notes about how architecture is always a political act [5]

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DATE : Sun, 01 Jun 2008 22:40:13 +0100
Entered in Database : 2008-06-01 21:40:13
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When architecture learns from "french" pirates... 2 films from those strange days at La CP( the condition publique), the first "THE COLLECTIVE CONTRUCTION GAME..." shows the the growth of one of our living spaces, a huge factory floor gets a scaffolding system built in it, the space grows as desires dictate new directions of growth. This system was developed by the EXYZT collective, who went on to be invited by Patrick Bouchain to construct the similar scaffold system "pirate ship" that was METAVILLA, or the 3 month lived in space that was the french pavillion at the last architectural bienalle. The second film is one from one of the workshops that went Dehors, outside, the confines of the factory to interact with the neighbourhood. the "wandering workshop" was the workshop name and part of it invovled turning a shopping trolley into "le petit cinema" (the small cinema), a mobile unit that requested collaboration from strangers for something magic to happen, in short the trolley had a tail, an extension cable that needed plugging into somewhere with electricity to bring the cinema to life. With the trolley there was the excuse to approach strangers, some didn't help but some did, local shopkeepers, residents etc..... some thought the group were nuts, maybe they were a little bit, but many who obliged were quite intriqued by what unfolded, maybe the short film will explain far better. Planxty, warlords of pez, indymedia ireland mayday 04, undercurrents flix, were some of the things shown. In a muslim neighbourhood there was much interest in the political films due to the "war on terror" then, and still, present. The kids loved the cartoon films and seemed to really love hip hop... there was talk of making a film with the kids on one special street, we started to script the story, it came from the kids naming all the cats of the street and a story they weaved as their imaginations let rip... We never got to make that film due to internal EASA problems, but maybe one day we will return, who knows? It is interesting to note how politics works in architecture, and vice versa. There is much to comment on, from all angles, but something magical and profoundly interesting, and yes, very political, was tried at that last bienalle. By the way, the bienalle is sort of the olympics for the world of architecture, and while there is much of the soulless world of architecture presented and represented there, sometimes there is something important communicated or facilitated by this system. The French ministry of culture asked Bouchain to represent France 2 times previous and he turned them down, 3rd time he said he would run the show on 2 conditions; firstly they give him all the cash to spend as he wished, on what, for what was his decision and his alond, 2nd that he got full control of the "exhibition" and dictated what exactly happened and when. Reluctantly, they handed over the cash and let him do his thing. The first thing he did was to tell the powers that the exhibion would be a bit different in 2006, that rather than stuff to look at on walls, that him and his friends would occupy the space, live in it, work in it, invite strangers in to play.... a loose collective formed, with Bouchain having the ultimate word on things, artists, architects, planners, philosophers, writers, hackers, djs, film makers, geographers, gardeners, builders, barbers all stuck on yellow t shirts, lived, played, discussed...... as the METAVILLA manifesto said on its walls:

The occupation of a palace By a jubilant crowd is a common image of revoluionary excesses. It has been witnessed in various forms throughout the ages, depending on the historical context. The fact that the image keeps recurring makes it a ritual and necessary representation, an ingredient of the revolution itself. It embodies the hope for justice through the fair redistribution of space. Occupation is the architectural expression of a social vision. Metacity / Metavilla attempts to put this collective movement into practice. This event is to a classic architectural exhibition what implementation is to a concept. The public can experience the architectural design displayed there, and particularly assess the practical ideal being presented, not just as a utopian theory but as a concrete action that needs to be accomplished. In occupying this national emancipated pavilion and opening it up to the public in this unusual way, an architectural act is being performed.Probably the only such act that can be made in these times of insecurity and underlying tensions of war. The welcome of strangers, implacably "other", is more than ever a relevant act. Happily the joyful city on show in the pavilion really does exist, here and elsewhere. This exhibition is just a pointer.

"As a matter of urgency, we must stop considering architecture, urban and landscape design as products of techniques, rationalities, methods, economy, hard sciences, specifications, or narcissism. Last year, in the French Clichy-sous-Bois, we saw riots when young people burned 1000 cars in 20 days as well as many public buildings, and how it had been triggered by a criminal modern architecture. If the 20th century was overwhelmed by the power of technology authority, the 21st century will probably endeavour to soften and try to rehumanize its citizen`s behaviours and by the way, also its architecture. We should first place inhabited environmant along with human and global knowledge system: intuitive, ecological, relational, emotional, experienced, etc. Instead of seeing it as a frigid mechanism or as merchandise. Only after that, may we talk abut inventing tools and intelligence: no one is useless as a servant, provided that he or she renounces taking power for him-herself. Hence, weshould reinvent the friendly and free relations we had with our techniques because they have become autistic and harmful. Architecture will then become once again humanitarian and hospi-table as it was in the pre-human epoch. "

Be utopian. We want to build new worlds where fiction is reality and games are new rules for democraty. We want to encourage creativity, reflexion and renew social behaviours. If space is made by dynamics of exchange, then everybody can be the architects of our world.