New media lounge opens in Cape Town
Jo'burg Bar in upper Long Street in Cape Town has long been a favourite hangout for artists, but last week owner Bruce Gordon took a giant step forward in providing space to the art community when he opened the doors to l/b's Lounge on August 1, Swiss National Day. Intended to host new media projects, provide a space for performance, gatherings, discussions and small conferences, the first floor room, once the training room of the famous boxing Toweel brothers, is now a super sophisticated space for art activities.
Why l/b's? The two Swiss artists who have conceived, designed and executed the sensuous swirl of curving multipurpose spaces, Sabina Lang and Daniel Baumann, are collectively known as l/b, Their internationally recognised design projects, include the Hotel Everland, a mobile hotel unit designed just for two people, originally sited on the banks of Lake Neufchatel in Switzerland, as part of Expo 2002. The two have been working together for 14 years. "About six to eight years we changed our approach" says Baumann. "Before then ,we wanted to make art. Then it became a profession. Now we aredoing art."
Invited to spend a residency here by Mirjam Asmal of Pro Helvetia, Lang came for just one week last year to make a project for the Cape Town Festival, and present a paper on their work at Public Eye's Beyond the Gallery: Art in Public Spaces conference. This year, the two returned in April for a proper residency, and looking for a studio, were offered the vacant room by Bruce Gordon. The idea of leaving something permanent behind, a unique space, followed, and plans rapidly became much more ambitious. The finished space might be described as a series of mini-arenas, with curving seating units. At one end of the room, a circular padded mattress which rapidly became a favourite seating place on opening night, can be lifted off to leave a circular stage for performance. Every surface is covered in plush, velvety carpeting, imported from Switzerland, in shades of mint green, purple, aubergine, deep blue. Only at the entrance to the space has a small area of bare wooden boards been left - Baumann�s nod to the historic Toweels.
"We wanted to work in carpeting because it is a material that was once absolutely popular, but today it isn't any more. People now want wooden floors, stone surfaces, white walls, natural finishes", says Baumann, pointing out that while these are the finishes you find in contemporary museums, hard surfaces do not work well for sound installations. L/b's Lounge is already the planned venue for an exhibition of new media games being curated by Tom Mulcaire and the new media curator of the Tate Modern.
It is to the credit of the artists, Bruce Gordon, and sponsors Pro Helvetia, the foundation which supports Swiss cultural projects, Presence Suisse, an organisation sponsored by the Swiss government to promote Switzerland abroad and the personal involvement of the Swiss ambassador that the new space has come into existence.
