TATLIN NEWS #40

Architecture of SuSpenSe

« The

entitled

Frontiers

of

Architecture» of Louisiana Museum focused their attention on several personas, who have greatly influenced the architecture in the recent years. The choice of Cecil Balmond to serve as the central figure for the first exhibition shifts the focus from purely architectural subjects to aesthetics of construction, which is always meant to highlight the imaginative solution. According to curators, architecture is never a purely intellectual or a purely physical product. It is placed at the intersection of specific expression of the building with underlying ideas. Today the art of engineering and the art of architecture have turned into a phenomenally indissoluble unity, mostly due to the fact that architects started thinking in a more constructive way, which in turn results from constantly emerging new technologies. The letter developed an understanding, that virtually everything can be constructed; any image can be implemented and become real. Cecil Balmond is an iconic persona for architects. He participates in construction starting with the concept development stage till design stage. It was with the arrival of Balmond, whose mind lies behind many unconventional buildings of the world, that the role of an engineer has undergone reinterpretation, and the boundaries of the discipline have been stretched. curators 21.11.07 – 03.03.08 richard rogers & Architects exhibition, centre pompidou, paris, france, www.centrepompidou.fr A historic Parisian district was blown up by red, yellow, blue and white communication lines placed outside the industrial sanctuary of arts – Centre Pompidou, but nowadays one cannot imagine the modern city without this building. A daring creative experiment of two young revolutionary architects personified high technologies of the future and turned into the conceptS AnD renovAtionS

20.09.07 – 16.12.07 «Alfred hitchcock & pAuhof: the Wrong house», DeSingel Arts centre, Antwerpen, Belgium, www.desingel.be Architecture plays an important part in Alfred Hitchcock’s films. Having worked as a set designer in the early twenties, Hitchcock continued to concern himself closelywith such issues indirection of his films. In close cooperation with renowned designers of those times, such as Wilfred Arnold, Robert Boyle, Joseph McMillan Johnson, and others, Hitchcock created many well-remembered spaces in films, among which are Victorian mansions, suburban homes, modernist villas, urban residential houses, apartments and penthouses. More than that, it was Hitchcock who brought forward the idea to use famous structures, such as the National Gallery, the Statue of Liberty or the Golden Gate Bridge, as a set for climax of films. Besides, the «master of suspense» shot several films without changing sets – such as «Secret Window», which certainly had some psychological implication. In his works in the forties houses take up another role, turning into labyrinths and traps. And the last, but not the least is that many of the architectural elements acquire a specific colouring in films, turning into abstract symbols; for example a window is a metaphor of voyeurism, while stairs are a quintessence of the director’s vision of life. The exhibition reveals the importance of the set in the narration and forming a unique vision of the master. A neW role 22.06.07 – 21.10.07 «the frontiers of Architecture: cecil Balmond», louisiana Museum, humleb æ k, Denmark, www.louisiana.dk In the new series of exhibitions

english version

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