GALLERY
Sandro Kopp’s new show There you are presented by Istanbul ’74 is on view through February 4th, 2012 at the Lehmann Maupin Gallery, 201 Chrystie Street, New York. Photo Ayla Hibri and Billy Farell agency
GALLERY
Curated by Elias Redstone, ARCHIZINES celebrates the recent resurgence of publications about architecture presenting 60 magazines, alternative publications and journals. From over 20 countries around the world, from Mexico City to Portugal and China, creative visions speak a discourse around architecture, its expressions in life and the future. Fighting back at the age of digital tyranny, photocopied publications and newsletters such as Another Pamphlet, Preston is My Paris, and Scapegoat experiment with the immediacy and living aspects of architecture in a personal, informal, and sometimes humorous way. Some even revert back to the nineties CAD fanzine publishing system, like the Portuguese Friendly Fire. Running through the exhibition, ecologically responsible planning and imaginative sustainable alternatives are driven particularly in publications Conditions, Mas Context, and KERB. Denmark's MAP, produces a fold-out poster for constructive ideas on habitat survival during floods. Others take sarcastic or critical approaches, with magazines Criticat and New York's textual Log journal ("a reaction to the consumption of images"), critically deconstructing architecture and its place within culture. Private, voyeuristic environments of anonymous couples at home and mental hospital wall studies even infiltrate through the pages of German publication Ein Magazin Uber Orte. Challenging authorities of vision in architecture, the new generation publications redefine its concept and communication, some going as far as being produced entirely by non-architects. They assert it's not a specialist discourse, as globally embedded and influent as it is, but something everyone can be critical about.
ARCHIZINES is on view through December 14 at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, 36 Bedford Square, London.
Photo and text Sophie Pinchetti
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In a symbolic gesture of support for the Occupy London Stock Exchange movement, a giant monopoly has taken centre stage in front of Saint Paul's Cathedral. Installed by a group of mediators, the author is said to be the enigmatic British street artist Banksy. Nearly a week ago the game board was still blank, erected amongst the demonstrators' tent city. Progressively the squares have been filled by protesters and passers-by alike, creating a transformative and democratic work. Landmark stops include Tahrir Square, Spain, Wall Street, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Finsbury Square with scrawled phrases such as "It all goes back in the box", "Slaved life" and "Clean up Bankers" punctuating the board. Originally conceived as the 'Landlord's game' by a Quaker to instruct on greed, the concept was eventually exploited by corporation as a game celebrating capitalism. In wake of the mass Occupy movements spreading across the world, it only seems fitting that it is an artist as notorious as Banksy to reclaim Monopoly with the People in an expression of political resistance. Photo and text Sophie Pinchetti
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On view until October 3 at The Fireplace Project, 851 Springs Fireplace Road, East Hampton. Photo Bill Powers
GALLERY
Conceived by the influential French-Hungarian artist Victor Vasarely, the futurist building began construction in 1973 with plans including 16 hexagons coming together in a rectangle 87 meters long and 40 meters wide. Known for his innovation in studies of space, lighting and material, Vasarely expressed his desire to capture a sense of future, history and culture in design; his commission of the construction of a staircase modeled on those of the Renaissance castles of Blois and Chambord is amongst one of these unique examples found at the Foundation. Immersed in his experiments with optical and kinetic art, the Foundation is now home to 44 major in-situ works by Vasarely, largely based on his abstract geometric research.
The Fondation Victor Vasarely, 1 Avenue Marcel Pagnol, Aix-en-Provence.
Photo Olivier Zahm