are left once again with the grainy blank façade of the city.
Traceurs offers a unique view of the city through the movements of these unconventional architectural critics of the urban landscape.
Futurecity is a leading cultural consultancy interested in notions of urbanism and place-making. Our work is embedded in the city and involves collaborations between artists and other disciplines, including architecture, and science within the built design industry.
A screening of Julie Angel's documentary about the making of Traceurs, followed by a discussion with Layla Curtis will take place at the ICA on Saturday 21st and Thursday 26th June 2 - 3.30pm
Additional activities connected to Traceurs to be announced on the Futurecity and London Festival of Architecture websites.
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