RELEVANT LINKS

press release 12.07.2007 [EN] [DE]

Luis Berríos-Negrón

Nonspheres/Tonspheres
Friday, August 18, 20:00: Luis Berríos-Negrón show finissage
with a special performance by Dirk Markham, followed by Teufelsberg Sessions Vol. I by † (Night Veins)

related press:

"Carbon Copy"
FRAME Magazine, Jan-Feb 2008, Anna Kowalska

"Luis Rafael Berríos-Negron: Poetics of Silent Complexity"
Wynwood Magazine, Vol 1 No.2 Oct. 2007, Lukas Feireiss

Nonspheres IV
Luis Berríos-Negrón

July 19 – August 18, 2007



3D animations of the lattice system



Still, living displaces false sentiments
And now, when shrill pups are prodded to drown,
I just shrug, 'Bloody Pups'. It makes sense:
'Prevention of cruelty' talk cut ice in town
Where they consider death unnatural
But on well-run farms pets have to be kept down.

Excerpt from Early Purges, Death of a Naturalist by Seamus Heaney 1966


In the late 19th century, Vladimir Vernadsky discerned a new phase in biospheric dynamics – the Noösphere, or sphere of intelligence – wherein humanity could employ its gifts as a creative, collaborative agent of evolution. Vernadsky marked this change with a new era in geologic time, the Psychozoic Era, in which humanity as a whole is a powerful geologic entity, moving more mass upon the earth than the biosphere; where in this movement, the human project ends up testing its own lifespan.

Nonspheres IV is the latest iteration of Luis Berríos-Negrón’s ongoing investigation into the contemporary tension between nature and technology. This project takes the built shape of a digitally generated lattice. This simulation of a carbon tetrahedral lattice fills the entire gallery, suggesting a continuous yet remote set of relationships intended to incite what Freud calls oceanic feelings, or the infantile sensation of boundlessness between the ego and the outside world.

This sensation is further induced through works on two geopolitically charged offsite locations - Teufelsberg, Berlin and Bibi Mahro, Kabul. Becoming entwined through these videos, the gallery+audience finds itself at once in the past, present and future, engaged in a lateral world of imaginary time in physical space.


Luis Berríos-Negrón received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Parsons School of Design. Thereafter, he went to MIT where he received a Masters of Architecture degree in 2006. At MIT, he assisted Joan Jonas, Krzysztof Wodiczko, and Antoni Muntadas. He also collaborated with Bill Mitchell’s Media Lab Smart Cities Group, Carlo Ratti’s SENSEable City Laboratory, and Mark Goulthorpe’s Sinthome Workshop. While at MIT, he received the 2005 Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Prize for the Visual Arts. Previously, while working towards his BFA at The Parsons School of Design in New York, he assisted and collaborated with Larry Clark, Silvia Kolbowski and Jean Gardner from 1998 to 2003. He was then awarded the Michael Kalil Award for Smart Design. After conducting a workshop sponsored by MIT-AKPIA and the CCAA in Kabul, Afghanistan, he moved to Berlin, Germany, where he currently develops projects in digital prototyping and fabrication with Targa, Graft, and Canadian artist Michel de Broin. He has also been collaborating with PROGRAM. His work attempts to identify and produce affirmative intersections between technology, geopolitics and art. Luis Berríos-Negrón was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico.


Consultants: Ettina Schultze, Hannes Schmidt, Steve Form, Daniel Stephan, Pfadfinderei, Alexander Menke, Yuna Yagi, Carson Chan, Fotini Lazaridou-Hatzigoga.

Assistant: Irina Moroianu

The artist would also like to thank Rahraw Omarzad, Ute Meta Bauer, Nasser Rabat, Massoud Hosseini, Caleb Schaber, Snehal and Pushkarit Karakat, and the members of the Center for Contemporary Art of Afghanistan for their indispensable support.

Vernissage Afterhour with KRSN (dj) and Marcello Datto (chef)