Concrete Islands by Elias Redstone

Imprint EXHIBITION Concrete Islands Curated by Elias Redstone for Analix Forever 9–17 April 2011 Andreas Angelidakis (Greece) Iwan Baan (The Netherlands) Frédéric Chaubin (France) mounir fatmi (Morocco) Niklas Goldbach (Germany) Six Elzévir 6 rue Elzévir, 75003 Paris Open daily 11am–7pm www.archiemo.wordpress.com CATALOGUE Edited by Elias Redstone Published by Barbara Polla and Marylène Malbert, Analix Forever Printed by Newspaper Club, London Cover image: Iwan Baan, A rainy afternoon in front of the Museu Nacional, Oscar Niemeyer, Brasilia, 2010 (detail) All images © the artists and Analix Forever First edition of 500 copies Thank you to the artists; and to !"#$%#&"#'($)&**+#,'-#./'(&)*$$*,' Valérie de Calignon and Patrick Rubin, Sebastian Coles, Ingar Dragset, Michael Elmgreen, Simon Fujiwara, Erin Manns and Sophie OʹBrien, Nina Miall, MVRDV www.analix‑forever.com

Concrete Islands

Concrete Islands Elias Redstone

Concrete Islands is a group exhibition of photography and video exploring contemporary experiences of utopian architectural projects. For many ar‑ chitects modernism was a physical manifestation of human progress and, as architectural historian Colin Rowe wrote in The Architecture of Good In‑ tentions, ʺThe architect could stipulate an intrinsic connection between the form of his buildings and the condi‑ tion of society.ʺ The works in Concrete Islands, by a selection of international contemporary artists, document, cel‑ ebrate and critique architectural pro‑ jects designed with inherent social and political values that now exist in vari‑ ous stages of inhabitation, dereliction and destruction. 01*' "$2.*$3*' 45' #&31"6*367' 64' 34$6&4/' space and determine its social struc‑ tures alters over time. The artists each provoke an emotional response from 61*' #&31"6*36.&*' #7' 61*8' 9$)' "6' $4:,' adding their own narrative and inter‑ pretation, and exposing new relation‑ ships between the architecture, society and nature. As the title Concrete Is‑ /#$)7'7.;;*767,':1#6':*'9$)'"7'#&31"‑ tecture that exists in some form of iso‑ lation – whether that is geographical, social or ideological. Andreas Angelidakis often introduces 936"4$' #$)' 5#$6#78' "$64' 1"7' :4&<' 64' reveal truths about architecture. The 9/%'=0&4//>'6*//7'61*'764&8'45'#'%4)*&$‑ ist, low‑income apartment building in Athens that wants to be a mountain. 01*'?."/)"$;,'3#//*)'@1#&#'A=B48>C':#7' built by Spanos and Papailiopoulos architects in 1960, taking up an entire city block with a network of interior gardens. Over time it has felt the ef‑ 5*367'45'(61*$7>'*D6*$7"E*'.&?#$"F#6"4$' and deteriorating economy. Angelida‑ kis takes a leap of imagination, sug‑ gesting that the accumulation of plants and soil in this garden‑housing over‑ takes the architecture and Chara wants to become a mountain and leave the city altogether. Angelidakis suggests that ruins are just buildings on their way to becoming nature.

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photographed two of the most ambi‑ tious urban projects of the 20th cen‑ tury, Chandigarh and Brasília, both conceived out of political agendas and presenting the future as conceived by "67' 3&*#64&7I' H##$>7' "%#;*7' 714:' &*#/' life taking place in these two invented cities that have adapted to everyday social rituals and basic needs. Oscar J"*%*8*&>7'K.7*.'J#3"4$#/'L&4E")*7' /"+/*' L&46*36"4$' 5&4%' 61*' */*%*$67' :"61"$'H&#7M/"#>7'.&?#$'L/#$'/#")'4.6'?8' Lúcio Costa. A young man remains en‑ thusiastic as he is drenched in the rain, :1"/*'7%#//'3&4:)7'9$)'71*/6*&'.$)*&' 61*' ?."/)"$;>7' *$6&#$3*' &#%L7I' G$' N*' @4&?.7"*&>7'-#/#3*'45'61*'(77*%?/8'"$' Chandigarh two men are viewed bath‑ ing and dressing themselves through the perforated concrete façade. Wheth‑ er they live or work in the building is ambiguous, but here they have found a space suitable to conduct their morn‑ ing routine.

Over the course of many journeys to Eastern Europe and Asia between 2003 and 2010, Frédéric Chaubin has been searching for and photographing atypical examples of architecture dat‑ ing from the late Soviet era. Largely G:#$' H##$>7' :4&<' "7' 31#&#36*&"F*)' ?8' located in regions on the periphery his portrayal of people in architecture, of the former USSR, such buildings revealing the context, society and en‑ #&*' )*9$*)' ?8' #' .64L"#$' 54&%#/' /#$‑ vironment around architecture. He has guage uncharacteristic of the standard

paradigms of Soviet state architecture. The buildings express the dreams of architects that were educated within a strict Soviet system yet, perhaps as a paradox, managed to achieve im‑ mense creative freedom in their work. According to Chaubin, this diversity of architectural style during the late 1970s is an expression of the demise in Soviet totalitarian homogeneity. His deliberate enhancement of the dra‑ matic dimension to these buildings pays homage to the imagination of those non‑conformist architects and .$)*&734&*7'61*'936"4$#/')"%*$7"4$'45' history. Le Val Fourré was built in the 1960s in 61*'-#&"7"#$'?#$/"*.*'45'K#$6*7O/#OB4/‑ ie as a large scale, optimistic project to meet the increased demand for homes in the city. Densely populated, under resourced and poorly integrated with public transport, the residential pro‑ ject has become a place of escalating frustrations and civil unrest since the 1990s. During a residency at Le Chap‑ /"$' "$' K#$6*7O/#OB4/"*,' %4.$"&' 5#6%"' %#)*' 7*E*&#/' 9/%7' )43.%*$6"$;' 61*' gradual demolition of Le Val Fourré. =(&31"6*36.&*' J4:P' Q6#6' )*7' /"*.D' RS>' focuses on an individual apartment as it is torn down by a bulldozer. The men demolishing the building are as ab‑ sent from view as its former residents,

leaving the social implications of such an act to the imagination. As the archi‑ tecture is slowly destroyed, nature is revealed. =!#$'Q)*$>,'#'9/%'?8'J"</#7'!4/)?#31,' also inverts the relationship between #&31"6*36.&*'#$)'$#6.&*I'G6':#7'9/%*)' in 2005 in the remains of the Dutch pavilion designed by MVRDV for the World Expo 2000 in Hanover, Ger‑ many. The pavilion was intended as a multi‑level park but was left to decay :1*$'61*'QDL4'3/47*)I'!4/)?#31>7'9/%' sees two men cruising in the decaying pavilion as an act of re‑appropriation. In a text published in this catalogue, the architects celebrate the creation of a new ruin in this transition from uto‑ pia to distopia. Overcome by nature, the pavilion became the park it had al‑ ways aspired to be.

Concrete Islands

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Andreas Angelidakis An extended version of the essay ʹTroll, or the voluntary ruinʹ by Andreas Angelidakis appears in Domus Magazine, May 2011

In the larger context of the Greek economy and construction industry, we can consider the peculiar story of YZ[\'A@1#&#'O'B48CI'@1#&#'"7'61*'$#%*' of the largest housing block in down‑ town Athens, built by Spanos and Pa‑ pailiopoulos architects in the boom‑ ing residential area of Patissia in 1960. The building represents the moment when modernist architecture became a welfare tool, providing low‑income citizens with high‑quality housing. G$' 61"7' :#8' "6' "7' )"]*&*$6' 5&4%' #//' 61*' other polykatoikias (concrete frame buildings common in Athens) because the purpose of Chara was not gaining 9$#$3"#/'L&496'?.6')*/"E*&"$;'61*'4&";‑ inal promise of Modernism. Stand‑ ing alone in this sea of cheap concrete money makers, Chara seems to em‑ body all that was going to go well for Athens, an ideal moment of urban ci‑ vility, a proper student of Le Corbusier wearing her Sunday best stranded in a crowd of concrete frame hooligans.

The center of Athens received its sec‑ 4$)' 7";$"93#$6' :#E*' 45' %";&#6"4$' "$' 61*' /#6*' S^_U7>,' 61"7' 6"%*' $46' 5&4%' 61*' Greek countryside but initially from the Balkans and later from Pakistan, Kurdistan, African nations and so forth. The Greek state and even the Greek people were not at all prepared or educated to deal with this second large scale immigration, and the new citizens were and still are often treated awkwardly, sometimes badly. Over the years the center of Athens became #' 74&6' 45' ;1*+4,' #$)' "$' #' 6:"76*)' L4‑ litical move a few years back, the city moved the methadone centers and drug addicts health services right in the middle of the immigrant concen‑ tration. Drugs, prostitution and illegal trade occupy the traditional center of the city, surrounding Omonia square and further, while the most sought af‑ 6*&'&*7")*$6"#/'#&*#7'45'61*'WU>7'7.31'#7' Kypseli and Patissia have become ex‑ clusive to the new citizens of Athens. The housing block of Chara is today almost exclusively inhabited by these new citizens. ($)'7.))*$/8'61*'3"68'9$)7'"67*/5'6&#$‑ 7"6"4$"$;' "$64' #' %#`4&' 9$#$3"#/' 3&"7"7,' and the situation in these neighbor‑ hoods becomes unstable. The truth is that Athens is no longer a viable

destination for immigration, and per‑ haps not a sustainable solution for the people who have migrated here. In many cases the countries where they 4&";"$#//8' 3#%*' 5&4%' #&*' ?*+*&O4]' compared to Athens, and as a result many return to their countries, espe‑ cially those coming from Eastern EU.

context, a building fed up with being a building, a mass of concrete and soil more interested in becoming a moun‑ tain. A mountain seems to hold the %4)*&$"76' L&4%"7*' %4&*' *]*36"E*/8,' you live close to nature, clean air, and you are part of a healthy ecosystem.

In the short movie that constitutes the main architectural project, the role of the Troll is reversed. It is not a being that comes from the mountain; it is a building that imagines the role of the Troll. Troll is a building that exagger‑ ates the fact those plants grow inside "6,' "%#;"$*7' ?*"$;' 9//*)' :"61' 74"/,' ?*‑ coming so fertile as to be a living or‑ ganism. This is a reaction of the well meaning modernist building that can $4' /4$;*&' 5./9//' "67' ;4#/' #7' #$' #]4&)‑ G$' #' 936"4$#/' 73*$#&"4,' 61*' ;#&)*$O able domestic utopia, because the city housing of Chara could react to the has made this impossible. In order to decline of the city as if it were a living, leave the city, the building needs to thinking organism. Troll refers to the transform itself. mountain being in Norse mythology, they appear as half‑human half‑earth monsters. The city of fast money from fast concrete, the architectural modern‑ ist ponzi‑scheme, is suddenly going bankrupt. The concrete frame polyka‑ 64"<"#' 144/";#$7' )4$>6' 7**%' 64' 3#&*,' they were already semi‑ruined any‑ way, they know how to survive, but for a proper, idealistic modernist like Chara the situation is not as easy to accept.

The building reacts to this abandon‑ ment by transitioning to a peculiar type of ruin, one that draws soil and energy from its domesticated nature. Suddenly it becomes a “live” build‑ ing that walks away from the urban

Concrete Islands

Iwan Baan, Morning Routine, Le Corbusier, Palace of the Assembly, Chandigarh, 2010

Iwan Baan

contrast, the city becomes alive inside concrete sheds are being taken over by 7L#3*7'b'?*1"$)'61*')44&7'45'L*4L/*>7' L*4L/*'"$'E*&8')"]*&*$6':#87'61#$'N*' residences, in bus stations and un‑ Corbusier ever could have imagined. Iwan Baanʹs text was originally published in derpasses or within cars. Oddly, the BRASILIA–CHANDIGARH: Living with Modernity satellite communities that were origi‑ (Lars Müller Publishers, 2010) nally built for the construction work‑ ers of Brasília are the places where the As a documentary photographer, I quotidian South American outdoor seek to record interactions as an ob‑ culture happens. There, communities server. The project to document Bra‑ live outdoors and interact with their sília and Chandigarh, two modern cit‑ surroundings. "*7' &*#31"$;' 61*"&' 956"*61' #$)' 7"D6"*61' birthdays respectively, presented new In Chandigarh, the most orderly city challenges. Set some 14,000 kilometers "$' G$)"#,' 61*' 3"6"F*$7' 9$)' $*:' :#87' apart from one another and conceived of occupying the spaces and adapting from the revolutionary voice and ide‑ the city to their own needs. The nooks als of Modernism, these two cities also that Le Corbusier designed originally evolved in distinct ways. I was most to dilute the Punjab sun are used by interested in portraying how people outdoor businesses that rig up their are living, thriving or coping with 4:$' 7.$' 71*/6*&7I' N*' @4&?.7"*&>7' 3"68' Modernism today. sixty years later could easily be a drab concrete expanse over a grid. How‑ G$' H&#7M/"#,' a73#&' J"*%*8*&>7' ?."/)‑ ever, here, women in bright saris com‑ "$;7' 24#6' "$' #' )&*#%O/"<*' :#8' #3&477' L*6*':"61'61*'E"E")$*77'45'24:*&7I'01*' vast expanses of green. They sit in squares and parks are full of life. The the background of large planned vis‑ 3"68' L/#$' &*).3*7' 61*' 7$#&/7' 45' 6&#c3' tas that are intended for the passing that plague other Indian cities. The glance from an automobile. The city )"]*&*$6' 73#/*7' 45' ;4E*&$%*$6,' 34%‑ center feels markedly devoid of life mercial and domestic spaces allow for in plazas where the pigeons far out‑ a strucure of work, play and carrying number the people. However in great 4$':"61'4$*>7':#8'45'/"5*I'01*'#?76&#36'

Concrete Islands

This page: Frédéric Chaubin, Ministry of Highways (Tbilisi, Georgia), 2003. Previous page: Frédéric Chaubin, Circus (Chisinau, Moldavia), 2009

Frédéric Chaubin Extracts from Frédéric Chaubin's introduction to the publication CCCP: Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed (Taschen, 2011)

This project came about by chance. It began with a second-hand book bought on a sidewalk in Tbilisi one day in August 2003. Under the rather anonymous gray dust jacket two hundred pages in Cyrillic, published twenty years earlier, surveyed seventy years of architecture in Soviet Georgia. Among the listed buildings, two curiosities stood out. As the captions indicated, they were located in Tbilisi. I was there to interview President Shevardnadze. I had time to spare, so I looked for them and found them. Stunned by their sheer scale, I took photographs. Usually, that’s as far as it goes. One returns home with a photographic souvenir of something exotic and unusual. The adventure freezes once the journey is over. Not this time, however. These photographs inspired by a book were the beginning of another book.

The key event in this process came a few months later, when I met a woman in Lithuania. Working alongside her architect husband, she had helped to build a monumental health center there in the 1970s. The construction work took ten years. The building went up in the middle of the woods, near the border with Belarus, and was made, she told me, with total freedom. A homage to the work of Gaudi, she said. This spa at Druskininkai was the worthy product of such an ambition. There, surrounded by conifers, I found colossal concrete curves, modeled by an extraordinary aesthetic. This was miles away from my preconceived ideas about the Soviet world. How had this building managed to come into existence, so far off the beaten tracks of architecture? Was its formal liberty compatible with an official commission, bearing in mind that in the USSR every construction was commissioned by the State? And did this freewheeling atmosphere pervade the whole territory, from Georgia to Lithuania? There seemed to be no work of reference, no precise documentation that might answer my questions…

The key to Soviet architecture is above all political. The causes of its evolution are to be sought not in architectural theory but, more prosaically, in the regime and its evolution. Nowhere else, and nowhere over such a long period of time, has the urban landscape been so directly shaped by power. Because the communist system was quick to eradicate the private sector, there were no individual initiatives to counter its totalitarian visions. The result is a trait that radically distinguishes that world from our own: any building planned in the USSR was a State commission entrusted to professionals trained by the State. One corollary of this, incidentally, is that architectural forms were conditioned by the ideological postulates of the day… The fact is that the buildings here were not made to speak to the world as we know it, but to the citizens of the USSR. Visible from afar and unfailingly spectacular, they are effectively monuments, ideological markers endowed with an almost mystical aura by their positioning in space and expressive power. “By its incongruity, by its inhuman stature,” writes the philosopher

Jacques Derrida, “the monumental dimension serves to emphasize the non-representable nature of the very concept that it evokes.” This concept, whether in Grodno, Kiev or Dushanbe, is might. The might of power. A power that would soon become illusory and whose crumbling is indeed manifested by the growing stylistic diversity of this architecture... In the vast post-Soviet world, with its diverse landscapes and uncertain, abandoned terrains, that transitional period lives on in vestiges such as these. These buildings are happy accidents for some, and for others lapses of taste, but most of them, whether modest or not, somehow managed to dodge the norms. Neither modern nor postmodern, like free-floating dreams, they loom up on the horizons like pointers to a fourth dimension. The ultimate dimension of the Soviet world.

Concrete Islands

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mounir fatmi by Barbara Polla

As it was for Le Corbusier, the planet "7' %4.$"&' 5#6%">7' 76.)"4I' QE*&861"$;' human interests him and life, like an open wound, impels him to create, to ?*#&':"6$*77,'64'76&.36.&*'1"7'*]*&E*7‑ 3*$6'")*#7,'64'6&#$754&%'7.]*&"$;'"$64' words and images. fatmi feels it all intensely, under the skin, and seeks 64' 4]*&' 61*' 14L*' 45' #' 7*$7"6"E*' ;#F*' taking in perpetual destruction, death and loss, as if loss would be the unique guarantee for further life. On his web‑ 7"6*>7' 14%*' L#;*,' 5#6%"' 7#87h' gK8' 5#‑ ther has lost all his teeth, I can bite him now”. I can bite him now – especially after the events of recent months in Arab countries that fatmi often com‑ ments on, both in his art (an installa‑ 6"4$'5*#6.&"$;'2#;7'5&4%'(&#?"3'34.$‑ tries and brooms was censored early this year in Dubai) and writing. During a four‑year residency in the Pa‑ &"7"#$'?#$/"*.*'45'K#$6*7ON#OB4/"*'#6'61*' Espace Culturel Multimédia Le Chap‑ /"$'"$'61*'*#&/8'TUUU7,'5#6%"'9/%*)'61*' demolition of the housing blocks in Le Val Fourré. Huge mechanical diggers 4L*&#6*),'#;#"$,'=.$)*&'61*'7<"$>'45'61*' urban body, opening up the bedrooms where humans once lived, loved and slept, the kitchens where they drank

and partied, the lounges where they sat, and even the bathrooms made to *$7.&*' 61#6' 61*' ?4)8>7' L&"E#38' "7' #/‑ ways protected. But suddenly now we see the tiles on the walls, ripped, torn and exposed, thrust before passers‑by, previous inhabitants, neighbours. The 24&#/' .L14/76*&8' 45' 61*' 54&%*&' ?*)‑ &44%7' *E4<*' 61*' 54&;4+*$' )&*#%7' 45' former lovers. Endless still shots yoke the time of silence to the space of loss. The violence is irremediable. Demol‑ "71"$;'3"6"*7'"7'$4';*$6/*'%#+*&I'N"5*'"7' $4';*$6/*'%#+*&I

as those still to come, continuing to record this hyper‑realistic residency – underscore the inadequacy of the con‑ struction of suburbs as they have been conceived during the second half of the 20th Century: ugly ¬ why not, as long as they are functional? ¬ as cheap as possible, categorized and totally lack‑ ing diversity. While the destruction of the architectural failure aims to hide and compensate for other failures, in‑ cluding social failure, the crashing ego of the architect whose vision – or lack of vision – is being demolished along with the buildings gets publicly chal‑ During the four years of his residency, /*$;*)'?8'5#6%">7'&*L&*7*$6#6"4$7I 5#6%"'9/%*)'4E*&'9568'14.&7'45'&.71*7,' and he is still continuing. The artist, G$'=(&31"6*36.&*'J4:P>,'5#6%"'9/%7'61*' who boldly titled the catalogue pub‑ machine pulling out sections of walls of /"71*)'54&'61*'H&.77*/7'H"*$$"#/'S'=i.3<' :14'<$4:7':14>7'14%*,'/"<*'#'%4.61' 61*' (&31"6*36>,' "7' 61.7' 34$6"$."$;' 1"7' embracing and devouring, violent critique of the world and the way it is #$)'7*$7.#/'/"<*'61*':4/5'"$'31"/)&*$>7' manhandled and twisted. The titles of nightmares. But in the end, behind the his videos, too, are remarkably evoca‑ destroyed walls, as the phoenix rising 6"E*h' =j"614.6' ($*761*7"#>' "$)"3#6*7' from its ashes, is the clear blue sky. that for fatmi the buildings are like (' 6&**,' #' 243<' 45' ?"&)7,' $46' 9/%*)' 4$' 1.%#$'?4)"*7';*+"$;'#$'4L*&#6"4$'gk' purpose but found upon mounting, vif” by surgeons who care more about the ghost of Tarkovsky. Nature takes 61*'&*7./67'l'"I*I'#)*e.#6*'3.+"$;'#$)' 4E*&'$4'%#+*&':1#6')"7#76*&'L&*3*)*)' removal – than about pain or sorrow; and, for this moment of beauty, we are =G'/"E*)'4$'61*'61"&)'244&>'64.31*7'4.&' ready to forget any failure. “Mehr Li‑ common memories, as we all once cht” recurs through the windows of lived somewhere else and left behind destruction and we discover that fatmi :14'<$4:7':1#6m'=(&31"6*36.&*'J4:P>' is as hyper‑romantic as he is politically tells us that architecture today resides engaged. Indeed, how can we be po‑ not only in grandeur but also in de‑ litically engaged if not fundamentally struction. All these videos – as well romantic?

01*&*' #&*' $4' :4&)7' "$' 5#6%">7' #&31"‑ 6*36.&*'9/%7I'01*')*#5*$"$;'&.%4&'45' destruction speaks for itself and the sound is extremely powerful, whether the captivating noise of the machines, of the destruction itself (men need noise to destroy with joy – there are very few silent destruction tools) or, after everything has been consumed, H**614E*$>7' @4$3*&6' JnX,' 4L.7' Xo,' #7' the witness of the persistence of beau‑ ty and culture. !44)' 3"$*%#,' 3"$*%#' 61#6' "7$>6' ?4&‑ ing, said Derrida – he who foresaw a glorious future for ghosts – is a phan‑ 64%#318I' (//' 5#6%">7' 9/%7' ?*#&' 61"7' 7L*36&#/' "%L&"$6,' ?.6' 1"7' 9/%7' 4$' #&‑ chitecture even more so. I can bite him now, but his ghost is with me forever. =(&31"6*36.&*' $4:>,' #7' :*//' #7' =N#' 3"6p' )*'/q.&;*$3*>,'"7'9//*)':"61'61*'#?7*$3*' of human inhabitants yet the ghosts of the residents are tangibly present. They wander around and watch the future through our eyes, asking for explanations. Why were these build‑ ings constructed? Why are they being destructed? What kind of relationship to nature does the destruction of hu‑ man endeavors by those same human beings who were able to imagine them ?&"$;' #?4.6r' 5#6%">7' #$7:*&' "7' "$' 61*' light. Books – that is, knowledge ‑ are essential. And images. All of them. To 9;16' ";$4&#$3*' :"61' 4L*$' *8*7I' K*1&' licht and freedom.

Concrete Islands

Niklas Goldbach, Gan Eden, 2006, Videostill (video 10ʹ00)

Niklas Goldbach

"$' )*$7"68r' G7' $46' 61*' "77.*' 1*&*' =$*:' $#6.&*>,' /"6*&#//8' #$)' %*6#L14&"3#//8r' 01"7' <"$)' 45' *]4&6' 3#$' ?*' 61*' J*61‑ *&/#$)7>' 7L*3"93' 34$6&"?.6"4$' 64' 61*' ecological spectrum of the World Fair J"</#7'!4/)?#31q7'9/%'q!#$'Q)*$q':#7'9/%*)'"$'61*' in Hannover 2000, which seems to be remains of the Dutch pavilion, designed by MVRDV, devoted particularly to a nostalgic for the World Expo 2000 in Hanover, Germany. glimpse of ecology: a simple critique of KVsfVq7'&*2*36"4$7'4$'61*'L#E"/"4$,'?*/4:,':*&*' technology and the consumer society, originally published on mvrdv.nl of asphalt and machinery. What the Dutch entry shows is precisely a mix of The Netherlands is a densely populat‑ technology and nature, emphasizing ed country combining a high standard $#6.&*>7' %#<*O#?"/"68' #$)' #&6"93"#/"68h' of welfare with a great democratic tra‑ technology and nature need not be dition. It could well be the prime ex‑ mutually exclusive, they can perfectly ample of a country that has always had well reinforce one another. to (and knows how to) mold the envi‑ &4$%*$6'64'7."6'"67':"//I'G6>7'#'34.$6&8' Nature arranged on many levels pro‑ that time and time again has won more vides both an extension to existing land from the sea. Perhaps in the near nature and an outstanding symbol of future extra space will be found not "67' #&6"93"#/"68I' G6' L&4E")*7' %./6"O/*E*/' `.76'?8'"$3&*#7"$;'61*'34.$6&8>7':")61' public space as an extension to exist‑ but by expanding vertically. This kind ing public spaces. And even by ar‑ of operation would seem to be appli‑ ranging existing programs on many cable to many more countries. It raises levels it provides yet more extra space, e.*76"4$7' 45' ;/4?#/' 7";$"93#$3*I' @#$' at ground level, for visibility and ac‑ increasing population densities coexist cessibility, for the unexpected, for with an increase in the quality of life? =$#6.&*>I'f"E")"$;'.L'61*'7L#3*'"$'61*' j1#6' 34$)"6"4$7' 714./)' ?*' 7#6"79*)' Dutch entry and arranging it on multi‑ before such increases in density take ple levels surrounds the building with place? What role will nature, in the spatial events and other cultural mani‑ widest sense, play in such an increase festations. The building becomes a

monumental multi‑level park. It takes 61#6I' G6' "7' $46' E*&8' #+&#36"E*I' 01*&*' "7' on the character of a happening. no reason to be there. After the expo, the unemployment rate radically in‑ The fact that this kind of building does creased. People stared to leave the not yet exist means that it also gets to region. Who can under those circum‑ function as a laboratory. It not only stances invest the maintenance of the saves space, it also saves energy, time, expo? Almost none of the buildings water and infrastructure. A mini‑eco‑ were being re‑used afterwards. Many 7876*%' "7' 3&*#6*)I' G6>7' #' 7.&E"E#/' <"6I' of them were broken down. Except the Of course, it also tests existing quali‑ Dutch. Why? Had it become indeed 6"*7h'"6'#+*%L67'64'9$)'#'74/.6"4$'54&'#' a monument? The Dutch pavilion re‑ lack of light and land. At the same time mained as a solitude element within a the density and the diversity of func‑ landscape that looked after the fall of tions builds new connections and new a nuclear bomb. Fences were erected relationships. It can therefore serve as around the building. Lifts, trees and a symbol for the multi‑faceted nature windmills were dismantled. Thou‑ of society: it presents the paradoxical sands of birds started to inhabit the va‑ notion that as diversity increases, it 3#$6' 76&.36.&*I' te.#+*&7' A461*&' ?"&)7C' seems so too does cohesion. 76#&6*)'64'/"E*'"$'61*'244&7I'-#&687**<‑ ers started to use the forest. It became FROM UTOPIA TO DISTOPIA a real park so to say. This distopia was not so bad. It became a ruin in the best The 2000 Hannover World expo fair German tradition. As in Heineʹs poems was not received with big enthusi‑ 4&' "$' !4*61*>7' %*%4&"*7,' #' $*:' &."$' asm. The number of visitors was much :#7'?4&$P'j*'34./)'#/&*#)8'"%#;"$*'#' lower then expected and suggested in structure overgrown with ivy... The se‑ advance. Did it lack inspiration? The cret discussion on its future, found its situation somewhere in the middle of current apocalypse in September 2005. Germany ‑ a political choice: the center Finally it has been sold. Through eBay. of west and the newly united east part of Germany ‑ within a very provincial and moderating town did not help in

Concrete Islands

Biographies

constructing visual spaces and linguis‑ tic games that aim to free the viewer from their preconceptions. His vid‑ ANDREAS ANGELIDAKIS eos, installations, drawings, paint‑ ings and sculptures bring to light Andreas Angelidakis runs an experi‑ our doubts, fears and desires. His mental practice in Athens, Greece, :4&<' :#7' 5*#6.&*)' "$' -#&#)"7*' J4:P' that is involved in building, design‑ Essential French Avant‑Garde Cin‑ ing and speculating the contempo‑ ema 1890‑2008 at the Tate Modern in rary ecosystem of screens and land‑ London and Traces du Sacré at the scapes. His medium is habitation, of Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. buildings, clouds, spaces, furniture, www.mounirfatmi.com videos, online communities or ex‑ hibition spaces, and operates at the NIKLAS GOLDBACH intersection of systems: Art and Ar‑ chitecture, Virtual and Real, Build‑ German artist Niklas Goldbach creates ing and Nature, Ruin and Construc‑ video, sculpture and photographic tion. His work has been exhibited at works that focus on dystopic aspects of the Venice Architecture Biennale, Sao architecture. Gan Eden is the second in Paolo Biennial, ExperimentaDesign a series of videos about utopia in urban in Lisbon, and Espace Culturel Louis 3./6.&*I' v"7' 9/%7' 1#E*' ?**$' 73&**$*)' V."+4$' #$)' B*.' )*' -#.%*' "$' -#&"7I at the International Architecture Film www.angelidakis.com i*76"E#/' s4+*&)#%,' 0*%L4&#&8' u.$‑ sthalle Berlin and the Barbican, Lon‑ IWAN BAAN don. He was an artist in residence at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, in 2007/08. Dutch photographer Iwan Baan is www.niklasgoldbach.de known primarily for images that nar‑ rate the life and interactions that oc‑ MVRDV cur within architecture. Born in 1975, Iwan grew up outside Amsterdam KVsfV' :#7' 7*6' .L' "$' s4+*&)#%' and studied at the Royal Academy (Netherlands) in 1993 by Winy Maas, of Art in The Hague. He collabo‑ B#34?' E#$' s"`7' #$)' J#61#/"*' )*' V&"*7I' rates with many architects including In close collaboration the 3 principal Rem Koolhaas, Herzog & de Meu‑ architect directors produce designs ron, SANAA, Frank Gehry, Toyo Ito #$)' 76.)"*7' "$' 61*' 9*/)7' 45' #&31"6*3‑ and Zaha Hadid. His photography ture, urbanism and landscape design. has been featured in exhibitions at Early projects such as the headquarters MoMA in New York and the Architec‑ for the Public Broadcasting Company tural Association in London. He has VPRO and the WoZoCo housing for el‑ also conducted documentary projects derly in Amsterdam brought MVRDV across Africa, Asia and Latin America. 64' 61*' #+*$6"4$' 45' #' :")*' 9*/)' 45' 3/"‑ www.iwan.com ents and reached international acclaim. www.mvrdv.nl FREDERIC CHAUBIN BARBARA POLLA Frédéric Chaubin, born in Cambodia, is an artist, writer and editor‑in‑chief Barbara Polla is a medical doctor, a 45' @"6"F*$' u' %#;#F"$*' 54&' 61*' /#76' 95‑ gallerist (Analix Forever) and a writer. teen years. His photography consid‑ She has been teaching on the ideal ar‑ ers architecture as an expression of chitecture for elderly people, both from its historical, cultural and anthropo‑ a medical and psychological perspec‑ logical condition. In 2003 he began 6"E*I't1*'1#7'&*3*$6/8'4&;#$"F*)'61*'9&76' a seven year project photographing International Conference in Emotional unusual structures within the former Architecture in Geneva and published USSR. ʹCosmic Communist Construc‑ together with the French art and archi‑ tions Photographedʹ was published tecture historian Paul Ardenne the re‑ by Taschen in 2011. Solo exhibitions lated book, Architecture émotionnelle, include ZKM Museum of Contempo‑ K#6"w&*' k' -*$7*&' AN#' K.*+*,' TUSUCI rary Art, Karlsruhe, and the Storefront www.barbarapolla.wordpress.com for Art and Architecture, New York. www.fredericchaubin.com ELIAS REDSTONE MOUNIR FATMI

Elias Redstone is an independent ar‑ chitecture curator and writer based in mounir fatmi was born in Tangier, London and Paris. He holds an MSc Morocco in 1970. His practice involves in City Design & Social Science from

the London School of Economics and specializes in the dissemination of con‑ temporary architecture and architec‑ tural photography through curatorial practice, research, publishing and con‑ 7./6"$;I'v*':#7'61*'3.&#64&'45'-4/#$)>7' pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2010 and was previously Senior Curator at The Architecture Foundation. He is founder / curator of ARCHIZINES and Editor‑in‑Chief of the London Architecture Diary. www.eliasredstone.com

Concrete Islands

Frédéric Chaubin, Panorama Cinema (Tachkent, Uzbekistan), 2009

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