29 Jun 2018

Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen: It's just not cricket by Matilde Cassani

MATILDE CASSANI
IT'S JUST NOT CRICKET

A cooperation between Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen, Innsbruck and ar/ge kunst, Bolzano

25 May – 28 July 2018
Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen, Weiherburggasse 13, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Wed–Fri 11–18, Sat 11–15

It's just not cricket by Matilde Cassani is more than a simple display of cricket equipment including the objects connected with the sport, although it may seem this way at first glance. The idiomatic meaning of the title – the origin of which, like the game of cricket itself – lies in the English culture, arouses the suspicion, however, that all this may have something to do with injustice: the expression is always used when talking about a matter that is unfair or unfrank.

A colored carpet, large, oversized wickets, a ball and two bats, each produced in North and South Tyrol using local woods: these are the components of the setting for an apparently interrupted game, now installed in the exhibition space in Büchsenhausen and waiting, so to speak, for the the players to return. A 'display altar' shows a collection of cricket bats, balls and trophies waiting to be used again soon. This encounter with the passion of young cricket players originally from Pakistan, Afghanistan, India or Sri Lanka, some of whom have lived in communities on both sides of the Brenner Pass for decades, offers respite from the usual rhetoric of identity, borders, and of North and South. The circular history of cricket, which has returned to Europe from the British colonies, now spreading here under very different circumstances, provides the opportunity to reflect on the values of today's urban and rural environments, as well as to challenge the categories of time, entertainment, spectacle and spectatorship.

It's just not cricket concludes the eponymous research project by Matilde Cassani, which was initiated and realized following a joint invitation by Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen, Innsbruck, and argekunst.it, Bolzano. After repeated visits to the larger region between Innsbruck and Bolzano the artist made since the end of 2016, the exhibition at ar/ge kunst in Bolzano (February – May 2018) and the current exhibition of the Fellowship Program for Art and Theory in Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen provide the framework for the discursive investigation into the aforementioned themes. Workshops with the respective cricket communities on both sides of the Brenner Pass, as well as a planned match between selected North and South Tyrol teams in Innsbruck on 30 June 2018 (Sportplatz Fenner, Kaiserjägerstraße) intend to intensify the public dialogue with and between these groups.

In her work Matilde CASSANI operates at the borders of architecture, installation and event design. Her research-based practice reflects on the spatial implications of cultural pluralism in the contemporary western context. Her works have been shown in numerous cultural institutions and exhibition venues; they have also been published in media including Architectural Review, Domus, Abitare, Arqa, Arkitecktur, and MONU magazine on urbanism. Currently Cassani is participating in the Manifesta12 exhibition in Palermo, and in the Pavilion of Bahrain at the Venice Architecture Biennale.
www.matildecassani.com

buchsenhausen.at
argekunst.it