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ECOS

Siraj Izhar, Dominique Leroy & Benjamin Larcher

(London, England, United Kingdom)

Le Corbusier, La Maison Radieuse
Izhar is a London artist, writer and social activist. Izhar explains that his “artworks are active social processes, which create spaces for participation and are completed by the ongoing activity of many. They are generators of activity. My projects are autonomously generated, sometimes anonymous, and usually take place over a three-year cycle in phases, which emerge out of each other: Production – Distribution – Representation.

“I generate my work through dialogue with others; I rarely accept invitations to participate in curated shows. The concept of the ecosystem is central to my working process in that it describes the way the works work in real contexts with complexities of built-in feedback processes that develop over time. I do not produce exhibitions as such but engage with the living city directly to produce autonomous working realities.”

From 1999-2004, Izhar was the director of Public Life, where he was responsible for converting a derelict public lavatory in London’s Spitalfields district into an experimental music and digital media space. Since 1998, he has been the associate director at the Pari Centre for New Learning, where he has been working with the physicist David Peat. He has since set up the Pari Network Web site, a project development network site for ecological and complementary economics projects. In 2005, Izhar was co-winner of an international competition for a Living Memorial to Ken Saro-Wiwa. He is currently working on a waste collection and recycling project involving dumpsters in northeast London as well as bike-sharing resource to initiate complementary social exchanges.

Dominique Leroy (Sables d’Olonne, France) is a multimedia artist living and working in Rezé, a Nantes suburb, at Le Corbusier’s Maison Radieuse (the location of the ecosXchange project). His work challenges different modes of representation, including experimental visual arts and music through installations and performances. Leroy's interactive creations explore the identity of our living environment by connecting technology, architecture, urban development, and communication networks. Leroy has exhibited his work at many venues, including the Institute of Contemporary Arts (London) during ICAD2006, the New International Cultural Centre free space at the Palais des Beaux-arts (Brussels), and in group exhibitions at De Appel (Amsterdam).

Benjamin Larcher (Nantes, France) is an environmental engineer and ecologist. He has worked for Van Der Wijngaart’s Engineering Services (www.wijngaart.nl) in The Netherlands, where he helped with a project dealing with the re-use of manure as a slowly degrading fertilizer. This devised manure system aims to reduce the human environmental footprint and was awarded first prize at the International Exhibition of Inventions, New Techniques and Products of Geneva in 1998. Larcher continues to develop energy savings and waste management processes. He is the author of Réduisez vos consommations et économisez jusqu'à 1200 euros par an (2005), a manual for use in residential neighbourhoods.

The ECOS association supports, develops and promotes ecological activities and organises interdisciplinary meetings and conferences on ecological issues.

© 2007 FDL