To be out of place has several interpretations, and this is the richness of the exhibition, that has succeed in becoming that kind of network mentioned by Rancière which is seeking for a new understanding not only of the state of the art in design and architecture, but a new understanding of the world we live in. Dealing with many uncomfortable topics, the visitor can explore how design responds and interacts with the contemporary notions of economy, politics, food, desire, and some other human obsessions that are often missing in museums or galleries.

The idea of using a door that is at the same time the entrance, the exit, the full, and the empty [created by Belgium artist Koenraad Dedobbeleer], can be understood as the manifesto of the exhibition itself: to be out of place is to lose contact of the usual place to occupy an unknown one.

Liam Saint-Pierre, The Reinvention of Normal, 2015.

Johanna Schmeer, Bioplastic Fantastic, 2014.

The need to discover that unknown field that can be a fertile ground to unlearn from all preconceptions, rules and habits, is in the basis of many of the exhibited projects. The Liberator, Defense Distributed’s 3D Printed Gun, pushes to the limits the current notions of ethics, economy and politics; but at the end is a project that clearly represents the contradiction between legality and legitimacy: The release of the 3D printed files in May 2013 was followed by several US governmental censures and investigations, a fact that makes you think why if in some countries you have the right to buy a gun, you’re not free to make it by yourself? Ethics vis-à-vis with economics.

In a similar position we can recall Home, a collaborative film by San Francisco-based Holly Herndon and graphic designers Metahaven.

“I can feel you in my room
why was I assigned to you?
I feel like I’m home on my own
and it feels like you see me.”

With this provocative words, the tandem has done what Herndon calls her “definitive NSA break up anthem,” in a video where she is singing while dozens of computer icons scroll past her. This is a way to research and perform how the NSA revelations have fundamentally changed the relationship between a person and her computer. It’s again a dilema and dichotomy between two opposites, the public and the private.

We had the opportunity of briefly exchange some thoughts with Rosa Pera about her outlines for the exhibition:

Quaderns: You have a background as curator in the field of art, as independent curator and also as director of el Bòlit, a center of contemporary art. From this experience, which are for you the main differences of working in the field of art and working with designers an architects?

Rosa Pera: From a curatorial approach, I don’t think there is any difference; I’m interested in the different ways to investigate and to transmit questions and ideas about different issues from a contemporary point of view, whatever the field of knowledge they are coming from. As there is not only one way to practice contemporary art, depending on the medium or according to political attitudes or critical charge, there is also a rich panorama of practices in design and architecture, including strongly speculative proposals, like design fiction or object oriented ontology.

Beyond this, the research processes are different and I think it is really interesting to provoke situations in which these practices can engage in stimulating conversations. As Rebecca Solnit points out, the scientists transform the unknown into the known; as she explains, they are like fishermen capturing fish from the sea while, in contrast, artists will submerge you into the dark blue water. I think that designers are often swimming and fishing, sometimes also into the deep.

Marc Ligos, Hang Lamp, 2009.

Quaderns: The main statement of the exhibition, of being ‘out of place’, refers to the need of losing contact from our comfort zone to start discovering or rediscovering other fields for actions can also be understood as losing contact with your context and reality, thus, not responding in an appropriate way to the current needs of society. Can you elaborate a bit more this statement, please?

Rosa Pera: Acting out of your comfort zone leads to other forms of investigating and communicating, maybe to open up a dialogue with contexts and audiences that usually are traditionally connected to other fields. On the other hand, more than not responding to the current needs of society, I’m referring to projects that are rooted in spaces where they are not subjected to conventional protocols, ruled by principles that resist or fight against them. Sometimes these kind of projects are proposing other ways to act, unexpected or unpredictable, following positive and constructive new prospectives and imaginaries to face the future.

Quaderns: In the exhibition, you have several pieces that are not useful in a pragmatic way, rather than that, each piece is like a manifesto on how to use design as a critical tool. Do you think that design has the same power as art (which has a long history as an activist and critical field) to communicate this critical approach?

Rosa Pera Yes, absolutely. And if they are engaged sharing ideas and contrasting different points of view, the results could be extremely stimulating. And curators and museums have a long way to walk with them, to discover new ways to approach the present and think about the future all together, making it accessible to diverse audiences.

—–

To be out of place is the feeling that you have when discovering more than 45 projects that take you on a time travel through human history, from biogenetics, to politics, economy, fear, anger, joy, and desire. And only after taking the time travel that brings you out of place, the possibility to come back and look with renewed eyes to our daily reality, becomes authentic again. That’s the magic of this curatorial approach, that can have a real impact beyond the design field. It has a real impact in the way we understand that terra incognita that’s is our world.

—Ethel Baraona Pohl, editor at Quaderns.

/// We want to thank Rosa Pera for kindly answer our questions and for showing us the exhibition. You can follow her at @rosapera
/// The Out of Place exhibition is the result of the work undertaken by the curator team headed by Rosa Pera and a team of five professionals representing the different disciplines of the FAD: Pau de Solà Morales, Ana Domínguez Siemens, Albert Martínez López-Amor, Jesús-Ángel Prieto and Juan Vidal. With Sol Polo as Assistant Curator.
/// The exhibition will be open until October 31th, 2015 at Disseny Hub Barcelona. You can follow more info at: @fadbarcelona #foradelloc

In moments of rapid transformation and reflections about the importance of design as a catalyst for social change, BIO 50 invited Jan Boelen —founder and artistic director of Z33 House for Contemporary Art, and Head of the Master department Social Design at the Design Academy in Eindhoven—, to be the curator of the 24th Biennial of Design. Boelen had been researching in the past years about experimental design, and the collaborative territory that emerges around concepts such as social design, scarcity, and new technologies, where design is employed and implemented as a tool to question and transform ideas about industrial production, public and private space, and pre-established systems and networks. Based on these ideas, the BIO 50 chose the concept of collaboration for this year’s edition, where design is a tool to rethink everyday life and possible futures for design.

Matevž Čelik, the director of Museum of Architecture and Design, explains:

“It is necessary to break with the fetishisation of products that has alienated design from production. I believe that BIO should play a role in this field and strive to support creativity in its most delicate and vulnerable stage. This means that in the future, BIO has to increasingly play a research-based, experimental role.”

Among the variety of projects and outcomes, we want to highlight the importance of researching and developing projects related with themes as necessary as Affordable Living, Knowing Food, Walking the City, and Observing Space, among others.

Setting up the container for ‘Affordable Living’. Photo: Tomislav Vidović

The problems about the access to housing have been in the focus of mass media since the real estate bubble came out with the financial crisis in 2008. Many efforts have been developed, such as the work of the Spanish group Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca, that’s why it’s easy to understand the importance of working about this issues in a biennale context, not only from the activism field but working with a collaborative approach with activist groups, designers, architects, and policy makers. In a moment when the need for housing is confronted with the fact that contemporary cities seem to be filled with empty, unused buildings, the group of Affordable Living explored the causes and consequences of this topic, and developed strategies and tactics aimed at making contemporary affordable living a reality.

Friction Atlas. A project by Paolo Patelli and Giuditta Vendrame.

Going from the building to the street, as part of the Walking the City group, the project Friction Atlas developed a new concept of dérive, addressed to understand the issue of legibility of public space, of its programs and of the laws that regulate its uses. In a moment when the privatization of public space is ever present in mostly all of our cities, when surveillance elements [such as CCTV cameras] are part of the urban environment, this project looks how the many regulations created by governments discretize human behaviour, and tend to be algorithmic, quantitative and invisible. To transgress this fact, the project was based on drawing 1:1 diagrams, and enacting laws on the public surfaces of Ljubljana, with the intention to make legal prescriptions and loopholes visible, and therefore debatable.

Raw material. Oloop, Hidden Crafts. Photo: Designer archive.

Elements of the project in process. Hacking Households. Photo: Tilen Sepič

A fascinating and thought provoking approach of the BIO 50 Biennale is that the works presented cover a variety of issues as well as different scales. From the big scale of housing and street projects, we can mention as well projects which deal with craft and industrial design. The group Hidden Crafts worked with the aim to discover is there is new life to found in the methods, outcomes and distribution of craft and how to recover, adapt and learn from the craft tradition in Slovenia. The research goes from the relationship between the craftsman and the consumer to the collaboration between manufacturers and designers, with the idea of envision how to use new materials with traditional techniques to create a new knowledge exchange.

A deep research based on the process rather than on the final object has been the leading theme of Hacking Households. The main idea is to look to traditional household appliances and how they are created as a closed system: when something goes wrong, the most cost-effective solution is to throw out the appliance and replace it with something new. In the same way as projects like Open Structures or the transparent tools by Jesse Howard, this team uses 3D printing and DIY circuitry to build upon users’ newfound abilities and opportunities to repair, customize, modify and repurpose existing products, creating a family of appliances designed for disassembly, repair, and modification.

A whole set of ideas, projects and new ways to understand the future of design and architecture can be find on the exhibition BIO 50: 3, 2, 1 …TEST, that is displayed from 18 September to 7 December 2014. So if you have a chance to visit, don’t miss the opportunity!

/// All the info and venues, at bio.si
/// More info to be found at MAO Slovenia and following @BIO_50

“In architecture we can identify a number of processes that bear a great similarity to this botanical process. Preexisting structures, physical or otherwise, are grafted with the new proposal, generating a building that brings together and harmoniously fuses the characteristics of what already exists and what is new. We can find this grafted architecture across the centuries in a great many examples. However it is in the last quarter of the 20th century and the early 21st century where we find a great number of projects in Catalan architecture in which proposals of different types and scales achieve brilliant results.

Grafting transmits the idea of a new organism that combines the strong points of its original components and is more vigorous than either of them on their own, an idea of renewal and growth.”

In order to visualize this concept, they have selected16 projects, that in different ways, share a contemporary attitude of understanding architecture. Some of the selected projects are:

Caldereria petita, housing renovation. Calderon – Folch – Sarsanedas Architects. ©Rodrigo Díaz Wichmann

Cultural center Casal Balaguer. Flores&Prats Arquitectes. © Adrià Goula

Mostly all of the projects are from the 21st century and are therefore vibrant proof of the vitality of this way of approaching things. It is also interesting to see that this attitude is one of the hallmarks of Catalan architecture, and Catalonia is one of the places where it has been developed with the most vitality and diversity.

The projects selected are presented through the process each architect followed in the phases of drafting and constructing the building. They are unique processes allowing us to see firsthand how analysis and decision-making develop through sketches, diagrams, drawings, photos, models, texts and more. Each project must be self-explanatory, making use of all available resources.

Public space Teatre La Lira. RCR Arquitectes. © Hisao Suzuki

The complete list of selected projects is:

—Reforma de la Casa Bofarull (1913-1933, Josep Maria Jujol, als Pallaresos)
— Apartaments a les golfes de La Pedrera (1953-1955, Francisco Juan Barba Corsini, a Barcelona)
— Restauració de l’església de l’Hospitalet (1981-1984, José Antonio Martínez Lapeña i Elías Torres Tur, a Eivissa)
— IES La Llauna (1984-86, Carme Pinós i Enric Miralles, a Badalona)
— Caldereria petita, rehabilitació d’habitatge entre mitgeres (2001-2002, Calderon – Folch – Sarsanedas Arquitectes, a Gelida)
— Museu de Can Framis (2007-2009, Jordi Badia BAAS Arquitectura, a Barcelona)
— Espai públic Teatre La Lira (2004-2011, RCR Arquitectes (Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem i Ramon Vilalta) i Joan Puigcorbé, a Ripoll)
— Apartament Juan (2011, vora arquitectura (Pere Buil i Toni Riba), a Barcelona)
— Auditori a l’església de Sant Francesc (2003-2011, David Closes, a Santpedor )
— 3 estacions de la Línia 9 del Metro: Amadeu Torner, Parc Logístic i Mercabarna (2008-2011, Garcés – De Seta – Bonet Arquitectes (Jordi Garcés, Daria e Seta i Anna Bonet) i Ingeniería Tec-4 (Ferran Casanovas, Antonio Santiago i Felipe Limongi), a Barcelona)
— Espai transmissor del túmul/dolmen megalític (2007-2013, Toni Gironès, a Seró (Artesa de Segre)
— Clínica Arenys – can Zariquiey (2006-2013, Josep Miàs Arquitectes (Josep Miàs), a Arenys de Munt)
— Centre cultural Casal Balaguer (1996 – en procés, Flores&Prats Arquitectes (Eva Prats i Ricardo Flores) i Duch-Pizá Arquitectos (Ma José Duch i Francisco Pizá), a Palma
— Restauració paisatgística de l’abocador vall d’En Joan a Begues (2002 – en procés, Enric Batlle , Joan Roig i Teresa Galí, al Parc Natural del Garraf),
— Torre de 94 habitatges de protecció oficial (2012 – en procés, Josep Llinàs, a L’Hospitalet de Llobregat)
— Projecte de revitalització del districte d’Adhamiya (2012 – en procés, AV62 Arquitectos (Victòria Garriga i Toño Foraster) i Pedro García del Barrio – Pedro Azara, a Bagdad).

Auditorium of Sant Francesc church. David Closes. © Jordi Surroca

An important detail to be mentioned is that, for the first time, there will be on exhibition some facsimile reproductions, in real scale, of the plans and drawings that Josep Maria Jujol did for the Bofarull House, which are part of the Jujol archives.

/// Header image: Renovation of the Bofarull House [1913-1933, Josep Maria Jujol, als Pallaresos] © Guillem Carabí
/// All the info about the exhibition can be found on the web-site Venezia 2014

In 2014, for 50th anniversary of the 24th Biennial of Design in Ljubljana (BIO), the Biennial aims to reinvent itself launching an ambitious call for applications. It’s a fact that the design world has changed at a rapid rate in the past years, going from DIY [Do it yourself] to DIWO [Do it with others], we’re facing new technological inputs that change from one week to the other, creating new scenarios for design and new forms of economics and trade, such as crowdfunding, social money and micropayments, based on the confidence and support of the network. In this context, the Biennial is looking for individuals to shape possible futures for design; entering the realm of collaboration, where design is a tool to rethink everyday life, advancing into an experimental, collaborative territory where design is employed as a tool to question and transform ideas about industrial production, public and private space, and pre-established systems and networks.

Improvised Vacuum. Jesse Howard.

Organized by MAO, the Museum of Architecture and Design, BIO 50 breaks with the traditional system of awards, choosing instead to distinguish collaboration, its process and outcomes. Recognizing the idea that design is a discipline that permeates all layers of contemporary life, BIO 50 launches an unprecedented effort to engage designers and agents from Slovenia and abroad in a collaborative approach addressing themes that affect everyday life. Under a series of multidisciplinary mentors, twelve teams will tackle the themes of Affordable Living, Knowing Food, Public Water Public Space, Walking the City, Hidden Crafts, The Fashion System, Hacking Households, Nanotourism, Engine Blocks, Observing Space, Designing Life and an Open Category, creating specific projects to be developed and implemented during the Biennial.

Sasa J. Maechtig, designer of Kiosk K67, at exhibition BIO 5, 1973.

The organizers are looking for team members to devise possible futures for design, integrating and contributing to the outcome of each group. They’re looking for team members with diverse backgrounds and a multidisciplinary approach, students and professionals alike; self-motivated and unafraid to experiment; who can bring their expertise to the table and simultaneously learn from their peers.

/// The deadline for applications is 12 January 2014.
/// More information on BIO 50
/// BIO 50 Call for Applications

We had the opportunity to briefly interview Dan Handel, one of the curators of Aircraft Carrier. Here is what he told us about the project:

Quaderns: Which has been your response to the notion of Common Ground posed by the curator of this edition of the Biennale [having in mind that you have curated a national pavilion and focused on a very specific approach to the history of the country itself]?

Dan Handel: We’ve been working on the project for a year before “Common Ground” was announced. Therefore, we do not pretend to have worked according to it when developing the project. We do think however that on some themes, perhaps because they are very contemporary, we do align well with Chipperfield’s ideas. The first would be the understanding of architecture beyond objects, as a complex of operations that is embedded in its socio-political context. In our exhibition, we try to demonstrate how architectural phenomena are affected by, and can feed back processes in these adjacent realms. The second point relates to the position of the architect: if architecture is now faced with the messiness of the world, it is clear that making architecture would mean something different. While this was an issue that was recognized and discussed by many at the biennale, from OMA to the Japanese Pavilion, our take on it was a bit different. We argued that this was not a new issue, but something that is related to the rise of advanced capitalism some decades ago.

Q: Since displaying architecture has to do with representation, do you understand curating as a form of criticism? Which is in that sense the purpose of showing/curating architecture?

DH: How to ‘show architecture’ is a very abstract question that is, to us, almost meaningless. Curating architecture is a way of framing cultural issues that can be discussed through the built environment. Under these terms, a good exhibition could be critical or supportive, provocative or banal in getting its message through.

Q: Could you explain specifically the basis of “Aircraft Carrier”, including its references?

DH: The immediate reference comes from a quote by Alexander Haig, who used to be the US Secretary of State under Reagan, in which he argued that ‘Israel is the largest American aircraft carrier in the world that cannot be sunk… and is located in a critical region for American national security’. To us this was a very nice starting point to discuss the unique and ambivalent relationship between the two countries that led, since the 1970s, to a radical transformation of Israeli architecture. An importation of political ideologies, economic models and cultural ideas prepared the ground for a very quick process in which Israel turned from a socialist country into a hyper-capitalist one. In this process, the mechanisms of how architecture is produced changed completely and the way is operates was also altered. In a way, the current crisis of capitalism allows us to reflect on these four decades and ask a question that goes beyond the Israeli topic: that is, how can we understand the structures of capitalism, and how can architecture operate from within to achieve its goals?

/// You can read the curatorial statement of Aircraft Carrier following this link and all the info about the exhibition in New York on Storefront for Art and Architecture web-site.
/// Fotos by Fernando Guerra. Merchandise photos by Florian Holzherr.

Vogadors exhibition is the Catalan and Balearic Islands pavilion at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice, and documents a sober architecture that uses very simple materials but is of a tremendous technical and intellectual sophistication and includes a strong social and ethical component enabling skillful construction with mindful openness to the environment, people and life without abandoning the most abstract and visual sentimental values.

It is the architecture of a generation that seeks to return to traditional values of meaning and continuity.

An architecture that seeks to be above its creators in order to give weight back to the argument, as David Chipperfield says in a film metaphor.

An architecture that seeks to return to addressing social contingencies, sustainability as the only path to survival and also the economy of means from an ethical, technical and intellectual standpoint.

An architecture common to architects and inhabitants whose primary objective is once again one of ethics and social harmony.

Quaderns – Guerrilla interview #14 | Félix Arranz – Jordi Badia from Quaderns on Vimeo.

More info: Vogadors

Quaderns – Guerrilla interview #13 | Peter Märkli from Quaderns on Vimeo.

More info: Märkli Architekt

Here is a brief interview about the concept of the Biennale, “Common Ground”:

Quaderns – Guerrilla interview #12 | Anton García-Abril – Débora Mesa from Quaderns on Vimeo.

>> More info: SpainLab

One of their main focal points is museum architecture: the renovation and extension of the Swiss National Museum in Zurich as well as the extension of Basel’s Kunstmuseum are actually being planned. Built projects are to be found in Switzerland, Germany, England, China and Mexico. We had the opportunity to interview them at the 13th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice:

Quaderns – Guerrilla interview #11 | Christ & Gantenbein from Quaderns on Vimeo.

More info: Christ & Gantenbein