Dorin Stefan & Augustin Ioan
19 Dec 2012 - 17 Feb 2013
DORIN STEFAN & AUGUSTIN IOAN
Utopia / Dystopia
Curator: Ruxandra Balaci
19 December 2012 - 17 Februaru 2013
The exhibition presents Dorin Stefan’s Taiwan Tower Experiment (2010-2012) and Augustin Ioan’s project for the Patriarchal Cathedral (unfortunately, both the location and the project from Piata Unirii where the project was conceived, in spite of wining the international competition was later abandoned and was replaced with another project by far less interesting located near the People’s House), in parallel with the architectural achievements of historical communism in Architecture and Power, Augustin Ioan and Nicolae Margineanu’s film synthesis (1992). The aim was to make a clear demonstration of the oscillation between the possibilities of utopian ideals and the aggravating dystopian choices. Therefore authors/architects/artists in Romania are capable of splendid “utopias”, but they are not listened to in the city... In exchange, mediocrity, mean interest, bad taste and dabbling pompousness sadly institute dystopia... Back then, in communism, just as in nowadays Romania, architecture was a major key in decoding the potentialities, latencies, achievements and failures of a nation...
The opening will be followed by the book launch of Augustin Ioan’s The Architecture of Memory. The New Frontier of the Sacred Space. The volume, published by Igloo media, explores the dimensions of the architecture of memory: from memorial architecture, designed to remind, to co-memorize (most frequently violent and tragic) events in the public space, to architecture in relation with time in general, seen as a time condenser.
Utopia / Dystopia
Curator: Ruxandra Balaci
19 December 2012 - 17 Februaru 2013
The exhibition presents Dorin Stefan’s Taiwan Tower Experiment (2010-2012) and Augustin Ioan’s project for the Patriarchal Cathedral (unfortunately, both the location and the project from Piata Unirii where the project was conceived, in spite of wining the international competition was later abandoned and was replaced with another project by far less interesting located near the People’s House), in parallel with the architectural achievements of historical communism in Architecture and Power, Augustin Ioan and Nicolae Margineanu’s film synthesis (1992). The aim was to make a clear demonstration of the oscillation between the possibilities of utopian ideals and the aggravating dystopian choices. Therefore authors/architects/artists in Romania are capable of splendid “utopias”, but they are not listened to in the city... In exchange, mediocrity, mean interest, bad taste and dabbling pompousness sadly institute dystopia... Back then, in communism, just as in nowadays Romania, architecture was a major key in decoding the potentialities, latencies, achievements and failures of a nation...
The opening will be followed by the book launch of Augustin Ioan’s The Architecture of Memory. The New Frontier of the Sacred Space. The volume, published by Igloo media, explores the dimensions of the architecture of memory: from memorial architecture, designed to remind, to co-memorize (most frequently violent and tragic) events in the public space, to architecture in relation with time in general, seen as a time condenser.