Archiv der Avantgarden: Building Worlds. Visionary Architecture in the 20th Century

Buckminster Fuller beim Marine Corps Helikopterlift einer Geodätischen Kuppel, Orphan's Hill, North Carolina, USA, 1954

Building Worlds. Visionary Architecture in the 20th Century

Starting 16 November, the Archiv der Avantgarden – Egidio Marzona (ADA) is presenting a comprehensive exhibition on visionary architectural concepts of the 20th century and visions of utopian and dystopian buildings.

Exhibition Site Blockhaus

DATES 16/11/2024—09/03/2025

Opening Hours Tuesday to Friday 15—21 Saturday to Sunday 11—19 31/12/2024 11—16 (New Year's Eve) 01/01/2025 12—18 (New Year)
24/12/2024 — 26/12/2024 closed

Admission Fees normal 5 €, reduced 3 €, under 17 free

Book online

Crises and extraordinary events inspired architects to rethink living and dwelling. Beginning with the 1910s and representatives of Neues Bauen (New Building), such as Bruno Taut and Paul Scheerbart, as well as the connection between building and nature, the exhibition also takes up international concepts, such as the ‘Domes’ of Buckminster Fuller. The belief in human progress and the euphoria of the 1960s and 1970s, with the moon landing and the oil crisis as watersheds in contemporary history, gave rise to both utopian and dystopian visions of life. The spectrum is broad: ironic positions, such as those adopted by the Haus Rucker-Co group of artists, become as much a part of the social discourse as concepts of alternative architecture based on an awareness of the fragility of ecosystems. The belief in new materials and new forms gives way to a fundamental scepticism about conventional construction and the effects of modern urban development. Can crises be overcome by technical means? Or do we need humility and self-denial? These questions are just as relevant today, as they were 50 years ago.

abstraktes Bild mit Kreisen in verschiedenen Farben — **Bruno Taut, Alpine Architektur, Hagen: Folkwang Verlag, 1919**

**Bruno Taut, Der Weltbaumeister. Architektur-Schauspiel für symphonische Musik, Hagen: Folkwang Verlag, 1920**

**Richard Buckminster Fuller, World Map on Dymaxion Projection. #2 World Map, 1946/64**

**Einladungskarte, Haus-Rucker-Co, 1972**

**Einladung: Coop Himmelblau, Architektur muss brennen, Vortrag mit Folgen, TU Graz, 9. Dez. 1980**

**Archigram, Cheer up it’s Archigram, 1973**

schwarze Skizzen utopischer Gebäude mit einer Frage — **Michel Ragon, Wo leben wir morgen? Mensch und Umwelt – Die Stadt der Zukunft, 1967** Verlag Georg D. W. Callwey, München

**Superstudio, Das Fortwährende Monument, 1973**

Contemporary artistic positions frame the collection presentation in the ‘Discursive Space’. Installations and actions by the two artist duos Hristina Ivanoska/Yane Calovski and Maja Wirkus/Eric Pries as well as the dancer and choreographer Nitsan Margaliot explore the theme of the exhibition and Egidio Marzona's collection in a variety of ways in a changeable space.

Discursive Space

Contemporary positions can be seen in the Discursive Space. Various events also take place here, such as workshops, performances, readings and educational programmes.

Nitsan Margaliot

Nitsan Margaliot is a choreographer, dancer and curator, based in Berlin. Since 2022 he‘s the co-curator of the ACROSS Festival hosted by Galerie Wedding. As part of a fellowship in cooperation with HELLERAU, in 2023, Nitsan Margaliot has researched topics like dance, performance, queerness and Fluxus in the collection of the ADA.

His latest creation „Longing to Suspend“ is an exclusive response to the ADA, its oustanding collection, its unique architecture as well as its second exhibition „Building Worlds. Visionary Architecture in the 20th Century“. Settled between dance and performance, „Longing to Suspend“ is a contemplation on topics like the archiving of the self, the body as archive, and the archive as living entity. For „Longing to Suspend“

Nitsan Margaliot collaborates with Tamar Sonn (dramaturgy, choreographic assistance), Antoine Mermet (sound design, composition) and Kaur Hensel (costume design).

Yane Calovski & Hristina Ivanoska, MAKEDONIUM: Dramaturgy of the Unfinished

The installation ‘MAKEDONIUM: Dramaturgy of the Unfinished’ is based on long-term research and an interdisciplinary project by artists Yane Calovski and Hristina Ivanoska.
Through an artistic interpretation of archival material and other findings related to the late phase of modernism in Macedonia and Eastern Europe, they deal with archives and the politics of remembering and forgetting.

The centre of the research is the archive of the MAKEDONIUM monumental complex in Krushevo, Macedonia, which was designed by the architect duo Jordan and Iskra Grabuloski in 1969 and opened to the public in 1974. Iskra Grabuloska collected the documents for over 30 years before donating them to the State Archives. ‘MAKEDONIUM: Dramaturgy of the Unfinished‘ builds on the artists’ previous artistic interest in defragmented histories, narrative speculation and politics of representation in connection with forgotten testimonies of the past.

WIRKUSPRIES: We are Millenium Stars

From 19. November 2024 till 12. January 2025

The artist couple Maja Wirkus and Eric Pries have been working intensively for several years on the architecture of modernism in the European peripheries, which is little known in this country. The artists are interested in the narratives and experiences of the protagonists from these peripheral areas, which are still omitted from a common cultural history. This results in research projects that juxtapose their own work with the insights gained from the archives in site-specific installations. The exhibition We Are Millennium Stars, which can be seen in the Archiv der Avantgarden, and the artists' publication of the same name deal with aspects of the economy of networks and the political dimension of friendship.

The inspiration for the title text is a house by the river: Serock, Rybaki 2, south of Warsaw, located directly on the River Narew. It is the weekend home of the architect couple Syrkus. We Are Millennium Stars is based on the correspondence between Helena Syrkus and the global network of international modernism, which WIRKUSPRIES was able to research for the first time during their artistic research work.

**From the Publication WE ARE MILLENIUM STARS**

In it, the events of the 1920s and 1930s, the period of the Second World War and the subsequent formation of the bloc are overwritten as private biographical memories. WIRKUSPRIES translate the breaks and gaps in the unfolding narrative into a poetic text collage. The text links the historical events with the letters of the protagonists and other influences that accompanied the processes of the artistic work. In this way, concrete spaces of knowledge overlap and refer to the permanent simultaneity of opposites.