Maider López
* 1975 San Sebastián, Spain.
Football Field. 2007-2009
Installation
Fountain. 2009
Installation at Arts Square. Tiles, water tank
See the sliding images above
About the works
Maider López remade Football Field, a work originally created as part of her Sharjah residency project in 2007. López marked out a football field with painted lines across the middle of the main public square of the Sharjah Arts Area. The everyday use of the square was maintained and existing street lamps and benches were left as they were, interrupting the field of play. The square therefore took on two simultaneous and tangible uses.
As with many of López’s works, Football Field highlights the capacity that people have to transform the meanings of the familiar, everyday spaces around them. López’s practice is often informed and activated by the inhabitants of the space and their experience. As the Artist states, 'My projects attempt to rework the idea of the city through the practice of the people.'
López’s interventions temporarily reconfigure the uses of their surrounding space and, as a consequence, change the meanings of those spaces and the public’s relationship to them: 'My challenge is always to make something that can transform the place, giving new possibilities and offering new interpretations of that specific environment.'
Fountain: López installed a drinking fountain in the main square of Sharjah Art Area, which the artist saw as a useful addition for the people who live there. Lopez noted that there were very few drinking fountains in the area and consequently, during the Biennial, the work became a gathering place for residents and visitors alike.
Artist’s quotations from Provisions, Book 1, catalogue for Sharjah Biennial 9.
© From the website of Sharjah Art Foundation.
© Photos: Haupt & Binder, Universes in Universe
Part 3 of the photo tour through Sharjah Biennial 9, 19 March - 16 May 2009. Exhibition 'Provisions for the Future', Curator: Isabel Carlos, 58 participants.