towner
Devonshire Park
College Road
Eastbourne
BN21 4JJ
01323 415 470
Towner, Eastbourne’s new art gallery and centre for the visual arts in the South East recently opened it's doors to the public this spring with a specially commissioned exhibition by the acclaimed Chilean artist, Iván Navarro, who is representing his country at this year’s Venice Biennale.
Iván Navarro creates structurally complex and visually arresting sculptures out of fluorescent and incandescent light. Using the actual lighting fixtures as a basic building material, he ingeniously crafts radiant objects which are at once functional everyday objects and highly unique artistic inventions. The artist plays with the immediate reference to modern formalism, yet subverting its purity with his baroque interpretations of the mundane and his sharp political subtext.
While Navarro uses fluorescent light, a consecrated material of minimalist art, he works it far beyond its mere formal possibilities: maximizing its physical attributes of luminosity and heat in the form of a utilitarian object - such as a lamp, a chair, or a table - in order to convey deep social and psychological meaning.
For Nowhere Man, Navarro was commissioned to make eleven new pieces of work based on the Olympic pictograms designed by Otl Aicher, which debuted at the 1972 Munich Olympics. From wrestlers and runners to cyclists and divers, Navarro has selected eleven images that immediately recollect both the thrill and the tumultuous political history of the Games.
Navarro’s interest in the pictograms is entrenched in the political and ideological significance of the narrative-laden symbols of the Olympics. This series represents a shift in Navarro’s work with the appearance of human figures that have previously been so conspicuously absent. This will be Navarro’s first solo exhibition in a UK public gallery. Navarro has been selected to represent Chile at the Venice Biennale 2009.
While in Eastbourne, why not try these?
Listings provided by Visit Sussex
Chatsworth Hotel
3-Star privately owned hotel in central seafront location, very close to the pier, shops, cinema & theatres.
Cavendish Hotel
The Cavendish, named after the 7th Duke of Devonshire, is a majestic hotel commanding the premier sea front position on Eastbourne's Grand Parade.
Loriston Guest House
The Loriston is an award-winning 5-star Guest House, in a quiet area just 40 metres from the beach.
Mo Mambo
Good Italian food, freshly prepared, in a friendly relaxed atmosphere and at a price that won't break the bank.
Michelangelo Restaurant
Michelangelo Restaurant offers Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese cuisine using fresh, organic, local ingredients.
Flamenco Tapas Restaurant
A Spanish Tapas Restaurant situated between the Eastbourne theatres and the town centre.
