TATLIN NEWS №39

The SocieTy of Panic

destabilize it. Its twisted and broken fragments of structural elements – floors, walls, ceiling beams – explode the space, emerging there with their spontaneous angles and resemble aftermath of an unknown disaster. Making use of cardboard and plaster slabs, plaster, plywood, metal brackets and objects that have nothing to do with construction, the artist created dangerous planes, which seem to intrude into the borders of the space due to their identity and mimic simulation of installation details in the architectural construction of the gallery. The main ground for Schramm’s works is pursuit of achieving poetic balance between chaos and order in threatening and fragile works through physical sensations and empirical experience. Debris carrying a sensation of a disaster is an endurance test both for architecture and human psychics. The motive chosen by the artist helps to display the fear of fragility of any structure.

project. The project is about listening to remarks of residents, tryingtounderstandtheirproblems, and creating spaces and interactive software to learn their attitude towards the built environment. The results of the program showed that local residents are capable of autonomously implementing the city development plan and showed that educational projects may be instrumental in urban renewal and that suburban residents may have creative ideas for the development of their own neighbourhood. That way architecture turns into a medium through which people can express their needs and outlooks. GeneroSiTy of DeSTrucTion Toby Paterson is one of the leading artists in today’s Great Britain. He builds his works on structural elements of artistic, sculptural and architectural modernism, and on its ideology of malleable society. It was for the Dutch gallery Stroom that he created a series presented at an exhibition called «Generosity». Research and analysis of the post- war redevelopment in the south- western districts of the Hague, of the Black Madonna social housing block designed by Carel Weeber and of the building of the Ministry of Finance served as the basis and the main element of inspiration for these works. All three have undergone radical transformation in the works of the artist. Paterson used to explore the urban environment by quite an uncommonway–asanimpassioned skateboarder; therefore his works are so dynamic. In his works the artist usually focuses his attention on the modernist architecture which is gradually disappearing as the result of subsequent planning and design developments. His paintings, collages, sculptures and photographs reflect these elements, which he presents in such a tranquil, sophisticated and

aesthetic manner that their inner beauty is regained. Dissecting each imageintoelements,Patersonseeks to use them in the dynamic modern world. Lost notional ideals regain their flesh, the flesh of collages and art objects, but nevertheless, its visible materiality makes the viewer look for elements used in the works in the environment and find them there. Social grounds characteristic of art make artists show existing objects, giving them new names, as Duchamp did before. But Duchamp did this unselfishly, only wanting to provoke the audience in his post- modernist enthusiasm. Now the strategy makes artists believe that empiric perception will lead the mind. Paterson’s manifestation is obvious; he shows the willingness of the contemporary society to easily give up its roots, idealizing the future, and argues that this way leads to a dead-end. Ethics and aesthetics come hand in hand in his works, expanding the cultural horizons of viewers and making them think about the finiteness of architecture, but architects approach the limits of eternity in their desire to create something that will last forever. concreTe air «A Museum Night» took place in Ekaterinburg. It was another effort to attract visitors, especially young ones, to museums. Apart from their permanent exhibitions, city museums and galleries have prepared special programs, mostly performances. This flash mob, which has absorbed a number of Russian cities (including Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kaluga, Barnaul, Krasnoyarsk, Ekaterinburg, Kazan, and Omsk) resulted in creation of some space and time continuum, where popular artists could show their worth. In Ekaterinburg the Museum of Fine Arts, the Gallery of Contemporary Arts, the Centre for Contemporary Culture at the Ural State University, «Autoland» company and «Metenkov’s House» Museum of Photography took part in the event. The branch of the State Centre for Contemporary Arts in Ekaterinburg initiated several memorable projects within the «Museum Night», among which

01.06.07–13.07.07 «Don’t Panic», The architecture foundation, London, Great Britain, www.architecturefoundation.org.uk What is this reality that is presented in the editorials of daily newspapers? The world full of contradictions and complications, the society obsessed with youthfulness, beauty, mass media and celebrity, where things we believe in have more value than reality and truth. The society immersed in itself and its own desires, looking for instant wealth, the society where less than 50% of population think they are happy. «Don’t Panic» is a title of an article breaking news about the epidemic of bird flue in the editorial of Metro Newspaper, and now is the title of a new exhibition organized in the Architecture Foundation and addressing those realities in contemporary life that are usually ignored by architects and designers – fear, danger and the fragility of human behaviour. Here full-length films, architectural projects, objects of design recently created by graduates and mentors of the Royal College of Art are presented. Participants aimed not only at displaying project solutions, but rather tried to get across the following questions: «Who are these people who we design our infrastructure for?», «What will their values be in the future?» Balancing on the verge between fiction and reality, the projects presented at the exhibition coupled with the daily reality of the society living in contradictions and dilemmas. fraGmenTS of archiTecTure 29.06.07–30.09.07 exhibition «new Work: felix Schramm», Sfmoma, San francisco, the uSa, www.sfmoma.org The artist from D ü sseldorf is very well known around the world as the creator of installations interacting with the architecture of institutions that accept and

english version

archiTecTure aS a DiaLoGue

24.05.07–21.10.07 exhibition «a Better World – another Power», netherlands architecture institute, rotterdam, holland, www.nai.nl Within the International Architectural biennale in Rotterdam, which is carried out under the topic «Power Creating the Modern City», NAI presents an exhibition «A Better World – Another Power». It displays works of groups whose initiative, creative potential and activity remind of a fresh breeze blowing through the world of urban design. FAST in Amsterdam, Jeanne van Heeswijk and Dennis Kaspori in Rotterdam, Santiago Cirugeda in Seville, and Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) in New York City participate in implementation of Urban Development and Design

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