Scholarly record
FROM THEORETICIANS VIEWS ON THE SUBJECT OF MONUMENTALITY AND VISIONARY PROJECTS TO ARCHITECTURE OF THE SPECTACLE
Abstract
The current work takes the issue of views of theoreticians and visionaries of art and architecture relating to the category of the monumentality and monumental architecture, in which what is monumental reflects. These categories have always been specific phenomenon being particularly difficult to be analyzed. But when undertaken, historically and culturally specific episteme has been reflected in such analysis. Retrospection of different views presented in the work and formulated, inter alia, immediately after World War II hecatomb, in this case, quite contradictory, demonstrates the inability of their authors, particular in defining the essence of monumental architecture based on the convergence of their positions. Nevertheless, among the views of specific authors cited the position of Siegfried Giedion should be highlight, who in his opinion stressed the special relationship with the monumental architecture and ritual space. Unity of people, architectural form and symbols and of the urban center as the place of this unity are postulated by Siegfried Giedion; emphasis given to the correspondence that occurs between community, its experiences and performance-what he names the demonstration of social expression in space of the Centre all this leads us to the archetype of ritual space understood as this what constitutes the conceptual core of the monumental architecture. But then, Giedion, perceives the future of monumentality in relation to civic centers as places bound with festivity and consumption found as a new social form of organization. Architecture went this way achieving architectural spectacle. Visionary projects of Superstudio, Rem Koolhaas final diploma project and, at last, Land art works suggest another way in which monumentality may occur. The prospects for monumentality, in the opinion of the author, might be found in Superstudio denial of current form of consumption leading to reduction of the human need for artifact to symbolic objects either flags or talismans or monuments and may be correlated with social crisis situations.
Publication Impact Profile
Publication details
References20
J. Ockman with the collaboration of E. Eigen, Architecture Culture 1943-1968: A Documentary Anthology, Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia Books of Architecture, Rizzoli, New York, 1993.
“Nine points on Monumentality”, in: J. Ockman, Architecture Culture…, pp.29-30. “First published in S. Giedion, Architektur und Gemeinschaft, Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1956, pp.40-42, quoted after: [1], p.28.
“In Search of a New Monumentality. A Symposium by Gregor Paulsson, Henry-Russel Hitchcock, William Holford, Siegfried Giedion, Walter Gropius, Lucio Costa, Alfred Roth”, Architectural Review 105/621, London, September 1948, pp.117-128.
G. C. Argan, Introduction to the Italian translation of Konrad Wachsmann’s Wendepunkt im Bauen [1959], published as Una Svolta nella Costruizioni, Milano: Il Saggiatore, 1965, quoted after: [6], p.245.
C. Buckley, Graphic Apparatuses: Architecture, Media, and the Reinvention of Assembly 1956-1973. Volume 1, Doctoral Dissertation, Princeton University, November 2013, Source: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp013197xm17n. Access: 10.05.2017.
A. Natalini and C. Toraldo di Francia, “Dall’industria al technomorphismo”, Necropoli 6-7 (December 1969 - February 1970), p. 20, quoted after: [6], p.245, note 487. Source: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp013197xm17n. Access: 10.05.2017.
“Superstudio MoMa 1972 Exhibition. Italy: The New Domestic Landscape. Counter Design as Postulation”, MoMA, 1972, release no. 46, MOMA_1972_0053_46X.pdf, p.5. Source: https://www.moma.org/docs/press_archives/4824/releases/MOMA_1972_0053_46X.pdf. Access: 10.05.2017.
“Superstudio: Discorsi per imagini”, Domus No. 481, December 1969, pp.44-45, quoted after: [10], p.25.
M. T. Stauffer, “Utopian Reflections, Reflected Utopias. Urban Design by Archizoom and Superstudio”, in: AA Files, No. 47, London 2002, p.23-36.
Superstudio, “Lettera da Graz. Una mostra sul tema: Archittetura e Libertà. Trigon 69”, Domus 481, December 1969, p. 53, quoted after: [6], p.250.
Superstudio, “Deserti Naturali e Artificiali”, Casabella 358, November 1971, pp.18-22, quoted after: [6], p.249.
“Discussions with Heizer, Oppenheim, Smithson”, Avalanche, Number 1, fall 1970, pp.48-71.
H. Junker, “The New Sculpture. Getting Down to the Nitty Gritty”, Saturday Evening Post, 2 November 1968, p.42, quoted after: [17], p.236-237. Source: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape2/PQDD_0022/NQ52135.pdf. Access: 31.05.2016.
R. Morris, “Earthworks: Land Reclamation as Sculpture”, Exhibition catalogue. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum 1979, p.14, quoted after: [17], p.237. Source: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape2/PQDD_0022/NQ52135.pdf. Access: 31.05.2016.
I. Amizlev, LAND ART: LAYERS OF MEMORY. THE USE OF PREHISTORIC REFERENCES IN LAND ART, Doctoral Thesis, Université de Montréal-Département d’Anthropologie-Faculté des Arts et des Sciences, 1999, Source: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape2/PQDD_0022/NQ52135.pdf. Access: 31.05.2016.
R. Koolhaas, M. Vreisendorp, E. Zenghelis, Z. Zenghelis, “Exodus, or the voluntary prisoners of architecture”, Graduation Thesis, Architectural Association, London, 1972. Source: https://thewhiteslave.wordpress.com/2013/07/04/exodus-or-the-voluntary-prisoners-of-architecture/. Access: 01.05.2017.
A. Baldauf, “Shopping Town USA: Victor Gruen, the Cold War, and the Shopping Mall”, published 13 February 2008, Source: http://www.metamute.org/en/Shopping-Town-USA, Access: 05.12.2008.
M. Crawford, “The Architect and the Mall”, in You Are Here: The Jerde Partnership International by Frances Anderton with Ray Bradbury, Margaret Crawford, Norman M. Klein, and Craig Hodgetts, London: Phaidon Press Limited, 1999, pp.44-56.
H. Foster, “The ABCs of Contemporary Design”, OCTOBER No. 100, Spring 2002.
H. Foster, Design and Crime and Other Diatribes, London: Verso, 2002.
View or Download full articleAccess options
SWS access login
Login as SWS Scientific CommitteeLogin as SWS Scientific PartnerLogin as SWS AuthorAuthors and approved SWS contributors will read and export their own linked papers after identity matching by SWS profile, email and SGEM GlobalID.
For librarian assistance: [email protected]
Purchase Instant Access
- Article can be downloaded after successful payment.
- Article may be used according to SWS library access terms.
- Article cannot be redistributed.
