About the Project
Photo: Tim Moyer
TERRA INCOGNITA
Jeremy Beaudry & Meredith Warner
April 15 - May 15, 2008
Multimedia Gallery
The University of the Arts
Terra Building, 12th Floor
211 S. Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102
Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday, 10am to 5pm
TERRA INCOGNITA invites you to join in a contemplation of the relationships that exist between the space of the gallery, the currently vacant lot at 313 South Broad Street, the impact of the University of the Arts on land use in Center City Philadelphia and your role as active inhabitant of these spaces.
Select a terra cotta tile from the floor of the gallery and carry it with you as you visit the vacant lot at 313 South Broad Street.
313 South Broad Street has been a part of the University since the mid 1980’s. The building that once occupied the site was a 5-story Beaux Arts structure built in 1915. This building housed the City Club of Philadelphia, a non-profit organization devoted to promoting civic responsibility. It was demolished by the University in 1999 to make way for a proposed 18-story dormitory. Construction of the dormitory was stalled and eventually abandoned due to neighborhood opposition.
At 313 South Broad Street you see that the lot, still empty, is currently used as a temporary surface parking lot for construction workers. Its surface is made up of uneven gravel, with rubble and debris at its edges. The site is bound by a chain link fence that extends beyond the western lot line, consuming about half of the usable sidewalk on Broad Street, thus creating a pedestrian bottleneck.
Place the tile on the area that was once accessible sidewalk.
This symbolic and material act rebuilds and reclaims the sidewalk that was destroyed during demolition. The tile is unfired and will slowly deteriorate. As you pass this site in the future you will witness it melt back into the ground. The transplantation of the tiles marks the ephemeral yet resonant impacts that are continually enacted upon our shared spaces by both individuals and institutions.
Special thanks to Jaco Vermeulen and Emily Sloat Shaw for research assistance, Amanda Atkinson for curatorial assistance, Amanda Miduski and Kristen Jasionowski for fabrication of the clay tiles, and Kyle Brown-Watson and Tsveta Dimitrova for installation assistance.