This debate brings together three distinct perspectives on totalitarian space and its often problematic post-totalitarian uses. It proceeds from a look at strategies employed by contemporary artists in order to repossess the space colonized by ideology; then it engages the contorted metaphysics at the foundation of the House of the People in Bucharest, second largest edifice in the world fusing the functions of mausoleum and citadel; and finally it discusses the makeshift architecture improvised on the streets by those dispossessed of their homes, as a result of changing ideas of ownership in contemporary Romania.
The debate will be chaired by Daniel Serafimovski, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Architecture and Spatial Design, Metropolitan University London.
Programme
Malcolm Quinn: Occupying the Totalitarian Imagination
While it may be commonly assumed that totalitarianism equates to the death of the imagination, Malcolm Quinn addresses the idea that totalitarian regimes possess and embody particular kinds of imagination relating to the ambition to occupy both tangible and intangible dimensions of time and space. He also addresses the impulse of post-totalitarian artists and filmmakers to re-occupy or inhabit this totalitarian imagination in various ways in order to bring about a change in the present, and the opportunities and dangers this tactic offers.
Jonathan Lahey Dronsfield: Architecture and Politics at the Foundation of Foundation
Nicolae Ceausescu's so-called 'House of the People' was erected to found, in the words of the dictator, a new man. As such it is constructed as foundation, not just the foundation of a national identity but the foundation of foundation itself, a construction which is metaphysically destructive. The paper examines what it is about architecture that leads to it being conceived in this way.
Alex Axinte & Cristi Borcan (studiobasar): Evicting the Ghost
Out of the equation of nationalisation-retrocession process of the housing properties in Romania after 1989, an extra house is born: a ghost house which appears on the sidewalks, in front of the facades of real houses, and after a while vanishes without trace. The ghost house has no walls, doors, windows or roof: it is just furniture, rugs, plants or dishes, all tucked together in consecutive piles, wrapped in cardboard and plastic, and painted with protest messages. Built up outside, the ghost house is made up of everything that a family gathers during its indoor lifetime; it is an inside-out house.
The event is part of the New Bucharest Market project presented by the Romanian Cultural Institute, with the support of the Embassy of Romania, at the London Festival of Architecture 2008.
When: Tuesday 15 July 2008, 7 - 9 pm;
Where: Romanian Cultural Institute London.
Admission: is free but places are limited.
Please reserve your seats at T: 020 7752 0134
E: office@icr-london.co.uk.
