"Blind Date House" is a project in-process by Alicia Framis, requested by Thai artist and founder of the Land Foundation, Rirkrit Tiravanija. It is under development at the Land Foundation’s rural site outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand and will be used as an artist residency site.
"Blind Date House" is a joint construction of two houses that offer separate but overlapping space for two residents. Each resident has his or her own house, and one room is a shared space: one created in line with Land Foundation’s goal of fostering exploration and experimental collaborations. The shape of the house is focused on exchange and has varying degrees of openness. If the residents want to increase their living and working spaces, they can access the shared space, and even open parts of their home to the shared area. This space between work, home, and personal life provides a site of discovery. The empty, unknown space, which is a vacuum between the two living areas, straddles the worlds of intimacy and privacy. This vacuum is full of promise and potential: a place that confronts you with your own conception of individuality, and your willingness or need to share with others. This house will let the cohabitants explore their attitudes towards courage, risk-taking, and self-consciousness.
Alicia Framis will be staying at the Land foundation in Chiang Mai for an extended period of time to build the interior of the house, finish it and make it livable. She will also work on the outside and paint the walls in two distinctive colours (yellow and lily) to emphasize the fact that it’s two houses attached to one another and to show how they connect. This mural will be a collaboration between Framis and the founder of the Land foundation, Rikrit Tiravanija, entitled “Are we dreaming under the same sky”. Framis will prepare the house in a scenographic manner and shoot her film there. The film will serve as visual material to promote the residency involving both a western and an eastern artist, living and working together in the Blind Date House.
Alicia Framis has been researching the subject of human interaction for 25 years and has often focused on the importance of living together and the multitude of things we can learn about space from this. "Blind Date House" confronts us with the choice to share or be alone. How much intimacy are you allowed when the other person is in the same room? How often and for how long will you want to touch? And what do you want to reveal about yourself to someone you barely know? These confrontations also have a culturally specific component. The two residents come from completely different cultural backgrounds where concepts such as privacy (if existent at all) and public space have entirely different meanings.
"Blind Date House" is a joint construction of two houses that offer separate but overlapping space for two residents. Each resident has his or her own house, and one room is a shared space: one created in line with Land Foundation’s goal of fostering exploration and experimental collaborations. The shape of the house is focused on exchange and has varying degrees of openness. If the residents want to increase their living and working spaces, they can access the shared space, and even open parts of their home to the shared area. This space between work, home, and personal life provides a site of discovery. The empty, unknown space, which is a vacuum between the two living areas, straddles the worlds of intimacy and privacy. This vacuum is full of promise and potential: a place that confronts you with your own conception of individuality, and your willingness or need to share with others. This house will let the cohabitants explore their attitudes towards courage, risk-taking, and self-consciousness.
Alicia Framis will be staying at the Land foundation in Chiang Mai for an extended period of time to build the interior of the house, finish it and make it livable. She will also work on the outside and paint the walls in two distinctive colours (yellow and lily) to emphasize the fact that it’s two houses attached to one another and to show how they connect. This mural will be a collaboration between Framis and the founder of the Land foundation, Rikrit Tiravanija, entitled “Are we dreaming under the same sky”. Framis will prepare the house in a scenographic manner and shoot her film there. The film will serve as visual material to promote the residency involving both a western and an eastern artist, living and working together in the Blind Date House.
Alicia Framis has been researching the subject of human interaction for 25 years and has often focused on the importance of living together and the multitude of things we can learn about space from this. "Blind Date House" confronts us with the choice to share or be alone. How much intimacy are you allowed when the other person is in the same room? How often and for how long will you want to touch? And what do you want to reveal about yourself to someone you barely know? These confrontations also have a culturally specific component. The two residents come from completely different cultural backgrounds where concepts such as privacy (if existent at all) and public space have entirely different meanings.