Installation: Between the Artistic and Architectural Project (original) (raw)
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Annales Academiae Paedagogicae Cracoviensis, 2023
Aggela Mandilari work of art, when it moves in the field of conjunction of art and architecture, shows up in different forms of enactment. The various forms of implementation of in situ art are always connected with different perspectives of public space and the social relations that develop in it and concern the categories of private, public, and collective. These relations, in the context of their implementation, translate into relations between closed and open space, between inside and outside, between suspension and movement. For the material and aesthetic expression as well as for the critical representation of these relationships, in each case, different forms and tools of composition as well as different procedures of materialization are employed. This study examines urban projects that offer different versions of reconstruction and reinterpretation of the urban environment, as well as different manifestations of in situ artistic practice that have as a common feature the conjugation of art and architecture. Specific paradigms are selected from different decades, starting from the 50's with Aldo Van Eyck's playgrounds. What this paper maintains is that the specific projects, while oscillating between art and architecture, activate in varied modes specific components of the urban sphere such as the modes of coexistence between the visible and the invisible, the inside and the outside, the private and the collective. Thus they arrest the everyday flow of the undifferentiated space and time by offering an alternative discursive reality that stimulates the subtle interaction between objects and subjects. The selected paradigms contain two levels of reading: firstly the subtle balance between art and architecture where, in the field of in situ practice, complex exchanges reveal and shape the modes of their materialization. Secondly, the delicate balance between modes of expression of the symbolic and the metaphoric. Each case constitutes a different version of this fusion in terms of meaning and modes of its expression. In the case of Van Eyck the above process takes the form of a counterpoint inspired by geometry and social ritual, while in the case of Daniel Buren it is more about a visual reconstruction of the urban environment that constitutes of a polyphony of sculptural, painterly and architectural elements. As far as the case of Rachel Whiteread is concerned, the architectural is fused with the sculptural in the form of an ephemeral monument that acquires metaphorical reading. In the selected projects different aspects of the category of architecture and its foundation are traced namely the threefold reality-materiality-construction. According to Benjamin Buchloh, long before the 1950s, sculpture had abandoned its role as a means of refining the material world, but also as a means of representing individual, anthropomorphic, holistic bodies in space, made of inert but permanent, if not eternal, matter and impregnated with illusory moments of a fake life (Buchloch, 1983: 278). Also from the 1960's begins a reaction to the idiom of modern art: art generally focuses on interaction with the viewer. The dividing line between the two individual components of modernist sculpture, the solid material reality and the viewer's perception of the work is broken. Buchloh refers to the sculptural installation as an identity and gesture outside and contrary to previous descriptions of modernist sculptural discourse (Buchloch, 1983: 291). He also refers to the two extremes of an axis on which sculpture has been resting ever since-knowingly or not: the dialectics of sculpture between
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2020
The article pertains to the relationship between an artwork (painting) and architectural space, as well as the issue of adapting unconventional architectural spaces for an exhibition function in relation to the author’s exhibitions presenting the paintings from the same painting series. Different exhibition concepts of each of the exhibitions emphasize the role of a painting in shaping the architectural space and the quality of this space. An artwork becomes a tool that organizes space and influences its quality. At the Faculty of Architecture of Poznań University of Technology, as part of the research project of Professor A.M. Łubowski and J. Stefańska, D.Sc., titled “Artwork in Architecture”, there has been research conducted on the correlation of architecture and art. The author was invited to participate in three exhibitions carried out as part of this project. The experiences connected with the project have been described in this article. The problem of using the interiors of b...
The (Un)Aesthetics of Radical Architectural Installations
studies in History and Theory of Architecture (sITA), 2020
As Mark Robbins noted, an installation is “a distillation of the experiences of architecture.” The British philosopher Paul Crowther pointed out that the reason why art installations appeared prominently after the 1960s was related to the deconstructive tendencies of the era and increased interest in theoretical issues between artists and critics. For an installation to be sublime, it must test our perceptual and creative assumptions, as well as bring a strengthening perspective to our rational understanding; it should include questioning and critical approaches, which can be defined as the two contemporary sensibilities associated with the idea of the “sublime.” The peculiarity of installations, as we can find in Christo’s statements, is that they offer an urgency of appearance and subject-object interaction, namely site-specificity and timelessness. Through installations, a place transforms into an “atmospheric” environment which challenges the subject, or the observer. Similarly, architectural installations have become increasingly common in architectural practices since the 1960s. Emerging as temporary criticisms, experiments, and forms of activism, architectural installations create a transition between form and formless, habitable and uninhabitable, space and place, through their temporariness and their site-specific traits. As an extension of installation art, architectural installations can be defined as experimental and experiential interventions in a gallery, urban space, or nature. Similarly – albeit controversially – radical architectural installations are not merely installed architectural spaces, but instead an installation or uninstallation of an architectural thought or, conversely, deconstruction of an existing or emerging thought by means of demolition, protest, or forms of activism. Therefore, focusing on the perception of radical architectural installations, what can the latter reveal as the complement of the world, in the words of Eco? Addressing these issues, this article focuses on architectural installations that deal with (un)aesthetics, hence aiming to demolish conventional approaches to aesthetics.
2014
In this paper I want to discuss the importance of the user’s body and movement on the comprehension of contemporary architectonic and artistic space. I believe that the contaminations we assist between these practices, in the first vanguards of the twentieth century, still influence its understanding nowadays. I shall examine the artistic work Proun Room (1923), of the Constructivist Russian artist El Lissitzky, and the term Architectural Promenade (1929), applied to Maison la Roche (1923-24) and Villa Savoye (1929-31), that the Swiss architect Le Corbusier used referring to the viewer’s experience when circulating through a building. I believe both references witness the abovementioned paradigm, as well as question the motionless contemplative aspects attached to Modernism. Through the analysis of these works I hope to reach an understanding on the influence both authors left, as heritage to the comprehension of contemporary space. Therefore I will present three arguments: i) the t...
RE-THINKING ART AND ARCHITECTURE: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY EXPERIENCE
In creative thinking, just as in architectural thinking, the context provides the necessary paths for the design. That said, conceptual thinking and theoretical ideas provide more than a mere context for architectural design, in that they help the architect make order out of chaos and create a pattern of order through their intuition and expressions of a culture. Within this explosion of creativity, art can help in the exploration of new means of expression, new materials and new forms, and in this sense, can enhance creative approaches in architectural education and architectural design. Since architecture as a discipline is about the creation and production of space, it has inherent spatial, social and cultural bonds, and as such, is a representation of values, meanings and identities. The concept of representation assumes many meanings. Represent as a noun is picture or sign, while to represent is to convey, to express, to correspond to. 1 In Lefebvre's model, the process of representation is defined according to three concepts or interrelated modes, being spatial practices; representations of space; and spaces of representation. Spatial practices can refer to social space that embraces the production and reproduction of social practices in particular locations. It embodies a close association within a perceived space between daily reality (daily routine) and urban reality (the routes and networks that link the places of work, 'private' life and leisure). 2 Representations of space refer to the conceptualized space that leans towards a system of verbal (and therefore intellectually worked out) signs, 3 and this is the dominant space in any society. Representational space is lived directly through its associated images and symbols, and hence the space of 'inhabitants' and 'users', and tends towards coherent systems of non-verbal symbols in the form of signs and codes that overlay physical space, making symbolic use of its objects. 4 In this regard, architecture is a continuous act involving the taking possession, to some degree, of the abstraction of codes, signs and meanings. It mingles with art in a bid to be creative, to be different, and to be new and unique. Just as art, in itself, it is an attempt to bring order out of chaos, the principles of art help architecture not to portray , but to evoke the ideas lost within the chaos of daily life. Accordingly, it focuses on the abstract world of art to realize the truth, and in this respect, architecture is about combining the rational and the irrational. In this sense, space is not only a rational entity, nor is it something that exists at the level of the surfaces that define architecture, or a physical entity that can be measured by dimensions. It is about creating something rational out of many irrational relations and inputs, and about the meanings attributed to spaces within the system of spatial relations within the built environment. Since it is about the patterns of lifestyle, culture, tradition, individuals, beliefs and values, it can be considered intangible, meaningful, conceptual , perceptual and cognitive. In this regard, space is not something confined solely to architecture, being constituted out of some social, cultural, mental and physical processes. It is about the spatial practices, both rational and irrational, that give meaning to a place, which is why architecture is always in search of the genius loci. " How spatial organisation in some sense is a product of social structure " , " how space is socially produced and reproduced " and " how social relations are spatially produced? " have emerged as the most important discussions related to spatial theory over last two decades, having highlighted the significance of space and time as an associate entity rather than two distinct subjects. Studies of time-space relationships in several disciplines, but especially those of geography and history, have begun to emphasize the significance of both spatial and temporal dimensions in social theory, and in this respect, any conceptual framework for understanding spatial consciousness can only be constructed by exploring the relationships between social processes and spatial form. Having roots in ancient history, architecture as a discipline has always been about form, space and order, although the method of designing and producing form differs totally between the ancient and modern times. Form no more follows function, nor is it produced for a specific function. Instead, it is produced in line with the symbolic and conceptual meanings attributed to the form based on a specific social activity. Accordingly, it can be argued that each form of social activity defines its space, meaning that social space is made up of a complex network of individual feelings and images about and reactions towards the spatial symbolism that surrounds the individual. 5 Social space changes with changing social relationships, mental images and the spatial behaviours of individuals in everyday life, and is therefore complex, heterogeneous and perhaps discontinuous, but totally different from the physical space. 6 As a result, we can say that architecture is a social art, and so to understand the spatial form of a building or a city it is necessary to define the social space with reference to some social activity with the symbolic qualities of that form. Yet form is a narrative of meanings generated through explorations of programmes and uses of space, being sometimes decomposition of meanings, and at others, a re-composition of meanings driven from history at different times, like a juxtaposition of layers of a different context. The desire is not for architecture that communicates directly one meaning, but rather for material and spatial forms that produce multiple associations and ambiguous situations. 7 4 3
On Architecture as a Spatial Art
I present and evaluate various criticisms against the view that architecture and architectural value are to be understood solely in terms of internal space. I conclude that the architectural value of a building should not be limited to its internal spatial effects because the value of other elements, such as (nonspatial) function, materials, ornamentation, and so on cannot all be reduced to spatial values.
Architectural Theory: A Construction Site
FOOTPRINT
Around 1968 we saw the birth of a new architectural theory as the conjunction of architectural history and politically engaged architectural criticism. Not the aesthetics of architecture, but architecture itself in its structural relations with social life became the focus of attention. As a result of this development, it is no longer possible to study architectural history without a critical reflection on the method of the study itself and without a grade of interdisciplinarity. Traditional methods of historiography and iconography have been replaced by new approaches configured by psychoanalysis, deconstruction, cultural studies etc. Appropriation has become the proof of criticality both in architectural theory and in design; however, the understanding of the concepts and methods of other disciplines is basically metaphorical. The problem for a school of architecture lies not in the ‘criticality’ of the kind of architectural theory we described as emerging from the spirit of 1968,...