Alex Villar
Underground (from the Other Spaces series)

Other Spaces consists of a series of peformative interventions in outdoor urban spaces. The title refers to ³Of Other Spaces,² a text by Michel Foucault that introduces the concept of heterotopia as opposed to utopia. Heterotopias are actual spaces that can potentially escape the control and regulation that is prevalent in social spaces. In the specific context of New York City, a place in which so-called public spaces are thoroughly administered, there are many overlooked sites, spaces that are not completely subjected to control. Some are temporary and circumstantial; others are the result of prolonged decay. Villar has focused on small, body-scaled, negative architectural spaces where he intervenes with his body. The images that register these fleeting occupations are presented to the viewer as projections onto the surfaces of interior architectural spaces.