Curating the Urban Utopia of Fun

Authors

  • Maroš Krivý

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7480/footprint.5.1.735

Abstract

The article reviews the exhibition Dreamlands, staged in Centre Pompidou, Paris in summer 2010. The exhibition's main theme is described as urban 'utopia of fun'. In relation to this utopia, the article suggests a field of contradictory positions within which the presented exhibits can be distributed. Curating of the exhibition is discussed in the next step. The inability to bring forward and map these contradictory positions is analysed as a main shortcoming of the exhibition.

Author Biography

Maroš Krivý

Maroš Kriv. is currently finishing his PhD in Urban Studies at the University of Helsinki. In the thesis he discusses the political economy of transforming obsolete industrial space, focusing on the ambiguous role that art and the idea of ‘culture’ play in this transformation. He has been lecturing in urban studies and architecture theory at the University of Helsinki and the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn. Among his recent publications are ‘Speculative Redevelopment and Conservation: The Signifying Role of Architecture’ (City journal, 2011) and ‘Industrial Architecture and Negativity: the Aesthetics of Architecture in the Works of Gordon Matta-Clark, Robert Smithson and Bernd and Hilla Becher’ (Journal of Architecture, 2010). He presented his work at numerous conferences, most recently at the 8th AHRA Symposium at AA in London and at the Incidental Urbanism conference in Tallinn. Maroš also practices visual art. Recently, he had a solo exhibition New Coat of Paint at the Month of Photography 2011 in Krakow, Poland. He is the winner of sittcomm.award (2011).

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Published

2011-06-01

Issue

Issue # 8 | Spring 2011 | Defying the Avant-Garde Logic: Architecture, Populism, and Mass Culture

Section

Review article

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