Elena Markus & Nick Förster: From Collective to Commoning
Galerie VI PER cordially invites you to the final workshop From Collective to Shared, which is part of the accompanying program of the exhibition of the collective Spolka.
The socialist collectivist ideal, which took on concrete form on a larger scale between the 1960s and 1980s, reflected an ideology that was meant to be a counterpoint to the capitalist environment, representing the victory of individual demands and desires. The narrative of the Cold War evidently faded with the "end of history" of the early 1990s. Nevertheless, today there is a renewed demand to reject the hegemony of the neoliberal economy and private interests, both in the former Western and Eastern blocs, as well as in the global North and South. Therefore, the aim of this workshop will be to explore collective needs and individual desires. To understand the complex relationships between historical experience of collective ownership and the current discourse of sharing, we will focus on various concepts of collectivity as ideology and vision in the context of political limitations of the 20th and 21st centuries. The housing estate Invalidovna in Prague, built between 1960 and 1967, will serve as our case study for exploring the topic of collectivity and collectivism in architecture, particularly the experimental building of the Expo hotel designed by Josef Polák and Vojtěch Šalda. Workshop participants will reveal the utopian past based on a series of reference points while simultaneously examining the current possibilities of shared spaces, i.e., spaces dedicated to "us".
Elena Markus studied architecture at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. From 2011 to 2014, she was a curator at S AM (Swiss Architecture Museum) in Basel. Since 2014, she has been teaching at the Department of Theory of Architecture and Cultural Studies at the Technical University of Munich.
Nick Förster studied architecture in Munich and Aarhus. He collaborated with the Berlin-based Raumlaubor and in 2016 co-participated in the Lückenfülle project, focused on temporary uses of vacant spaces in Munich.
In 2018, Elena Markus and Nick Förster jointly founded Agentur für Architekturarbeit (Agency for Architectural Work) and opened it with their research and exhibition project "SiedlungsRequiem".
The workshop is part of the exhibition Spolka: Spaces of Collectivity, which is on display at Galerie VI PER. The workshop will be led by Elena Markus and Nick Förster and will be conducted in English. The maximum number of participants is 10. Registration at [email protected].
The workshop will also include a public presentation and discussion on Thursday, November 7, at 19:00.
What are the possible connections between commons, community living, and contemporary utopias in relation to socialist and modernist housing utopias? The discussion will follow the workshop reflecting on themes related to formal patterns of architecture, as well as social structures that may be comparable.
Guests: Elena Markus, Nick Förster, Mária Topolčanská, Zuzana Révészová
The socialist collectivist ideal, which took on concrete form on a larger scale between the 1960s and 1980s, reflected an ideology that was meant to be a counterpoint to the capitalist environment, representing the victory of individual demands and desires. The narrative of the Cold War evidently faded with the "end of history" of the early 1990s. Nevertheless, today there is a renewed demand to reject the hegemony of the neoliberal economy and private interests, both in the former Western and Eastern blocs, as well as in the global North and South. Therefore, the aim of this workshop will be to explore collective needs and individual desires. To understand the complex relationships between historical experience of collective ownership and the current discourse of sharing, we will focus on various concepts of collectivity as ideology and vision in the context of political limitations of the 20th and 21st centuries. The housing estate Invalidovna in Prague, built between 1960 and 1967, will serve as our case study for exploring the topic of collectivity and collectivism in architecture, particularly the experimental building of the Expo hotel designed by Josef Polák and Vojtěch Šalda. Workshop participants will reveal the utopian past based on a series of reference points while simultaneously examining the current possibilities of shared spaces, i.e., spaces dedicated to "us".
Elena Markus studied architecture at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. From 2011 to 2014, she was a curator at S AM (Swiss Architecture Museum) in Basel. Since 2014, she has been teaching at the Department of Theory of Architecture and Cultural Studies at the Technical University of Munich.
Nick Förster studied architecture in Munich and Aarhus. He collaborated with the Berlin-based Raumlaubor and in 2016 co-participated in the Lückenfülle project, focused on temporary uses of vacant spaces in Munich.
In 2018, Elena Markus and Nick Förster jointly founded Agentur für Architekturarbeit (Agency for Architectural Work) and opened it with their research and exhibition project "SiedlungsRequiem".
The workshop is part of the exhibition Spolka: Spaces of Collectivity, which is on display at Galerie VI PER. The workshop will be led by Elena Markus and Nick Förster and will be conducted in English. The maximum number of participants is 10. Registration at [email protected].
The workshop will also include a public presentation and discussion on Thursday, November 7, at 19:00.
What are the possible connections between commons, community living, and contemporary utopias in relation to socialist and modernist housing utopias? The discussion will follow the workshop reflecting on themes related to formal patterns of architecture, as well as social structures that may be comparable.
Guests: Elena Markus, Nick Förster, Mária Topolčanská, Zuzana Révészová
The English translation is powered by AI tool. Switch to Czech to view the original text source.
0 comments
add comment
