Where I would like to be now:
Instant Urbansim, in Basel.
“Tracing the theories of the Situationists in contemporary architecture and urban design”
Includes work from:
Lucy Orta (France),
Santiago Cirugeda (Spain),
EXYZT (France),
Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss (Netherlands),
NL architects (Netherlands),
IAN+ (Italy),
PPAG (Austria),
“Instant urbanism will also exhibit concepts and projects that redefine the city as a site for play and appropriation by way of constructing situations. Both new urban research and built projects will touch upon the idea of high-speed urbanism – with an emphasis on self-planning and urban occupations.”
And ooh! the derive is back!
” Two installations will give a contemporary slant to the dérive: a practice employed by the Situationists for investigating the increasingly fragmented cityscape on the basis of disorientation and intuitive explorations.”
“To the outside world the consistency of architecture is a given, from which you deviate at your own peril – which is ironic since it would be much better, and much more interesting, for the world at large if there were more deviations.” Rem Koolhaas
Also, the Situationist strategy of détournement – alienating and recontextualising aesthetic elements in order to draw attention to the ways in which our use of space is conditioned:
Observatorium , and
comes into play – re-programming architecture and activating spaces for previously inconceivable uses.
