THREAD: ARTIST RESIDENCY & CULTURAL CENTER
About:
Thread is a site for artists from around the world to live and work in Sinthian, a rural village in Tambacounda, the southeastern region of Senegal. It will house two artists’ dwellings, as well as ample indoor and outdoor studio space.
In addition to the artists’ residences, Thread will provide a venue for markets; classes in agriculture, language, and health for the villagers; and village performances and meetings. Finally, the roof collects and retains rainwater, creating a viable source for 40% of the village’s domestic water needs.
The mission of Thread is twofold: to allow artists access to the raw materials of inspiration found in this rarely-visited area of the world; and to use art as a means of developing linkages between rural Senegal and other parts of the globe.
The team behind Thread speaks to its collaborative nature. Its concept and construction were spearheaded by local Sinthian leader and doctor, Dr. Magueye Ba. A Senegalese environmental sustainability expert, Moussa Sene, will be its general manager. And its director, Nick Murphy, represents the organization that has made the project possible: The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation.
A PROJECT OF THE JOSEF AND ANNI ALBERS FOUNDATION
Josef and Anni Albers were two extraordinary artists and human beings, both of them renowned for their work at the Bauhaus School in Germany prior to the closing of that institution in 1933. That year, they moved to the United States, where they would live for the rest of their lives. Anni, primarily a textile artist, was the first in her field to be given a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, in 1949, and Josef, a color theorist and painter and teacher, was the first living artist to be the subject of a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, in 1970.
The artistic program for Thread is inspired by both by Anni Albers’s belief in the vital value of “starting at zero” and Josef Albers’s lifelong desire “to open eyes.” Anni used to say that “you can go anywhere from anywhere,” and Josef made it a perpetual goal to employ minimal means for maximum effect.” Those beliefs are fundamental to Thread. Otherwise, there is no fixed artistic program.
Despite our support and involvement in Thread’s program and construction, it is a building built entirely by the people of Sinthian, for the people of Sinthian. Its most common purpose will be as a cultural center and water source for the village; the artists will be their guests.
This is a project about connection and linkage. Between two distinct points, persons, places, or perspectives. To be like thread by forming connections that run through us, and not around us.
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Designed pro-bono by Toshiko Mori Architect, Thread combines local materials and building customs with an innovative design and specific geometry. It has already won an AIANY award and was selected for the 2014 Venice Biennale.
Local masons and villagers have provided their sophisticated knowledge of working with bamboo, brick, and thatch. Meanwhile Toshiko Mori Architect has innovated the application of those materials in a new geometry, creating a structure that provides for the village while acting as a great source of pride for the masons, the people of Sinthian, and the region of Tambacounda.
The architect.
The building project is entirely collaborative. As one example, the perforated brick walls incorporate a local technology for air circulation, were designed by Toshiko Mori Architect, and borrow the aesthetic of a Josef Albers wall motif. In this way, they are the result of collaboration between a Senegalese engineer—Benjamin Samba-Tine, a Japanese architect—Toshiko Mori, and an American curator versed in the work of a German-American modernist—Nick Murphy. Dr. Magueye Ba has overseen the entire construction process from the ground.