Architecture can hardly be defined as a purely artistic or a purely technical practice. The point of departure of our architecture ≠ art programme is the question of whether architecture is or is not art. By posing this question, we enter the very core of the problem of architectural creation - that is, we question the very definition of architecture. How should we think of architecture today? How (if at all) does architecture enter the field of art, and how (if at all) does art enter the field of architecture?
Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, +MSUM, Ljubljana
Tuesday, 17 June 2014, at 7 pm
The lecture's analysis proceeds from a basic finding reached via different paths by the sciences and philosophies of the 20th century - that language is not merely a reflection of reality, that the relation between words and things is not a stable one, that there is always a certain dislocation at work there. One of the possible consequences of this ascertainment is that we can analyse the relations between the elements of discourse without extra-verbal references. The second one is that discourse gains spatial dimensions and can therefore be mapped. And the third consequence is that the field of enunciation can be analysed in military terms, with individual utterances taking different strategies. On the basis of this, I will present an analysis of the various answers to the question "What is architecture?", a question that was featured in the two seasons of Arhitektura govori, a radio broadcast I co-produce with Mateja Kurir at Radio Student.
Izidor Barši studies philosophy and sociology of culture at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana and is currently in his final year of study. He contributes to various periodicals. Since 2010 he has been a regular co-operator with the culture and the humanities desk at Radio Študent - where in 2012, he conceived the Arhitektura govori programme together with Mateja Kurir. He has contributed to Tribuna since 2012 and, in the autumn of 2013, became its editor. He also became a member of the editorial board of Šum - A Journal for Art, Criticism and Theory the same year. In addition, he has helped organise and lead a few theoretical reading seminars.
That architecture is not art is a statement already claimed by Adolf Loos. But today, a hundred years later - in a time, when we school more architects and artists, when we build more museums and cultural centres than ever before -, isn't there a general tendency to unify and neutralise this conflicting difference? Architectural and artistic practices can not operate in a neutral space because such a space simply does not exist; they are always already inscribed within a network of forces and powers. The thesis is that the insistence on this difference is today's necessary condition, one that retains a constitutive antagonism that makes up the core of the political.
Nejc Lebar graduated from the Faculty of Architecture in Ljubljana in 2013 with his master's thesis Koncept in kontekst v delu Jeana Nouvela (Concept and Context in the Work of Jean Nouvel). In 2007, he cooperated in the preparation of a monograph about the architect Edvard Ravnikar and in the organisation of an exhibition on Ravnikar's work at the Jakopič Gallery in Ljubljana. He often takes part in architectural competitions and works as a translator in the field of architectural theory. He is a member of the editorial board of Praznine.
Locations:
Museum of Architecture and Design, Fužine Castle, Pot na Fužine 2, Ljubljana
Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, Maistrova 3, Ljubljana
Moderators: Maja Vardjan (Museum of Architecture and Design) and Urška Jurman (Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory)
Programme managers: Vid Zabel and Urška Jurman (Igor Zabel Association)
The Architecture ≠ Art programme is being prepared by the Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory in collaboration with the Museum of Architecture and Design and the Museum of Modern Art + Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova. The programme is supported by the ERSTE Foundation.
