I Am Vertical

In the exhibition Gideonsson/Londré explores the idea of verticality, focusing on the feelings of isolation that human beings experience at the vertical limit or in the Death Zone, the terms used by mountain climbers to refer to very high altitudes (above 8000 m) where the level of oxygen in the blood drops drastically. The artists experimented with these physical and mental high altitude effects through simulated situations in conditions associated with these limit zones. With a title borrowed from a poem by Sylvia Plath and using poetic prose, Gideonsson/Londré’s video installation talks about the human determination to see and conquer geographical features that rise up or plunge down vertically – mountains, ocean depths – for which we are not physically equipped.


At the opening G/L performed a ritual where they took off their shoes and attached them up side down, on to elevated shoe shelves. They also removed two plaster cast, depicting their own scalps, and placed them on shelves positioned at the same height as their length on each side of the corridor. This ritual was repeated, but in reverse order, at the end of the exhibition.


Curated by Alexandra Laudo for the exhibition program "The possibility of an island", ESPAI 13.


About the exhibition:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0huczEhOFy8

I Am Vertical

HD VIDEO ”At the foot of a foot"

© Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona. Photo: Pere Pratdesaba.