Call for Papers Revista de Arquitectura N.º 43. ART – ARCHITECTURE + FREE THEME

Call for Papers Revista de Arquitectura N.º 43. ART – ARCHITECTURE + FREE THEME 

 

         In recent decades, art has conquered unforeseen territories: it resorts to everything imaginable and to all disciplines as sources of expression. The artistic field is today a sphere where the artist can break down all the barriers that are presented to him/her/they to reach unprecedented expressive confines.

         Not long ago, it seemed unlikely that Nina Simone's childhood house in Tryon, North Carolina would stand the test of time as it fell into disrepair. Up for sale and uncertain about its future, four visual artists, Ellen Gallagher, Rashid Johnson, Julie Mehretu and Adam Pendleton, banded together and acquired it. This act of historiographic recovery was described by the artists as a political act and as a work of art. “We just hope we can activate this place…she formed a lot of who I am and my sense of history,”[1] Gallagher said.

         When a peace agreement was signed in Colombia, the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) handed over 37 tons of rifles, pistols and grenade launchers that artist Doris Salcedo had melted down and reshaped as tiles lining the floor of a new art gallery next to the presidential palace in Bogotá.         Invited by the MAXXI Museum in Rome to conceive a work for the exterior of the museum, the artist Massimo Grimaldi installed a video screen that transmits live the entire process of construction of a new hospital being built in Juba, Sudan, thanks to 92% of the budget offered to the artist by the museum. In this way, Grimaldi stated, “the Juba Pediatric Center and the MAXXI will be virtually connected by their architectures; one [of them] possible thanks to the other”[2]. In these and many other works, visual artists are rethinking the strategies and scope of contemporary art, creating new models of thinking about the world.         The relationship between art and architecture has existed for millennia, but unlike in the past, now the incorporation of art into architecture does not necessarily have to be additive, adding a mural in a lobby or a sculpture in a courtyard. Given the expressive territories conquered by the arts, the relationship between these disciplines can today be integrative. This implies that the artistic model being referred can be part of the architectural or urban whole, collecting and incorporating, for example, cultural, social, anthropological, ethnographic, political elements.         Given the multiple perils that today's society faces, the challenges for the contemporary architectural discipline are pressing. Faced with this scenario, architecture and urban planning must incorporate prospective capacities, seeking housing, urban and community solutions with high innovative content to assist human beings in an uncertain future subsistence.         What can architecture distill from the new procedures of contemporary art? How could the relationship between art and architecture be configured for this new era? How can existing artistic practices be constituted as inspiring models for architectural and urban proposals at the height of contemporary challenges? How could these new ways of thinking about the world be applied in the architectural field? The intersection of these two disciplinary areas – art and architecture – may contain synergetic spaces beneficial for the advent of our future, and this call for submissions is an invitation to address these issues.

Alfredo Jaar + Evelyn Meynard. New York, 2022

 

[1] Gallagher, E. (2018) ARTnews. “After Rescue by Four Artists, Nina Simone’s Childhood Home Named ’National Trasure’. Recovered from: https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/rescue-four-artists-nina-simones-childhood-home-named-national-treasure-10522/

[2] Grimaldi, M. (2009) Art & Education. “MAXXI 2per100 two works of art for MAXXI – National Musem of the 21st Century Arts, Rome.” Recovered from: https://www.artandeducation.net/announcements/110931/maxxi-2per100-competition-winners-announced