Stefan Bruggëmann: ''Ok' Untitled Action' | Surface Tensions 2020 Part 3

About

Adorning the three-story façade of CT20’s Tontine Street studio, ‘OK’ Untitled Action is a monumental installation in gold and black paint created by Mexican artist Stefan Bruggëmann. 

Created under lockdown in May 2020, ‘OK’ Untitled Action deliberately provokes, with it’s juxtaposing elements generating a heightened sense of drama and tension. With shutters drawn and windows blocked, the entire façade of the building is completely gilded in gold-leaf, on top of which is scrawled with – in thick lashings of black paint and with excess dripping down from the bold calligraphic strokes – the word ‘OK’, gleaming and staring back at the on-lookers. 

Born in Mexico City, Bruggëmann’s work associates a conceptual practice with a raw attitude and criticism that simultaneously calls into question his own approach whilst reflecting on the present societal context. In Bruggêmann’s words:

“Sprayed messages are always about propaganda or complaining and I decided this word ‘OK’ reflects the moment we are living in, when we don’t have any solutions or answers and we’re learning in the process... ‘OK’ is about resignation, it’s about hope and it’s about just realising that it is what it is. It can be ironic, it can be optimistic, it can be negative. It makes you think and doubt what’s OK.”  - Stefan Bruggëmann.

Surface Tensions 2020 Part 3 (#artunderlockdown) is a new series of ambitious site-specific installations by artists: Stefan Bruggëmann (Mexico), Jaša (Slovenia) and Ned Pooler (UK). Commissioned by CT20 during the COVID19 pandemic (2020-2021), these architectural interventions have temporarily transformed an ordinary building into an emotionally-heightened mind palace, its surface a silent outcry that confronts the traumas, struggles and violence of our times. 

Surface Tensions 2020 is a series of new art commissions curated and produced by Nina Shen-Poblete and Tomas Poblete, directors at CT20. As part of Folkestone Triennial Fringe, CT20 presents alternative perspectives of those on the margins, and explores experiences that confront cultural, juridical, racial, gendered, class and physical barriers, placed in relation to Western identity and nationalism. 

When you visit Folkestone and its new Triennial artworks this summer, don’t forget to look up and step inside 73 Tontine Street for an immersive experience.