Throughout their respective practices, Franco Klein and Yantrasast create work that spans art and architecture: Kulapat Yantrasast is the founder and creative director of wHY, an architectural firm that interconnects ideas, buildings, grounds, objects and museums throughout its practice; Tania Franco Klein, once an architect and now a photographer, creates spatially-minded, photographic installations that further the narrative possibilities of her medium.
In this discussion, the two creatives will speak to the intersection of art and architecture. How can an architect further artists’ narratives through space? How can an artwork complement its site? Where do these lines between these practices overlap and blur?
This event will take place during Frieze Weekend — a much needed respite from the busy art weekend. Yantrasast, who designed the tent for Frieze, will join Franco Klein, who has designed a special installation for this event and the last weekend of her exhibition.
About the speakers:
© Graham Walzer
KULAPAT YANTRASAST
Founding Partner and Creative Director, wHY
Born in Bangkok, Thailand, where he graduated with honors from Chulalongkorn University (1990), Kulapat received both his M.Arch. and Ph.D. degrees in Architecture from the University of Tokyo (1993/1996), under a Japanese Government scholarship. Upon graduating, Kulapat worked as Tadao Ando’s close associate for eight years in Japan.
In 2012, he was named one of the art world’s 100 Most Powerful People; in 2009, Kulapat was the first architect to receive the Silpathorn Award for Design from Thailand’s Ministry of Culture. He is a frequent public speaker at leading institutions and has served on the Artists’ Committee of the Americans for the Arts (the United States’ oldest organization for support of the arts in the society) since 2005. In 2015, he was appointed a board member of the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, and he is an active member of the Design Council for Collective Design.
© Kovi Konowiecki
TANIA FRANCO KLEIN
Contemporary Artist
Tania Franco Klein (b. 1990) started her photography praxis while gaining her BA Architecture in Mexico City, which took her to pursue her Master in Photography at the University of the Arts London.
Her work is highly influenced by her fascination with social behavior and contemporary practices such as leisure, consumption, media overstimulation, emotional disconnection, the obsession with eternal youth, the American dream in the Western world and the psychological sequels they generate in our everyday life.
Her work has been exhibited across Europe, USA, and Mexico, including international fairs such as Photo Basel, Photo London, Photofairs SF, Getxo Photo and during the Los Angeles Month of Photography.
She has obtained the Sony World Photography Awards in two consecutive years, The Lensculture Exposure Awards, The Felix Schoeller Photo Award of Germany Nominee, FOAM Paul Huf Award nominee, and recently received the Photo London Artproof Schliemann Award as the best emerging artist during Photo London fair 2018. Her first monograph, 'Positive Disintegration' was shortlisted for the Aperture 2019 First Photobook Award. Her first U.S. solo exhibition, Proceed to the Route, is currently on view at ROSEGALLERY.
