http://www.sam-basel.org/index.php?page=vorschau_e
(((Via Dexigner. I just signed up for their Twitter feed.)))
Link: S AM - Balkanology.
BALKANOLOGY
New Architecture and Urban Phenomena in South Eastern Europe
Curated by Kai Vöckler
In the western Balkans, the collapse of the socialist economic system in Yugoslavia and Albania has given rise to extensive informal building activity that represents a new form of urbanisation. The question is: how far do such urban transformations indicate patterns of future development for European cities in general?
(((Simple answer: a *lot.* A WHOLE lot. Next question: how does this "informality" infect nonsocialist cities after the collapse of THEIR
economic system. Answer: A lot, a WHOLE lot, so much so that you can't tell the difference; it's "informality" all the way down.)))The exhibition uses examples from projects in Belgrade, Zagreb, Kotor, Prishtina and Tirana to illustrate the way architects, artists, urbanists and activists are dealing with these rapid new transformation processes. The outstanding yet hardly known buildings of socialist modernism in Yugoslavia (((I've seen 'em; don't get excited))) are compared and contrasted with contemporary architecture.
»Balkanology« opens a new field of architectural discourse in Switzerland —the little-known architecture of the post-socialist period ((("Collapse Chic" – "Transition to Nowhere" – "Postnational Romanticism," boy, I wish I was going to this))) and the result of unregulated, uncontrolled urban planning in the countries of South Eastern Europe. The exhibition focuses on the impact of recent socio-political changes on architecture and urban planning.
The situation in South Eastern Europe is prototypical (((yep, you bet))) for urban development in transitional and post-conflict situations, from Prishtina to Belgrade (((to New Orleans to Galveston to Detroit))), where weak or missing institutional structures (((hey, where did that real-estate bank go?))) make it impossible to achieve the regulation of construction processes.
The wild, volatile spread of informal building structures (((get the T-shirt, which was probably hand-sprayed in a slum workshop by the "informal" citizenry))) is the aftermath of the kind of urban crisis that follows social upheavals or wars. (((Or bank runs and hundred-dollar oil, take your pick.)))
At the same time, independently of regional particularities, these urban developments display a new kind of urban form ((("Early Cyberpunk," "Gibsonian Sprawl," "Carnivorous Re-Use" – just try and stop me here, I'm on an architectural roll))) that is quite different from informal settlements in countries outside Europe. (((Not really. Read Koolhaas on Lagos. Better yet, go to Lagos.))) Their specific forms result from a new intermeshing of spaces through visual worlds communicated by the media, migratory movements and cash flows. (((I think maybe we should scrap all the old, regulated buildings and just have rich, highly-mediated jet-set gypsies scampering around with laptops brimming with electronic cash. They can sleep in tents and eat tofu.)))
»Balkanology« brings together leading architects and urban planners from South Eastern Europe and shows their approaches to these fundamental urban transformations. The exhibition will show the cultural, social and political dimensions of the urban phenomena of the region. The key question here is to what extent unregulated, informal urbanism develops new typologies and urban forms, and how these forms could also emerge under the banner of neo-liberal de-urbanisation in the rest of Europe....
