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Volume

Volume Issue 11: Cities Unbuilt
Out now!

Volume is a collaborative project by
Archis + AMO + C-Lab

info@archis.org
http://www.volumeproject.org

Subscriptions/purchase
http://volumeproject.org

‘Destruction is no longer the outcome of blind rage, but increasingly a matter of meticulous calculation. Destruction has become an alternative architecture’
Ole Bouman

‘Cities Unbuilt’ is the first comprehensive research on the architecture of destruction. This issue offers a detailed analysis on spatial and social implications of destruction in various parts of the world and discusses issues around migration and displacement, ‘warchitecture’ and ‘post-warchitecture’, counter-heritage, cultural interventions and post-conflict reconstruction strategies.

While architectural records regularly hit the news with positive developments – even higher towers, smarter technologies, stunning designs, and iconic buildings – the general daily news is negative: man-made destruction caused by conflict and war and natural disasters make up large parts of the news’ content. Remarkably there is no discourse on these subjects within the global professional community of architects, yet there is a strong correlation between destruction – the unbuilding of cities – and the construction of buildings.

In this age of realism destruction marks a dramatic proliferation of the unbuilding of cities worldwide challenging the traditional notion of architecture as the vehicle of hope and progress. Volume explores the less discussed creative sides of destruction, a realm where architecture and design play an important part. Volume shows how they are engaged in destruction, but also what options architecture has to confront these situations. Even in destruction there is hope.

Three Cahiers are central to this issue – Cahier South Caucasus, Cahier Kosovo and Cahier Lebanon – framed by a series of introductory essays by Ole Bouman, Robert Bevan, Ester Charlesworth, Caroline Arnulf, Andrew Herscher and the concluding creative agenda with contributions by Christian Ernsten and Malkit Shoshan, Nick Shepherd and Kai Vöckler amongst others.

Introduction
The Architecture of Destruction (Editorial) – Ole Bouman
Cultural Cleansing – Robert Bevan
Ghost Buildings – Reineke Otten
Architects Should Act! – Esther Charlesworth
To Leave and Let Live. The impact of migration and remittances on war-torn cities – Caroline Arnulf
World Bank Cities – Andrew Herscher
Maps on Reconstruction – F.A.S.T.
Frozen Memories – Gerlinde Schuller

Cahier South Caucasus
Destruction and Displacement
Introduction: Design for Displacement
Humancon Undercon – Sophia Tabatadze
Dynamics of the South Caucasus Borders – F.A.S.T.
Barda’s Boundaries. Temporary homes and the politics of displacement –Malkit Shoshan, Christian Ernsten
Extreme Makeover. The reconstruction of post-Soviet Karabakh – Malkit Shoshan, Christian Ernsten
Photos Dirk-Jan Visser

Cahier Kosovo
Destruction and Illegal Building
Introduction: Kosovo Constructions
Warchitecture/Post-Warchitecture – Andrew Herscher
Invisible Architects – Florina Jerliu
Archis Interventions in Prishtina – Kai Vöckler c.s.
also check the Unbuilt Prishtina blog

Cahier Lebanon
Destruction and Exclusion
Introduction: All Exclusive
City Blogging
Solidere and the Perpetual Reinvention of Downtown Beirut – Michael Stanton
Manic Machines – Christiaan Fruneaux
Public Space Invaders – Joost Janmaat
Design With War in Mind
The Architect’s Dilemma
Photos Aukje Dekker
Pearls for Lebanon – Ole Bouman
Noise Magazine – Studio Beirut
also check the Unbuilt Lebanon blog

Agenda
Violence, Destruction and International Law. An interview with Andrew Herscher – Christian Ernsten, Malkit Shoshan
Counter Convention – Andrew Herscher
UNESCO World Heritage – F.A.S.T.
Urban Imaginaries andMemories of Violence. Cape Town’s Prestwich Street – Nick Shepherd, Christian Ernsten
Lifta after Zionist Planning – Malkit Shoshan
Stateless Urbanism – Kai Vöckler
Towards Non-Destructive Aid – Niloufar Tajeri
Planning for Uncertain Cities. Towards an urban post-conflict strategy – W. Hackenbroich, T. Fuchs, K. Vöckler
Artists and New Urban Horizons – Chris Keulemans
Architecture Extended to Its Contrary (Photonovela) – Christophe Catsaros

FACTS
editor in chief Ole Bouman
contributing editors Rem Koolhaas, Mark Wigley
managing editor Arjen Oosterman
publisher Archis Foundation
format 20.9×29.5, 160 pages (no ads)

For more information go to: http://volumeproject.org

Public Art Fund

Public Art Fund presents…

Damián Ortega
Obelisco Transportable

Doris C. Freedman Plaza in Central Park
Fifth Avenue and 60th Street, New York
On view through October 28, 2007

http://www.publicartfund.org

Damián Ortega’s Obelisco Transportable, a variation on the traditional form of an obelisk, stands at the entrance to Central Park in New York. A 20-foot-tall, narrow, tapering object with a pyramidal top, Ortega’s obelisk is on a grassy platform on wheels, as though it has been uprooted from a previous location and made portable. Since ancient times, when the form first emerged in Egypt, obelisks have served as a visible centerpiece of cities. Ortega characterizes Obelisco Transportable as "a mobile landmark" that one could potentially move anywhere to commemorate anything. It offers a pragmatic yet wryly playful approach to a global society in which the balance of power is constantly in flux, and in which populations shift and drift from one place to another.

Obelisco Transportable is also a nod to the ways in which public sculptures and monuments have historically been moved from one city to another. Ortega describes this as the "Napoleonic gesture," in which the wartime victor plunders the monuments of captured cities and brings them back home to be installed in public there as a symbol of victory. Such transfers were meant to signal the rise of a new power and the demise of an older one, as well as an exchange of central and peripheral positions. Cleopatra’s Needle in Central Park, for example, was originally created in Heliopolis, the ancient Egyptian city, more than 3,000 years ago. During the time of the Roman Empire, it was moved to Alexandria, where it remained for almost two millennia before being offered to the United States as a gift in the 19th century.

Ortega, who until just a few years ago was active as a political cartoonist in his native Mexico, creates sculptures, photographs, collages, and other works that tap into the poetic and symbolic resonance of everyday forms. Using wordplay, visual metaphors, and physical interventions, Ortega investigates the way in which objects serve as markers of cultural and political history. Among his best known works are the three pieces that make up "The Beetle Trilogy"–Cosmic Thing (2002), Moby Dick (2004-5), and Escarabajo (2005)–an epic series that revolves around the Volkswagen Bug as a ubiquitous icon of modernity.

Born in 1967 in Mexico City, Damián Ortega now lives and works Berlin. In 2003, his work was featured in the 50th Venice Biennale. His recent major solo shows include "The Beetle Trilogy and Other Works," Gallery at REDCAT (The Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theatre) and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2005); "The Uncertainty Principle," at Tate Modern, London (2005); "Damian Ortega," at Kunsthalle Basel, Basel (2004); "Spirit and Matter," White Cube, London (2004); "Damian Ortega," Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, Brazil; "Moby Dick," kurimanzutto, Mexico City; and "Damian Ortega: Cosmic Thing," ICA Philadelphia, Philadelphia (2002).

Location and Directions
Obelisco Transportable is on view at 60th Street and Fifth Avenue, at the entrance to Central Park. Subways: N, R to Fifth Avenue; 4, 5, 6 to 59th St/Lexington Ave. The work is free to the public and is on view daily.

Doris C. Freedman Plaza is named for the founder of the Public Art Fund and has been the site of more than 50 artist projects and commissions, featuring works by both internationally known and emerging artists including Liz Larner, Sarah Sze, Paul McCarthy, and Mark Handforth.

Public Art Fund is New York’s leading presenter of artists’ projects, new commissions, installations and exhibitions in public spaces. For 30 years, the Public Art Fund has been committed to working with emerging and established artists to produce innovative exhibitions of contemporary art throughout New York City. By bringing artworks outside the traditional context of museums and galleries, the Public Art Fund provides a unique platform for an unparalleled public encounter with the art of our time.

Recent and current critically acclaimed exhibitions and presentations by Public Art Fund include "The World Is Round," a group exhibition at MetroTech Center in Brooklyn (on view through September 9, 2007); Alexander Calder in New York at City Hall Park (on view through October 2007); Sarah Morris’s Robert Towne at Lever House (2006-7); Nina Katchadourian’s Office Semaphore at Chase Manhattan Plaza (2006-7); Anish Kapoor’s Sky Mirror at Rockefeller Center (2006); Sarah Sze’s Corner Plot at Doris C. Freedman Plaza (2006); and Nancy Rubins’s Big Pleasure Point at Lincoln Center (2006).

Public Art Fund is a non-profit arts organization supported by generous contributions from individuals, foundations, and corporations, and with public funds from National Endowment for the Arts; New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

This exhibition is made possible through the cooperation of the City of New York, Michael R. Bloomberg, Mayor; Patricia E. Harris, First Deputy Mayor; and Department of Parks & Recreation, Adrian Benepe, Commissioner.

Special thanks to kurimanzutto, Mexico City.

Press contact:
Stacy Bolton Communications
(212) 721-5350
emily@stacybolton.com

Abby Clark
Public Art Fund
(212) 980-4575
press@publicartfund.org

For more information go to: http://www.publicartfund.org

La criée centre for contemporary art

Paola Pivi
You gotta be kidding me
Exhibition 29 june / 26 august 2007

Production
You gotta be kidding me
2007
Steel and rhinestones
14.70 x 6.7 x 0.25 meters

Production
la criée Center for Contemporary Art
and galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, Miami.

Born in 1971 in Italy, the artist Paola Pivi lives and works in Anchorage, Alaska. Her presence on the international scene since 1995 has been prolific and her pluridisciplinary practice is rooted in an art of reversal: