Project Information
Name of the project: Gels
Architects: The Bittertang Farm
Location: MoMa PS1 Museum, Queens, New York
Year (project): 2015
Client: Museum of Modern Art
In ‘Gels’ water is the primary material and informs the creation of a new landscape where water is captured in
various features across the site to produce a collection of living beings. Throughout the course of the summer the
installation will grow and wither as one of its primary materials is bundled and mounded hay which will sprout
wheatgrass and wildflowers across its conical surfaces. In addition to nourishing these architectural volumes water
becomes a playful architectural element within the courtyard and its presence can be felt, heard and seen in a
large glowing and bellowing sac of liquid and its numerous jelly‐like offspring. The largest sac becomes an
interactive feature helping to motivate the party much like a disco ball would and the smaller water sacs are
sprinkled throughout the site becoming furniture and structural elements. Water also can be found oozing from
elevated and interactive heads of the ‘drip garden’ that sway in the wind creating a cooling drip garden. As the
summer comes to an end the bodies of these elements which have been held together with thin membranes of
plastic and netting will be drained of their water and their hay composted leaving barely a trace of their former
beings.
Our desire is not focused on creating spaces that encourage efficiency and physiological comfort but feed the
erotic and allow the body to engage with its environment and other bodies in dynamic and sensual ways. By using
materials including; air, water, wax, hay, soil, fur, food and human bodies in their various material, physical and
sensorial states we create unexpected architectural forms that appeal to senses beyond sight and touch engaging
emotionally with participants. Within these new emotional landscapes it is not uncommon to see people publicly
cuddling with our projects; licking, kissing and eating architecture.
This approach aligns itself with the goals of YAP; as the Warm Up parties thrust together music, space,
environment, objects, water and bodies into one frothy throbbing mass. Music and the space of the dance floor
encourages bodily expression and alternative and libidinous behaviors within public space. Parties have become
events of possibility where new feelings are experienced, new senses stimulated and potentially new lovers found.
Architecture can encourage or discourage these activities and we can see this throughout history if we look at the
relationship of music and architecture in regards to the human body. All three have redefined and reshaped each
other, accessing and altering culture through pleasure. The effervescence of the party in collusion with the design
of an environment will be the new architectural construct.
‘Gels’ is a microcosm of its own and water in its various forms defines the party as well as our collective future. We see ‘Gels’ as an opportunity to explore water’s architectural potentials at a large and aesthetic scale to engage directly with the body redefining the institution of the dance floor.
