fabric | rblg

By fabric | ch

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As we continue to lack a decent search engine on this blog and as we don't use a "tag cloud" ... This post could help navigate through the updated content on | rblg (as of 07.2017), via all its tags!

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Note: still posting about exhibitions... the current one in Chicago that opened a month ago and will last until next January is certainly one to visit. I didn't had the occasion and wonder if I will... But the open angle usually taken by one of its curator, Jospeh Grima, when it comes to consider what is/might be(come) architecture, is certainly interesting as it also points out different ways and strategies of "being" an architect. Altough there is no reason to erase the old way, it just that it opens perspectives... I'll look forward for more inputs about the show.

Via ArchDaily

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A few weeks ago, during the opening of the Chicago Architecture Biennial, we eagerly awaited our opportunity to speak with Joseph Grima, the co-artistic director of the first Chicago Architecture Biennial. In an exhibition with such an open theme, we wanted to understand the driving forces behind the assembly of the participants, in addition to how the city of Chicago itself influenced decisions in the planning of this largest gathering of architecture in North America. Watch the video above and read a transcript of Grima's answers below.

Artistic Directors Joseph Grima & Sarah Herda. Image Courtesy of Chicago Architecture Biennial

ArchDaily: Can you introduce yourself and tell us about the motivations behind The State of the Art of Architecture?

"I’m Joseph Grima, I’m the co-artistic director of the first Chicago Architecture Biennial, The State of the Art of Architecture."

"Chicago is a city that has over a century of history of innovation and bold vision in architecture and that’s something that really permeates the culture the city—beyond the public administration but also into its inhabitants—a real appreciation for the value and potential of architecture." 

"The Biennial was a project that was incubated by the city of Chicago.  I was brought in by my co-artistic director, Sarah Herda, who was really involved in the very early stages of the conversation around what this Biennial could be. It’s a project the city is very much invested in, that it really sees being defining in terms of its future, and Sarah and I, when we were given the opportunity to think about what this first exhibition could be, we were really thinking about this is an incredibly important moment in the history of architecture in this region, in this country, in this continent, in fact, because it is in fact the largest exhibition of contemporary architecture that’s ever been staged in North America. And so it was very important to think about what kind of a statement would be made with this first exhibition and we decided very early on that it shouldn’t be given a theme; it shouldn’t look at a particular aspect of architecture but it should be, in a way, a point of observation into the landscape of contemporary architecture — not just in this country but around the world. And so the title, The State of the Art of Architecture, really attempts to capture this idea that architecture is something extremely broad, that takes on many, many different forms, and that is mutable. It changes over time. So this is the “state of the art” today, it’s where we are today. It’s a small selection. It’s, in a way, trying to sample a number of different visions of what architecture is and what it can be, but it’s also trying to make the point that architecture is not simply a profession — it’s not something that just simply serves the practical purpose of keeping the rain out. It’s much more than that. It’s a form of cultural practice. And it’s an art form: the art of architecture. And so these are the key ideas that we really wanted to tackle with this exhibition."

Joseph Grima during the press tour at the opening of the Chicago Architecture Biennial. Image © Diego Hernández

ArchDaily: How did you select the Biennial participants? 

"We did very very extensive reviews, we went through a very extensive review process and looked at the work of over 500 architects. We didn’t necessarily chose them on the basis of their merit - of some being better than others or some being more interesting than others - but we wanted to offer an extremely transversal view into the preoccupations, the concerns, the ideals, the ideas, the impulses that animate architecture today. And so the participants were really selected on the basis of bold vision, and of taking a risk in thinking about what architecture could be. And, in some way, kind of pushing it beyond its current state, kind of giving it an impulse towards the future. And that took many, many different forms. And what we were really interested in, one of the reasons why no room has a particular theme, but all the projects are in dialogue, they are all pulling in completely different directions; they are all attempting to do different things and no two are really making the same statement about architecture. And so we see really, the exhibition as a conversation."

Chicago Horizon / Ultramoderne. Winner of BP Prize. Image © Diego Hernández

ArchDaily: Can you tell us what you hope the Biennial's more permanent legacy will be?

"It was really important to us, from the beginning, that this exhibition should not be some sort of transient that would come in, go out, remain here for three months, perhaps inspire people but leave nothing behind. But we also wanted to take the opportunity to actually leave something tangible behind, and so through a collaboration with the Department of Parks of the City of Chicago and also with the sponsorship of BP we were able to organize the commissioning of a series of pavilions - or rather we organized a competition that was also covered by ArchDaily - for the design of a Lakefront Kiosk that would serve, during the summer months, the purpose of a concession stand. And also, through the collaboration with three schools in Chicago, the commissioning of three other concession stands. So these little concession stands that will populate the Lakefront during the summer months are something that will live on, that will stay in Chicago — and will possibly move around because they’re permanent architecture, so to speak, but not permanent in their site. They can be moved to different locations from year to year. And they are really a demonstration of the fact that architecture has extraordinary potential on every scale. It doesn’t necessarily need to be an entire landscape or a city plan or a house in order to have architectural value. But it can, even on the scale of a concession stand, it can make a huge difference in the city." 

Joseph Grima is an architect, writer, curator, and researcher based in Genoa, Italy. From 2011 to 2013 he was editor-in-chief of Domus, a monthly magazine of architecture, design, and art. Grima recently curated the 2014 Biennale Interieur in Kortrijk, Belgium, one of Europe's oldest design biennials, and was co-curator of the first edition of the Istanbul Design Biennial, a major international exhibition inaugurated in 2012. He is the 2015 Director of IDEAS CITY, an ideas festival organized by the New Museum in New York and dedicated to exploring the future of cities. 

See ArchDaily's coverage of the Chicago Architecture Biennial.

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Via Beatrice Galilee & The Gopher Hole

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Dear friends,

The first event of The Gopher Gala will be the story of WikiHouse, one of the most innovative global open source architecture projects today.

WikiHouse is an open community construction set. Its aim is to make it possible for almost anyone, regardless of their formal skills, to freely download and build structures which are affordable and suited to their needs. There is no single design, or single designer. Houses and components are designed by an open community of designers and users, of which you are invited to be a member.  The presentation by architecture00:/ will include speakers from other open source design projects. The discussion will be chaired by Chris Foges, editor of Architecture Today.
 

Doors open at 6.30pm, tickets are free, there will be drinks and gala-themed party food! Reserve your seat: rsvp@holygopher.com 

Architecture00:/ 
Architecture 00:/ is an architecture and strategic design practice based in London, whose work explores an expanded field of activity for design. Many of their projects test new kinds of social production and involve intense collaboration with innovators from other disciplines.

The Gopher Hole is an architecture, art, music, design, literature & miscellaneous culturegallery/venue in Hoxton.A collaboration between aberrant architecture and Beatrice Galilee, our agenda is to explore new waysof curating ideas in popular culture and to provide a forum forcritical debate on the arts and society.The Gopher Hole is part of ElPaso, a bar, workplace and dinerlocated in Shoreditch in East London.

The Gopher Gala is a week long event as part of Shoreditch Design Triangle which is promoting young design and projects in London. It ispart of a rolling programme of exhibitions, events, talks andscreenings that we hope will provide an open house for ideas that cross cultural boundaries, promote political and sociological thinking and encourage debate and exchange between disciplines.

Monday 19th‘The Wikihouse & Other Stories’ Architecture00:/ present their project WikiHouse and discuss the possibilities of open sourcedesign. Chaired by Chris Foges, editor ofArchitecture Today 

Tuesday 20th ‘Archive of Spatial Aesthetics’Curator Tina Di Carlo presents the Archive of Spatial Aesthetics and Praxis. ASAP aims to be the foremostcollection of spatial practice today, collecting and exhibitingarchitecture as part of a broader social, political, and aesthetic discourse.

Wednesday 21st 'Young London: The Best of 2011' ′The best projects of 2011 will be presented in an all-nightextravaganza by a score of young London design studios,  includingtalks by Revital Cohen, Nelly BenHayoun, Assemble, Something & Son, The Decorators, Klassnik Corporation, Tomorrow’s Thoughts Today, Kieren Jones and Bedford Press. Music by Type Two Error. Curated by Anna Bates & The Gopher Hole.

Thursday 22nd 'Exploding China – China’s New Megacities'  Talk and booklaunch’Shanghai-based multidisciplinary think Go West Project will be in London to discuss their newbookHow the City Moved to Mr Sun in conversation with Beatrice Galilee.

All tickets are free and events start @ 6:30pm to reserve yours please rsvp@holygopher.com

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Personal comment:

Unfortunately the opening was yesterday, but the event goes on for the week.
Therefore more about community architecture & open source approach during this week at the promissing Gopher Hole that is run by Beatrice Galilee & aberrant architecture in Hoxton/London.

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Via Northern Lights

Personal comment:

Following an earlier post about the same book, some short developments here by Steve Dietz.

Rethinking Curating - Art After New Media.

Rethinking Curating

Art after New Media
Beryl Graham and Sarah Cook
Foreword by Steve Dietz

“Rethinking Curating: Art after New Media . . .clearly articulates an often obfuscating set of issues, including the internecine debates that too easily divide what Lev Manovich refers to as Turing- land (so- called new media art) and Duchampland (so- called contemporary art). Beryl Graham and Sarah Cook rigorously differentiate and compellingly reintegrate the competing claims of these two camps so that we can focus on what really matters: the art.”

From the Foreword, available for download here.

See also The Art Formerly Known As New Media, which Sarah and I co-curated at the Walter Phillips Gallery in Banff.

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Via Northern Lights

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With Steve Dietz, curator of the San Francisco Bay Area festival 01SJ (that we might meet next summer...)

Digital Hinterlands features a diverse range of work by some of the best recent architecture graduates from London’s Architectural Association, Bartlett, Royal College of Art, and University of Westminster. Organised by Ruairi Glynn and curated in consultation with Arup, this exhibition reveals how the latest computational design and rapid manufacturing processes are providing new ways of understanding and designing space. From built models, 1:1 fragments, material experiments and installations, to interactive devices, virtual worlds and robotics, this exhibition presents the ideas of a wave of young designers, operating on the speculative hinterlands of architectural design.

The Private View of the Digital Hinterlands Exhibition is on the 21st September to coincide with the Digital Architecture London Conference, as part of London Digital Week

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Personal comment:

Une autre exposition de Ruairi Glynn (sauf erreur ancien collaborateur de Usman Haque et enseignant à la Bartlett School of Architecture). Très axé sur l'architecture "interactive" ou robotisée, le processus digital de création et fabrication, il est assez actif sur la scène londonnienne (voir le post précédent Digital Architecture London).

In the context of the exhibition theanyspacewhatever at the Guggenheim Museum NY, Douglas Gordon will "deploy time as medium" and Hans-Ulrich Obrist will discuss 24h on time. Shall we speak about dimensional interferences? P_

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theanyspacewhatever
Oct 24, 2008 - Jan 7, 2009

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1071 5th Ave (at 89th St)
New York, NY

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 Originating with a desire to present a contemporary group exhibition that would capture the spirit of the art that emerged during the early 1990s, this presentation has evolved into a collaborative venture among ten artists who share certain strategies and sensibilities: Angela Bulloch, Maurizio Cattelan, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Douglas Gordon, Carsten Höller, Pierre Huyghe, Jorge Pardo, Philippe Parreno, and Rirkrit Tiravanija.

Though each artist is recognized for his or her own practice, they are linked by a mutual rethinking of the early modernist impulse to conflate art and life. Rather than deploying representational strategies, they privilege experiential, situation-based work over discrete aesthetic objects. The exhibition model—in essence, a spatial and durational event—has become, for these artists, a creative medium in and of itself.

The following programs accompany the exhibition.

Catalysts and Critics: The Art of the 1990s
Fri Oct 24, 9:30-5:30 pm
Columbia University, School of the Arts
Join critics, curators, gallerists, and collectors for this day-long session dedicated to the critical debate surrounding "relational aesthetics" as well as to the shared history of the artists featured in the exhibition. Participants include: Alex Alberro, Claire Bishop, Ina Blom, Massimo de Carlo, Jose Falconi, Nancy Spector, and Andy Stillpass.

Pierre Huyghe: OPENING
Fri Oct 24, 6:30 pm; Mons, Nov 17, Dec 8, 4:30 pm
Museum visitors are invited to a participatory event in which Huyghe transforms the Guggenheim's rotunda to disrupt and disorient the exhibition experience.

Works & Process–World Premiere - NY.2022
Fri Oct 24, Sat Oct 25, 8 pm
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Ari Benjamin Meyers create an original work "about endings and last things" for the Peter B. Lewis Theater. Inspired by the iconic science-fiction movie Soylent Green (1973) depicting a disturbing vision of New York City in 2022, this performance will be accompanied by Staten Island's Richmond County Orchestra (music director Alan Aurelia). Photography by Alex S. MacLean and costumes by Balenciaga complete the work.

Douglas Gordon: 24 hour psycho back and forth and to and fro
Oct 31, Nov 14, Jan 6, 10am – 10am
Deploying time as a medium, Gordon's new iteration of the work 24 Hour Psycho (1993) slows down the 1960 Hitchcock thriller to a full-day cycle on a split screen installation, running the film both forward and in reverse. The museum will remain open through the night each time this work is shown.

24-hours on the Concept of Time
Tue Jan 6 – Wed Jan 7, 6 pm – 6pm
Continuing non-stop for 24 hours this rich and polyvalent event organized by Nancy Spector and Hans Ulrich Obrist expands upon the theme of time—an interest central to the artists represented in the exhibition. Guests from a wide spectrum of fields and disciplines share their philosophical, sociological, economic, theological and aesthetic perspectives on time.

FILM SCREENINGS
Rirkrit Tiravanija: CHEW THE FAT
In conjunction with the exhibition, Tiravanija's documentary film provides a perspective on the art of the 1990s through interviews with artists, including those participating in the exhibition.

Suns 1 pm and 3 pm
Mons 2 pm and 3:30 pm
Fri Nov 14, Tue Dec 2, 8 pm

Anna Sanders Films
Founded in 1997 by Pierre Huyghe, Charles de Meaux, Philippe Parreno and the association of contemporary art distribution (Xavier Douroux, Franck Gautherot) in collaboration with Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Anna Sanders Films brings a new language of imagery to cinema, creating a hybrid form between film and the visual arts.

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As announced two days ago, here's a lengthier report about REACTIVATE!! Espacios remodelados e intervenciones mínimas (Remodeled spaces and minimal interventions), an exhibition which takes place until August 31 at the Espai d' Art Contemporani de Castelló, an hour away from Valencia.


View of the exhibition. Image courtesy of the Espai d' Art Contemporani

Curated by Francesca Ferguson in collaboration with Pepe Ballesteros, REACTIVATE!! is merging two exhibitions organized last year by the Swiss Architecture Museum in Basel (S AM). The resulting show brings together a cluster of recently-built projects which demonstrate how resourceful architects and designers can transform disused, outworn or inadequate urban spaces and buildings into efficient, and even aesthetically striking edifices. Although they emerge from different cultural contexts, these architectural endeavours have one thing in common: their transformation is achieved by drawing upon the existing structures and using only minimal means and resources. As the curatorial statement mentions, They show how an aesthetic of the unfinished and the makeshift can reshape our notions of useful - and useable - space, asking the question: can lo-tech and laissez-faire design present relevant alternatives to the driving force of urban renewal?

Osa-Offfice for subversive Architecture with Studio+44, Künsthülle Liverpool. Photo: Juliusz Sokolowski

All the works on show make visitors reflect (once again) on the little sustainability involved in building spectacular museums, concert halls and skyscrapers and on the shortcomings of thoroughly planned and rationalised urban environments. Furthermore, the works selected in this section of REACTIVATE!! demonstrate that 'making the most of what we've got' can go hand in hand with inspiration and sparkle.

Here's just a selection from the 17 projects on view in Castelló:

FNP architects converted a pig sty dating from 1768 into a "Matryoshka dolls house". A prefabricated timber structure, with openings to match those of the pigsty, has been hoisted directly into the old stone walls but without touching them. They added a roof on top of the structure. Et voilà!

FNP Architekten, S(ch)austall. Photo Zooey Braun

What make the result great and quirky is the architects' choice to leave the windows where they were originally. They probably made much sense for a pigsty but look deliciously odd and random for a house.

EM2N, Hardbrücke Railway Station. Photo Roger Frei

EM2N's Renovation of the Hardbrücke Railway Station in Zürich is a dream example of how much the 'less is more' approach can be effective. Visible from far away two ueber-simple red and white illuminated panels tie the railway station to the fabric of the city, strengthen the identity of the railway station and facilitate the orientation. More images.

Flores y Prats Architectes, Nave Yute's Textil Warehouse, Barcelona. Photo: Hisag Sozuki

Despite the fact that they were no allowed to touch the side of the buildings which were protected for fire regulations, architects Eva Prats & Ricardo Flores tripled the storage capacity of Yute's Textile Warehouse at the outskirt of Barcelona by going upwards, raising the existing building and reorganizing the interior spaces and circulation throughout. The appealing red and yellow colour that wraps the factory like a piece of textile comes from the use of corrugated iron.

The part of Frankfurt's east harbour lying behind the market hall area is a no man's land made of gravel, dumps, cranes, and containers waiting to be shipped somewhere. That's where Index Architekten worked to extend upward a bunker from the times of World War Two and turned it into that new Holy Grail of cities: a cheap space for artists' studios and an Institute for New Media.

Demolishing the bunker would have been too expensive, so would have been a restoration of its leaking hip-roof. Consequently, the architects built a wooden box on top of the structure.

Also part of the exhibition: Freitag's container Flagship store, Big Tanks and Retired priests have all the fun.

View of the exhibition. Image courtesy of the Espai d' Art Contemporani

REACTIVATE!! Espacios remodelados e intervenciones mínimas (Remodeled spaces and minimal interventions) takes place until August 31 at the Espai d' Art Contemporani de Castelló, near Valencia, Spain.

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