FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Marco
Casagrande: Real Reality
June 12 to July
18, 2014
Opening
Reception: Thursday, June 12, 7:00-8:30 p.m.
HANCOCK, MI – Marco Casagrande: Real
Reality will be on display at the Finlandia University Gallery, located in the
Finnish American Heritage Center, Hancock, from June 12 to July 18, 2014.
An opening reception will take place at the
gallery on Thursday, June 12, from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. The reception is free and
open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
Moving freely between architecture,
landscape architecture, environmental art, urban and environmental design and
science Casagrande’s work encompasses a broad vision of the built human
environment. Structures that respond to
nature, designed with local materials and built with local building practices,
change over time as they age in situ.
Since 1999 Casagrande has created 65 cross-disciplinary,
ecologically conscious architectural installations
around the world.
In all of
Marco Casagrande’s work, there is a search for a subconscious architecture, a
real reality, and a connection between modern people and nature. He believes
that one should not be blindfolded by stress, the surroundings of economics,
and the online access to entertainment or information. “What is real is
valuable,” says Casagrande. “I want to
design shelters in nature for honest people.”
Last year Casagrande was awarded the 2013 European
Prize for Architecture. This award was
designed to support those influential European architects who are blazoning a
more humanist and social-based architecture and recognize their pursuits and
their achievements before a European and world audience.
“Casagrande
is one of Europe’s new young breed of architects,” states Christian
Narkiewicz-Laine, the Finnish Museum President of The Chicago Athenaeum, “who
have expanded the traditional boundaries
of
architecture, pushing that envelope beyond ‘accepted norms’ and the ‘standard
perimeters’ of design practice, to include architecture as environmental art
and sculpture, while embracing sustainability, humanism, and the public’s right
to an appropriate architecture and urban design that reflects and respects
human values, dignity, and self-esteem. Casagrande
is a model for today’s young design professional.”
Casagrande’s work has been widely exhibited
internationally including the World Architecture
Festival (2009), Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennial (2009, 2012), Victoria
& Albert Museum (2010), World Design Expo (2011), Beufort04 Triennial
(2012), Austrian Museum of Contemporary Art MAK “Eastern Promises” (2013,
Buenos Aires Architecture Biennial (2013) and China Central Academy of Fine Art
CAFAM Biennale (2014), among others.
His work has been critically acclaimed,
winning awards including the World Architecture
Community Awards (2009), World Architecture Festival Award (2009),
Architectural Review House Award (2010), World Architecture Community Awards
(2010), Red Dot Design Awards (2012) and Russian Architects Union’s Zeleny
Proekt (Green Project) 2012 competitions. He also won the International
Committee of Architectural Critics CICA Award 2013 for conceptual and artistic
architecture.
Currently Marco Casagrande is the Principal
of the Casagrande Laboratory Architects in Finland and WEAK! in Taiwan together
with Prof. Roan Ching-Yueh and architect Hsieh Ying-Chun. He directs the
independent multidisciplinary research center Ruin Academy based in Taipei,
Taiwan and Artena, Italy and is the Vice-President of the International Society
of Biourbanism.
“Real Reality” will be on display through July
18, 2014.
The Finlandia University Gallery is
in the Finnish American Heritage Center, 435 Quincy Street, Hancock. Gallery
hours are Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., or by appointment.
For more information, call 906-487-7500.
Photo captions:
Photo 1: Marco Casagrande, Sandworm, 2012
Photo 2: Marco Casagrande, Ultra-Ruin, 2013
Photo 3: Marco Casagrande at Shenzhen Biennial
