Cité Verticale, ATBAT-Afrique, Carrières Centrales, Casablanca, Morocco, 1953 |
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Landmarks of Colonial and Post Colonial Modernism |
House of World Cultures With an exhibition, a variety of accompanying events and an international conference, the project In the Desert of Modernity presents architectural and urban projects that were developed in the 1950s and 1960s in North Africa and Western Europe against a background of colonial governance, anti-colonial struggles and trans-national migration. It tells the stories of the inhabitants, architects, colonial administrators and scientists who were involved in the controversy surrounding modernity and modernisation. In the Desert of Modernity examines the contradictions of colonial modernism as well as the forms of resistance to it — a process of negotiation and appropriation that continues to this day. Through close examination of exemplary architectural and urban projects In the Desert of Modernity reveals that North Africa and the Mediterranean region functioned as catalysts for European modernity, which is not inconceivable without colonialism. Key notions of post-war modern architecture are firmly rooted in the logics and perspectives of colonialism. Generally there seems to exist an ambivalent kinship between the emancipatory promises of the modernists and the domination systems of colonialism. Moreover, the architectural and urban projects for Casablanca and Algiers that offices like ATBAT Afrique conceived — in a laboratory-like condition — played not only an important role in colonial modernisation, but subsequently also provoked a postmodern critique of architecture in Western Europe and the USA. In the Desert of Modernity explores hitherto barely known reciprocal relationships. On the one hand, it investigates how models for mass housing (during the period of decolonisation) migrated to the peripheries of cities in France, Italy and England, as well as to Switzerland and Germany. The results were suburbs for hundreds of thousands of people that are more then familiar to us today. On the other hand, the project explores how the practice of living in North Africa in a period of anti-colonial liberation permanently challenged the certainties of technocratic planning held by Europe’s modernist architects. Colonial resettlement policies radically changed cities, modes of living and architectural discourse in North Africa and Europe. The exhibition vividly illustrates this historical development with architectural models, graphic designs, photographs and plans by Lázaro Abreu, Luis Álvarez, Arsac A., Ascoral des Jeunes, Jacques Belin, Victor Bodiansky, Georges Candilis, Casamémoire, Michel Écochard, Jesús Forjans, Pierre Emery, Jean Hentsch, Monique Hervo, Alexis Josic, Élie Kagan, Le Corbusier, Loïk Prat, Alfrédo Rostgaard, Roland Simounet, Alison and Peter Smithson, André Studer and Shadrach Woods, video documents from the Association les Engraineurs and the Atelier Archives Audiovisuelles BDIC, rarely seen films by Mario Marret and Jean Vidal, as well as with contemporary works by artist Kader Attia and Hassan Darsi, Simultaneously new works have been produced for the exhibition by the film-maker Mogniss Abdallah from Paris, the Labor k3000 media collective, and students of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and Delft University. The project is based on a trans-disciplinary research project under the responsibility of Marion von Osten (curator, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna), Tom Avermaete (theorist and historian of architecture, Delft University/Antwerp), Serhat Karakayali (sociologist, KanakAttak / the TRANSIT MIGRATION research group, Berlin) and Daniel Weiss (GTA Archiv, ETH Zurich), with the co-operation of scientists, artists and activists from Casablanca, Rabat, Zurich, Paris, Vienna and Berlin. The exhibition architecture and design is realised by Jesko Fezer, Andreas Müller and Anna Voswinckel. |
Poster l'architecture d'aujurd'hui, © Project team In the Desert of Modernity.
City hall from Rachidi street, Casablanca, Morocco, Photo; Milamber |
Rue de Rome, Casablanca, Morroco, Photo: Milamber. |
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