This sunday i went to see the exhibition of swiss artist duo Fischli & Weiss in Milan,Italy, organized by the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi. Get the first impression by a video on youtube. It runs until the 16th of march, but afterwards it will move to Hamburg (18. April until 31. August in the Deichtorhallen Hamburg). The exhibition space is the beautiful Palazzo Litta, the perfect frame for their work. They are dealing with a wide range of means: multimedia installations, photography and sculptures.Their most famous piece of work is the movie titled “Der Lauf der Dinge” (How things go), from 1987, at the documenta 8. Their basic principle is to pick up objects and situations of daily life and transforming them into a new context. What do they exactly aim at? Do they try to find answers on the philosophical and theoretical questions of life is their irony and also tremendous humour a notion to cheer up in a complex world?
One extract of a Super 8 movie shows Fischli & Weiss, dressed as a bear and a rat, strolling through Hollywood, questioning life.The bears’ comment ( in “the least resistance”): ” I hate this chaos in the world. Nothing works. Everything is hopeless and sad.” Continue reading ‘Questions & Flowers - a Retrospective by Fischli & Weiss’
Author Archive for claudia
For livestyle junkies imm-cologne is a must - from local designers to big international brands it shows the whole range of spic-and-span-new interiour design. Have fun and and hurry up - last day of the design week is 20. January 2008.
More infos by the organisator:
Top-class designer furniture, classic living worlds, trendy accessories: imm cologne provides a comprehensive selection of furniture and furnishings. From “imm pure” to “imm basic,” the product range is clearly structured in segments. This international furnishing show is the global marketplace and meeting place for the international furniture sector — the 2008 fair features more than 1,300 exhibitors from about 60 countries. As the sector’s business event, trend barometer, international communication forum and centre for creative ideas, imm cologne and its full programme of events generate strong momentum for the interior design of tomorrow.
The swiss architect Peter Zumthor built an art museum around the wreckage of the parish church St.Kolumba. commissioned by Cardinal Meisner (lately in the news with his comment of “Entartete Kunst” on Gerhard Richter’s design for the window Koelner Dom) , the won competition in 1997 was finally realized 10 years later.The museum is an archaic castle for religious art of 2000 years sycamore culture as well for modern installations.
Kolumba consists of several periods in architecture history: starting with the late Gothic church St.Kolumba, the chapel “Madonna in den Trümmern” ( “Madonna in ruins” ) was buillt in 1950. Interestingly enough, the architect of this little chapel, Gottfried Böhm, made now the very controversial discussed design for the Zentralmoschee Köln Cologne Mosque Project. Continuing 1973-1976 with the archaeological excavation, finalized by Zumthor’s new design.
Continue reading ‘Zumthor in Cologne: The Art Museum of the Metropolitan Bishop’
The New York photographer Taryn Simon shows the unknown and furtive of American society. At first glance with an incredible beauty it turns to a prickling scariness when understanding the content. Her first popular piece of art is about the Body Farm: a forensic institution in Tennessee which analyzes the decay of human bodies for the purpose of criminal research. One of her picture shows a dead body lying in scrub, hidden in the darkness. The boy is still wearing sneakers with legs which look burnt. With this series she provoked a lot of protest and the institute is now strongly observed.
She attempts to access the most secret rooms, landscapes, laboratories, dumps or archives in America. Simon succeeded even to enter the Nuclear Waste Encapsulation and Storage Facility in Hanford (Washington) which preserves 1936 steel capsules of atomic waste with 120 million Curie of radioactivity in total. The cold glow of the rays is overpowering even within the steel capsules, which are several meters thick. There is probably no other place in America which is more polluted. As Simon writes, the core of the project is the “total detachment of expert knowledge and official publicity.”
From 21st to 28th September the Forum for current architecture is launching the PLAN 07 in Cologne, Germany. It is the 9th architecture festival with venues all over the city featuring diverse exhibitions, lectures and more. With public realm as a theme the city will become a stage for projects done by architects, urban & landscape designers, institutions, artists and scientists.
For the full program and further information please take a look under plan-project.com.
I recently held a lecture at the TU MUNICH, Department for Landscape Architecture and Public Space, on the topic of public space in London, presenting some of the work at maxwan architects in Rotterdam. Here’s is an excerpt of it:
Cross River Park, UK
The Berlage Institute, postgraduate laboratory of architecture in Rotterdam, has installed a new Research Board. Until now, Alejandro Zaera Polo (director of FOA) has been the Dean of the Institute. He has been opening the Berlage to a more international field as to tutors, lecturers and new design strategies. Instead of appointing a single follower, the institute named a board of five established figures: Ben van Berkel, Winy Maas, Robert E. Somol, Elia Zenghelis and Alejandro Zaera Polo himself. Vedran Mimica (now Director of Studies) is named director and will be responsible for the management of the postgraduate program and the implementation of strategic advice provided by the Research Board. The idea is to create a new innovative platform, not so much dependent on a single person. One the one hand this model is very flexible and inspires discussion and critique, on the other hand there is the danger of loosing profile by not having a representative person, a champion. Who is responsible for what? How much time will the board members spend at the institute? Will they find a common course? I am curious to follow how this system works out. The openness of the system speaks for the flexibility of the Berlage Institute as an independent research laboratory.
Continue reading ‘Berlage Institute sets new Research Board’
From May 30th to June 5th 2007 Hiroki Matsuura (maxwan a+u) held a workshop on “public space” in the famous chocolate factory “Red October” in Moscow. The workshop was accompanied by a lecture featuring some of the office’s projects. A summary follows.
De Gasperi Housing development, Italy
The “De Gasperi housing development” was a competition held in 2005 by the city of Naples. After the 2nd phase of the competition, we were awarded first prize and are expecting the start of construction next year. The location of the site is about 6km to the east from Naples city centre, in an adjacent outskirt of Mt. Vesvio. The size of the site is about 5ha and the aim of this project is to regenerate the area, which was built as a high-density post-war residential area in 1950.
My dear friend Veronica Arcos just finished her new project - this time a design for the store ROUGE in Santiago de Chile.
The project is subordinated to a three dimensional grid that organizes the space. The main component is a bended shelf that weaves along the interior walls, controlled by an algorithm that makes the bending expand or compress according to the height of the wall and the material tolerance. On the other hand there is the necessity of a billboard that requires to be noticed from different angles and from a far distance. Therefore it was decided to make it three dimensional by fragmenting the letters apart, converting them into 3d pixels.
So far to the technical description of the project - i think it it is pretty beautiful.
The 3rd International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam is getting started! Here you find the most important dates:
Thursday 24 may, by invitation only
Opening 3e Internationale Architectuur Biennale Rotterdam
location: Kunsthal Rotterdam
time: 16.00
Vrijdag 25 may
Producing the Contemporary City#1
With among others Edi Rama, Elia Zenghelis and Joan Ockman.
location: Kunsthal Rotterdam
time: 9.30-17.00
admission fee: € 15,00
Reservation Form
Saturday 26 may,
Producing the Contemporary City#2
With among others Edi Rama, Elia Zenghelis and Joan Ockman.
location: Kunsthal Rotterdam
time: 10.00-15.00
admission fee: € 15,00
Reservation Form
Exhibition architect
Lecture by Stanislaus von Moos on Le Corbusier - The Art of Architecture
For more information www.nai.nl/register
location: Nederlands Architectuurinstituut (NAi)
time: 14.30-15.30
21.00 IABR Party in the Kunsthal, by invitation only
For further information go to:
biennale rotterdam
Rotterdam 2007
Yesterday, the Munich based office hildundk.de gave an insight of their work at the Academie van Bouwkunst in Amsterdam. The office composes very individual solutions for each project, avoiding predefined styles. They attempt to catch people’s emotions by using ornaments and specific materials combined with a strong conceptual sensitivity. This “ornamentalism” has its roots in the southern part of Germany which still is influenced by baroque tradition. Hild’s approach is to decontextualize the ornament, effectively tattooing his buildings.
Continue reading ‘Hild und K @ Amsterdam’
On March 14 (2007) the Berlage Institute (Rotterdam) hosted two lectures with the title “Instant City: The Rise of Dubai”. Kees Christiaanse (Architect, Rotterdam) and George Katodrytis (Architect, Dubai) gave presentations while Roemer van Toorn moderated the event. Marc Angélil unfortunately was stuck at the Zurich airport because of the infamous Swiss weather.
Dubai is a gated community. What can we do about it? And can architecture politically engage a global market-driven power structure?
Kees answered, that Dubai is dominated by “gatedness”, “sameness”, “fadedness” and “maleness”.
Continue reading ‘Instant City: The Rise of Dubai’
Next PechaKucha will be 28th of February, starting at 20:20. Tickets costs 6 Euro.
For those not in the know, Pecha Kucha is an innovative approach to giving presentations that is taking design and architecture circles by storm. This format ensures that presentations last no longer than 6 minutes and 40 seconds as speakers are limited to using 20 slides, each of which is shown for only 20 seconds. These simple rules have resulted in Pecha Kucha nights becoming synonymous with punchy, fast-flowing presentations that keep audiences on their toes.
The Pecha Kucha craze originated in Tokyo among creative professionals as a means to introduce and exchange ideas with peers; and is named after the Japanese onomatopoeic equivalent for chitchat. As it continues to sweep through major cities all over the world, it is quite fitting that Pecha Kucha has made its way to the Embassy of Japan.
The spanish designer Jaime Hayon is staging at the VIVID gallery until the 4th of march. His work consists mainly of furniture design with ceramic as material.The style is pretty baroque and funky. He is perfect for architects with rich clients who desperately need a golden bath tub.