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My Body: The Heart of Loose thoughts about utopian buildings and artistic rooms by artistsI by Danièle Perrier Translation rev. ed.: Julia-Constance Dissel

In his work about architecture, When develops his the architect Vitruvius claims that Modulor the human the of man are ar- determines its dimensions as well. ranged by nature in such a way that As the name indicates, the Modulor four fingers are a handbreadth, four is a standardized cell unit allowing handbreadth a , six handbreadth a variable composition as further an , four the size of a human development of its Dom-Ino1. While being and a step and twenty-four the Dom-Ino was conceived as trans- handbreadth the size of a human portable house and should thus en- being. And his buildings incorporate sure its owner the opportunity of these measurements… (extract from maximum flexibility, the Modulor Leonardo’s comment on Vitruv). is a building unit from which dif- ferently shaped living units can be The relations between body and built which, in turn, can be inte- house are so manifold that it seems grated in big building units like the hardly possible to reduce them to a Unité d’Habitation in Marseilles. Le common denominator. The house Fig.1: , Proportion Pattern, Corbusier thereby dares to combine can be understood as architectonic Venedig Accademia standardization and individuality. structure with a certain volume ln our context, another factor of his creating living space in a particu- arms, he draws himself in a square, urban development visions seems to lar place. From this viewpoint, the if he spreads his legs and raises his be of importance. In housing estates house is a measurable unit whose arms, he forms a circle whose basis like the Unité d’Habitation not only erection is subject to certain crite- touches the basis of the square. living units of different size but also ria. In this connection, Leonardo’s shops, hairdressers, restaurants and scheme of proportions of the human For the Renaissance man striving for even hotels are integrated. Thus, the figure illustrating Vitruv’s theory of harmony, architecture is a mathe- estate is a town within the town and proportions on architecture seems matical science. Each Part of a build- ensures complete autonomy. In this apparent. The drawing above shows ing can be classified in a unified sys- respect the Unité d’Habitation can be how the human body, depending tem of mathematical relations whose compared with the Karl-Marx Hof on ist posture, can be drawn into a proportions reflect those of the hu- 1 The name Dom-Ino is a pun consisting of square or a circle or how the rela- man body. Literally, the human body the Latin word for house domus for house tion of these two geometric figures is the measure of all things, because and of Domino, a party game. Dom-Ino to each other depends on the respec- its proportions reflect the perfection was invented in 1914, it is composed of a standardized house skeleton of iron girders, tive posture of the human body. If of the world order determined by a ceilings and floors which can be arranged the human being stands on the floor superior force and thus become the next to each other or on top of each other in any combination and which are only on site with closed legs and stretches the arranging principle of all things. provided with facades.

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occupants in a certain way. ample, the architectonic framework virtually dictates the visitor’s con- The changes in architectonic condi- duct; in Double wedge Corridor with tions also correspond to a serious Mirror from 1970/74, the visitor en- change in the comprehension of ters a narrow, v-shaped corridor ta- the image of man. According to Le pering off towards the front with a Corbusier’s conception of the world, mirror of medium height at its end. the human being is a social creature The onlooker going into the corridor bound to harmonize his individual- is reduced to his own body due to ity with a social conduct. Also the the tapering shape of the corridor, relation to nature has changed: the which is intensified by the sound in- housing estates take into account Fig. 2.: Swiss Commemorative Coin showing sulation cutting him off against the the Modulor by Le Corbusier demographic expansion and try to outside room. On the other hand, ensure free development of nature the visitor is disconcerted about the erected by Karl Ehn in Vienna be- by putting housing estates on piles perception of the surrounding area, tween 1926 and 1930. This almost and allowing free circulation under- because in the mirror the visitor one kilometer long building consists neath the house. Even stylistically does not see the corridor in which of 1382 apartments and it provides they pinpoint new areas of attention he is but another corridor. Thus, in lots of community facilities – an by leaving the material raw. Exposed the mirror he sees an empty corri- estate designed as first town within concrete and rough stones are part dor or another onlooker with whom, a town. Both of them in their own of the repertoire of the brutalism however, he cannot communicate, way - Ehn and Le Corbusier - modify shaped by Le Corbusier. on the one hand, because the sound styles. Ehn puts into practice Adolf insulation swallows the sounds, on While Le Corbusier’s space stations Loos’ postulate of the absence of the other hand, because the picture are of visionary importance, tak- ornamentation within his project of the other person is replaced by ing care of nature and searching a which should be characteristic for the own picture by approaching the balance between the individual and the facades of the community build- end of the corridor. ings in Vienna until the 70ies of the the mass, many housing estates on 19th century. After the war Le Cor- the periphery of the cities reveal the ln this state of non-communication, busier as well is seeking a solution loss of any form of individuality, the other becomes a silent, mobile to give people comfort as quickly as the specificity of a place. Masses of sculpture. The self, however, is again possible. people live in these socially isolating and again reduced to itself to its be- housing conditions, thereby losing ing alone in a room of optical decep- With Le Corbusier as well as with any sense for individual forms of tion. Rage, a feeling of helplessness, Leonardo, architecture refers to the thinking, existence and taste. Con- claustrophobia or perception of the proportions of the human figure. ditioned in such a way, there are no inner self, everything is a question However, both the idea of architec- more hindrances to manipulation of the inner attitude and the ques- ture and the idea of the human be- and mass consummation. It is no tion whether this apparently useless ing have changed: architecture con- wonder that the prefabricated build- corridor makes sense for oneself. sists of pre-fabricated, standardized ings were that successful in the So- parts allowing an individual ar- viet Union. The rooms of the artist Absalon also rangement only in the composition deal with isolation. Completely of the modules and in the design Against this social backdrop, it is no white and without any furnishing, of the details. The flexible and mo- wonder again that the art works from they remind of the white room of bile module suggests independence the second half of the 20th century, Yves Klein in the house Lange in which is, however, restricted by the measuring the relation of space and Krefeld, a rectangular room with- fitting together of the individually body to each other, do not longer re- out any windows which is to allow cut living units to big estates and by flect the harmony on which Le Cor- the perception of mental abundance the pre-determined use of the space busier’s architecture was based. In by simple emptiness. While Yves conditioning the living space of the the case of Bruce Naumann, for ex- Klein’s room stays hidden between

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two other rooms, the living cells of Absalon look like bright, white, plastic bodies strongly standing out against the urban surroundings in which they are erected. Windows resembling firing slits allow an- ex change between inside and outside; their position above door height and underneath the roof does not allow direct communication with per- sons. From the inside, the outside world seems like a picture, a distant dream, unreachable. In contrast to Naumans corridors, Absalon’s cells are big enough that the artist can Fig. 3: Absalon, f. l. t. r.: Cellules No. 6/3/1/5/2 (Prototypes), 1992; live in them and, despite the narrow Exhibition view, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin cut, can unrestrictedly move. This is illustrated by his video tape Bataille locations in cities where the idea of Thus, Leonardo was also the force (combat): In an empty room, Absa- isolation was shown off. Later they behind Frederick Kiesler’s3 defini- lon is lashing out wildly as if com- were exhibited in museums, for ex- tion of the room which he describes bating the narrowness of the room. ample at the Kunst-Werke Berlin in as follows: “Room is only room 2010, where they - as concentrated for the person moving within this This reminds of Boris Vian’s novel sculptural agglomeration - espe- room.”4 Accordingly, there is only L’Ecume des jours (foam of the days) cially accentuate the artist’s archi- one way to optically describe the where the walls of the room are tectonic and structural affinity to experience of room; the movement pulling tighter around the young buildings of the 1930s. transforming to room. This concep- bride until she suffocates. Absa- tion of Kiesler can be seen in The lon shows the individuals’ combat Upon reflection of Leonardo’s draw- Endless House (see picture three) a against the hostile environment, ing, one component has so far not housing model, which he initially certainly also the struggle of surviv- been considered: movement. In this develops for the stage in 1924 and al of the aids patient against death. connection, in particular the move- which preoccupies him a lifetime. Under this premise, the clinically ment mechanism of the legs is inter- Endless does not mean striving for clean room seems like an insulating esting. The strict axiality of the pair the infinite like in Baroque archi- block allowing communication be- of legs standing firmly on the floor tecture and does not contain any tween healthy and sick people only of the square is broken by a slight thoughts of infinity, but endless as through a pane. The bright white turn to the right and by showing the conceived by Kiesler means a real is clinically clean and without any foot of the right leg in profile. In this system of room sequences return- sign of life. To use Absalon’s own way, the outer left leg can be related ing to themselves and permanently words; his cells are more mental to the right standing leg, and the left continuing as expression of con- than real rooms, thus expression of standing leg to the right, swinging the mental state and artistic realiza- leg; thereby, a movement process is 3 Frederick Kiesler was born in Vienna in 1890, where he met Wagner, Hoffmann and tion of his inner worlds. Within this suggested so that the figure walks Loos. He liked to count himself among the meaning, architecture does not only the circle. The circle becomes the third generation of avant-gardists. Among 2 his most important building projects are The construct the subjects , but it condi- room of the action, the human being Endless House which he arranged for the stage tions their conduct to each other and the builder of the room. The recipro- in 1924 and which he presented during the world exposition in Paris in 1934. He was the determines the form of communi- cal effect of the one on the other is first scene designer to substitute painted sets cation. When Absalon was still liv- triggered by the movement, which by video-projections. ing his cells were put up at central 4 Frederick Kiesler, in: Frederick Kiesler initiates a process of permanent Architekt 1890-1965, Allerheiligen Presse, 2 See Vitus H. Weh, Absalon, in: Kunstforum change. Innsbruck and Galerie Nächst Sankt Stephan Vol. 133, p. 390. Vienna, 1975, S.5.

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tinuing movement of the human ac- strives for a new harmonization tivity and the motor activity inher- between the arts. The arrangement ent to life. Such architecture can get of the Salle des superstitions (hall of its variety of forms only from the superstition), which he realizes on organic world, because it creates a invitation by Duchamp for the first cosmos intending to give protection surrealist exhibition in the Gallery and security to the occupant. Ac- Maeght in 1947 and which he cre- cordingly, the basic structure of the ates as a room “in which architec- endless house resembles the origi- ture, sculpture and painting have nal form of dwelling, the cave. In the the same share as continuum of the interior, oval cells develop, which arts shows what he thereby means.”5 are arranged in such a way that a flu- For this new form of co-operation of id co-ordination without connect- different artists, he coins the term ing passages is possible. Everything of magic architecture which roots in is defined by the planed use of the the entire human existence and op- rooms: room height, incidence of poses the superstition of functional light, color. A common room is two architecture. Fig. 4: Hermann Nitsch, architectural or three times as high and gener- drawing, 1982 The Orgien-Mysterien-Theater of Her- ously proportioned as a bed room or politics and the society and with the mann Nitsch also aims at the expe- a private room, because it is to pro- means used for the manipulation of rience of the human being in its en- mote social gathering. Secondary these pictures.6 rooms, however, are small and low. tirety. Within this synthesis of art, Also the incidence of light is harmo- heathenish rites blend with Chris- The body is not only a plan but also nized with the activities taking place tian symbols to a game of mysteries real place of the event. The person in a particular room. For common of Baroque dimension. The scene of laid out in state becomes a living rooms, Kiesler thinks of streaming the action is the real life; the place of place of sacrifice on which the en- light; in rooms where concentra- activity is the body. trails are exhibited like an oracle or tion is required, of a bundled source on which an entire lamb with the This can already be inferred from of light. A watch of colors bundling open body is sacrificed. Entrails the action sketches: they seem like the sunrays through a lens to spread and lamb become one with the indi- the plan of a labyrinth consisting them afterwards through a convex vidual lying underneath. The body of small chambers and rooms which glass in the rooms gives the inte- becomes flesh; by turning his core are connected by narrow corridors. rior color which, depending on the outside, he becomes vulnerable, sus- On strategic positions, the cells are intensity of the sun, changes on an ceptible and open to grief and lust. organic, sometimes filled with en- hourly basis. Thus, the occupant gets In other words: he literally lives “out trails or designated with a cross from a sense for the course of the day. of the stomach “, that means: Fol- which arteries are radiating (The con- lowing the inner knowledge, he ex- quest of Jerusalem, 1971). It is the seat It goes without saying that the End- poses himself to life to transcend life of the shrine in which life and death less House based on the laws of bio- through what can be experienced. organics of man is built from the exist side by side. The plan with its interior. Accordingly, the outer shell winding corridors is underground. Here and with Kiesler, an endless construction is characterized by the lt shows the way to the unconscious. movement develops; a permanent inner structure of the house and Unlike with Acconci, it is the seat of back and forth between the deter- thus looks like connected parts of our instincts, the shrine of our deep- mining inside and the experiencing organs where more or less spacious est feelings and desires. “The town outside. Impressions of vision and is in ourselves” - this was the motto “cut openings”—the windows—al- 6 Characteristic is the work American Gift, a low to look inside. of Acconci’s exhibition in Vienna in mobile stereo box in which one can sit down which he deals with the inner pic- and which can be set up anywhere in Europe. The same way Kiesler tries to har- tures which the individual gets from The voice suggests to the Europeans that they do not have to think but that they shall only monize life and architecture, he also 5 Frederick Kiesler, op. cit. p. 58. listen to the voice from America.

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hearing, of feeling what one sees the fragment of the body seems like is presented as having died, not as and hears, of comfort and discom- a foreign body, a relic from the past being dead. lt has entered another fort are engraved and cause perma- which is preserved as curio because form of life which is understood as nently new perceptions. The body is it is so rare. But even in the hiding continuum of this world. Referred the shrine of life, centre of mystic- of the Brillo Box, the presence of the to art, this means: “The artist is dead, orgiastic experiences. relic can stand its ground. long live the artist!” This does not refer to the monarchy where the old Following tradition, the shrine is the The shrine and the meat preserved monarch abdicates and his succes- smallest dwelling for body particles therein refers to the immanence of sor is paid honor, but it means the of saints. Accordingly, its outside life also beyond death. This is the continuance of the aura in the work 8 is lavishly equipped. ln the Middle only way to understand The Tomb . In beyond physical death. Ages, the shrine often takes the the interior of a pyramid lies a life- form of the preserved relic, becomes size replica of wax of Thek stretched Only rarely does the building of arm, foot or head of the worshipped. on the floor. Next to the dead body, a house manifest the intention of Paul Thek follows this tradition with some cult objects. The two cut off a sculptor to make art, even more the series of “Technological Rel- fingers of his right hand hang os- rarely does its permanent alteration iquiaries”. Under the impression of tentatiously on the wall. Also the of the outside and inside become Capuchin catacombs near Palermo blue-colored tongue refers to a vio- a material component of the plas- where the well maintained dead bod- lent death. The cause remains un- tic creation. The Frenchman Jean- ies “decorate the walls like blooms”, clear; has the artist cut off the fin- Pierre Raynaud dedicates twenty Paul Thek produces Meat Pieces gers to punish himself in a lunatic years to the building and rebuild- which are presented in remarkably gesture like van Gogh, or is he victim ing of his own dwelling. lt becomes arranged acrylic glass boxes. The el- of his curiosity like in Umberto Ecos a permanent experimental , an egant forms of the minimal shrines novel The Name of the Rose? Nobody ontic adventure to find his own hu- are in contrast to their content, hy- knows it, even less the visitor of the man and artistic identities. When per-realistic meat pieces which in tomb who looks at the dead body Jean-Pierre Raynaud begins to build contrast to the medieval ancestors in a lonesome confrontation. Al- his Maison in 1969, he has already cannot be referred to someone par- exander Braun9 writes: “The dialog built several models in the course of ticular. These amorphous pieces of in The Tomb takes place on a largely his psycho objects. raw meat consisting of wax do not equal recipient-work-level, quasi of even remind of a particular part of entire corporeality to entire corpo- As the title of this group of works the body. In Meat Piece with Warhol reality [an element connecting the indicates, the objects paint a mental Brillo Box,7 Warhol’s cult object of work of Thek with those of Nitsch]. picture of the artist, his fears, the Pop Art is degraded to a showcase. …The scenario is determined by a growing need for protection aris- Only the top side displays the fa- pink-colored atmosphere which not ing from it through violent defense mous writing, as if one looked into only derives from the paint of the or insulation. ln connection with it from below. The meat piece in the pyramid but also from the particular Psycho-Object. Maison of 1963, Jean- showcase resembles a cut through type of illumination. Together with Pierre Raynaud speaks of a house blood vessels as we know them from the work, the onlooker is caught in which as original of La Maison was anatomical books. lt is not dead mat- a special color-room-continuum… tailored to the dimension of a life, ter but living flesh accusing the cul- The specific color has spread to the his life, that means of a serious de- ture of Pop Art which intentionally dead body and its clothes. Body and cision, a definitive commitment fails to see the creativity in the hu- surrounding area blend with each which completely absorbed him and 10 man being. In this trendy Reliquiar, other and become [together with the left only few loopholes. The visitor 7 Paul Thek, Meat Pieces with Warhol Brillo recipient] part of a common con- 10 The exact quotation is as follows: La Box, series Technical Reliquiaries, 1965, maison était comme la maison (qu’elle wax, silk-screen printing on acrylic glass, sciousness.” This way, the dead body préfugerait) à la dimension d’une vie, de 35.5x43x43cm, Philadelphia Museum 8 Paul Thek, The Tomb, 1967, wood, wax figure, ma vie, c’est-à-dire une décision grave, of Art, illustrated in: Alexander Braun, 295x320x320cm, installation Stabble Gallery, un engagement définitif, un choix qui Die wunderbare Welt des Paul Thek, in: New York, illustrated in: Kunstforum, op. m’implicait totalement et dont les portes de Kunstforum International, Die Zukunft des cit. , p. 237. sortie étaient et sont encore actuellement Körpers I, Vol. 132, Nov.-Jan. 1996, p.232. 9 Op. cit. p.238. rares. 1986, Interview by Maiten Bouisset, in:

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can enter this first house, although khaki completes the impression of a with its reanimation. An antique the loud, red paint of the facade and shelter which is additionally delim- vase and some own flower pots are a sign with a pair of scissors and the ited by a barbed wire from the neigh- put in the foundation walls, to re- writing ”interdit” (forbidden) warns boring fields. It offers Jean-Pierre fill the house with human presence him from entering. Once the door Raynaud protection and security in the sense of its historical devel- is closed, all senses are bombarded: against any form of influence and opment. Jean-Pierre Raynaud has by flashily blinking light signals, by means at the same time complete taken roots. The house has fulfilled a gas tap on the ceiling from which isolation. Death becomes the central its duty and can now be demol- Formol is escaping, by the sound of topic and determines the character ished. What remains are the Pierres a motor on the ceiling, by prepared of the rooms; the bed room—so far a archéologiques—broken pieces of meals. The explosive aggressive- sick-room—becomes a death cham- the walls of glazed tiles which have ness in Psycho-Object. Maison which ber. In the music chamber which been removed repeatedly—the sin- receives the other as intruder cor- resembles a sound insulated studio gle traces of his arduous search for responds in Psycho-Objet 72. Autopor- one year a single record is played: his identity. They are the memory trait to a hermetically reserved con- Mozart’s Requiem. Clinically clean, of a place, the trace of his personal duct, because Jean-Pierre Raynaud’s dehumanized, without any sign story, souvenirs of his artistic de- Autoportrait is nothing else than a of life, let alone individuality, the velopment. Movement and continu- white coffin with one hatch instead house has reached the zero point ity here do not designate a back and of the head and four smaller hatches (espace zéro). Like in the case of Ab- forth in the meaning of the Endless on the narrow side next to the feet. salon, its purpose is to find a form of House, but the movement has a lin- survival. ear orientation forward and is a pro- The jump from object to architec- gression in time. ture is the logical consequence of his work which wants to expand to the room, a wish which has already With her works the American artist manifested itself in his first instal- Andrea Zittel combines sculpture, lation of three hundred red painted architecture and industrial design. flowerpots filled with concrete for Her works can be associated with the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf. The de- most of the mentioned artists. Zit- sire for Width is diametrically op- tel’s Living Units which she developed posed to the claustrophobic narrow- in the 1990s can be compared to Ab- ness in which Jean-Pierre Raynaud salon since they as well constitute locks himself. habitable sculptures which are ex- hibited in nature as well as in galler- From this situation, the permanent ies. Like with Absalon they are pro- rebuilding understands itself as ca- totypes, ideal living space in the nar- tharsis to identify oneself. He start- rowest of spaces. But, while Absalon ed in 1969, in the following year the Fig. 5: Jean-Pierre Raynaud, La Maison, 1986 is creating his white cells because interior is laid out with anonymous, In the following year, a process of of his need for motion and just for white glazed tiles of 15 x 15 cm, in- dehumanization and revitalization himself, Zittel produces living units cluding ceilings, excluding the floor. of the house begins; it is repainted out of industrially produced mate- In 1972, the openings are gradually white and gradually opens again. rial for others. Her works are mass walled up until only a firing slit of Light penetrates and behind the productions – what is indicated by five meters and sixty centimeters in bars, continuing the pattern of the the name of her “label” “A-Z Admin- length allows communicating with tiles in the windows, nature displays istrative Systems. Like already Adolf the outside world. A crypt develops colored atmosphere in strict white. Loos had planned it partly, the inte- whose access is denied by bars. In New axes, other room proportions rior design (room organisation and 1974, the paint of the outside walls in and the extension of a tower and a placing of furniture) are due to the architecture; within the Living Units Glasyd C. Fabre/Georges Duby, Jean-Pierre further tract confer upon it sacred Raynaud , Paris 1986, p. 128 et. seq. character which goes hand in hand every detail of the interior design

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is functionally equipped. Designed er of his own identity, Guillaume Bijl and tells a legend which is as ficti- with noble material – a further anal- from Belgium builds with Johannes tious as Bijl’s alleged biography of ogy with Loos – they form a hollow Vogl Sterbezimmer11 a fictitious com- Johannes Vogl. Kagel commissions sculpture which by its rationality is poser’s identity. The spacious room contemporary artists to furnish the determining the actions of the resi- constitutes a music chamber which, house of Beethoven: Joseph Beuys, dents in an authoritarian manner. apart from the baby grand piano, is Dieter Roth and Stefan Wewerka. Nevertheless, it’s about the principle very sparsely furnished: a narrow While Kagel deals with the topic in “My home is my castle” and in this Biedermeier bed with a green velvet a parodistic manner, Bijl plays with respect Zittel wants residents to cus- cover, two chairs around a table, a irritation causing false pretences in tomize and adopt the space to their chair with a side table. On the ceil- relation to reality. In this connec- needs. So the ready made houses are ing hangs a heavy chandelier, on tion, his room can be compared to tailored in detail. The Travel Trailers – the walls numerous paintings from Broodthaers Musée des Aigles which a mobile home – allow for a change the 19th century, the small ones ar- also exhibits a fictitious collection. in space and a transition of resi- ranged around the big ones. On the dence as required, the lake-floating floor consisting of wooden battens The Atelier Van Lieshout postulates residential islands are permanently three Oriental carpets of different the autarchy of art and its freedom adapted to the needs of the tempo- size. Apart from some bric-a-brac by creating housing and useful rary resident. A-Z-Enterprise is locat- on the tables, no trace of any life. The spaces out of sculptures, by instal- ed in Joshua Tree in the California room is meticulously arranged as it lations, performances and urban desert. It is her home and her field is usual for a museum, and also the architectural complexes; they deal of experimentation as well, a place indispensable cord denying access with power relations, politics and where she explores all aspects of to the room is not missing. As criti- sex. AVL-Ville (Atelier Van Lieshout- daily life driven by the need to bet- cal contribution to the Mozart year, Ville) – a city within a city with its ter understand human nature, man’s Bijl reconstructs a room as there own rights – is the first independent social constructs and necessities. In are so many everywhere around complex built by Lieshout which has a certain way Zittel – just like Jean- the world: Because every town has as its prior principle the absolute Pierre Raynaud – tries to realize liv- a foreign inhabitant who is used as freedom of art. The residents strict- ing conditions, but not to cloister figurehead to attract tourists inter- ly have to follow the rules. Who ever herself away but to harmonize with ested in culture. They are only dif- defies the rules has to go. But infinite the living conditions determined by ferent in detail; generally they are all freedom of the arts can also lead to the outside. conventional in the same way. The totalitarian solutions like with Slave authentic arrangement of the furni- City, a totally elaborated and fascis- “Tell me how you live and I will tell ture is frequently completely disre- tic urban structure within which you who you are”. Nothing else re- garded because the use as a room of the individual is being classified by flects so precisely the personality visitation is in the foreground. Also the principle of most efficient pro- of the human being than life style; everything which would be the per- ductivity. People who are too old or cave, pile dwelling, hut, chalet, villa, sonal note has long been removed, dumb to be efficient are recycled, for cell of a monk or palace, the dwell- has been taken as souvenir by rela- example they are worked into meat. ing and its equipment say a lot about tives or has been thrown away. Little This horror scenario bitterly satiriz- culture, habits and needs of repre- is shown, much is told, also a lot of es the methods of the Nazi-Regime sentation. Size, equipment, choice wrong facts; what counts is that it and consequently developed ecolog- of the materials, design of the furni- sounds attractive. Mauricio Kagel’s ical systems as well. In a certain way ture, and finally bric-a-brac of any Film Ludwig van... , his contribution AVL shows us what the “dictatorship kind or the absence thereof describe to the Beethoven year, also under- of art” as it is posited by Jonathan the personality of the occupant. stands itself as satire against cul- Meese can possibly bring about. They unmask the “self” in its intima- tural tourism. In contrast to Bijl, Unlike the mentioned artists AVL cy; speak of wishes and desires, of Kagel directly refers to Beethoven need for recognition and of comfort. does not restrict to one specific 11 Guilliaume Bijl, Johannes Vogl Sterbezimmer, outlook on life, but analyzes differ- 1991, Museum of Modern Art, Ludwig While Jean-Pierre Raynaud is build- Foundation Vienna. ent models of life. Its architectural

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sculptures formed like guts and a has already been mentioned, is that 1987-CHF-5-obverse.png Fig. 3: Absalon, Exhibition view KW Institute womb are three-dimensional or- of a cruciform church whereby the for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 28th Nov. ganic systems. Under the protection cross structures the inner living area 2010 – 6th March 2011, Installation view KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2010, Foto: of this funny display of guts, which and workspace. Here, the idea of Uwe Walter, 2010. offer sleeping facilities or bars in- productivity which was extremely Fig.4: Hermann Nitsch, architectural side, man can retreat. “Forward to elaborated in Slave City reverberates. drawing, 1982, © Atelier Hermann Nitsch. Fig. 5: Jean-Pierre Raynaul, La Maison, 1986, the past” could be a description for © VG Bild-Kunst Bonn. the New Tribal Labyrinth Serie,which While the utopian room analyses is about concepts trying to explain potential forms of the use of rooms how humanity reaching the end of and the relation of the human body the consumer society can get along to the room is organic, the fictitious with reduced resources. From the room deals with the manner the hu- outside the Hagioscoop reminds of man being describes itself through African huts which just like farm- it. The mythologies of the ones set houses, stables and studios shall out on the way of knowledge, the make self-supply of ethnic groups mystification of the others leads to possible. Not only the name Hagio- the disclosure of the arduously cre- scoop, which comes from the Greek ated appearances. In the case of the word hàgios standing for holy and utopists, the relation between room scopein standing for seeing and and body is set in the area of the which therefore hints at a wall aper- physis, sometimes also in the area ture granting a look from the outside of the organism, in the case of the to the inside, makes us think about representatives of fictitious reali- the new living units as churches, ties, the room is fully equipped, it is even the cross shaped complex can living room, private room or muse- be associated with this – just as if um—and the relation to the human the ritual is re-established within being applies to its appearance. In the reawakened social structures as both cases, man is the measure of all well. It strikes out that AVL draws things. It is only a matter of position. on African design and not on Eu- I: This article is a revised and expanded edi- ropean. This is not only due to the tion. The original article was first published name of the building Year Zero mark- in the catalogue La casa, il corpo, il cuore. ing a new beginning like “Ground Konstruktionen der Identitäten. Museum Zero”, but also it fits into the concept Moderner Kunst, Stiftung Ludwig Wien, S. 115-128, 1999. of the global world that is not only oriented towards Europe but also References: obliged to the idea of cosmopolitan- Weh, Vitus H., Absalon, in: Kunstforum International Vol. 133, 1996. ism. The new interest in Africa can Kiesler, Frederick, in: Frederick Kiesler perhaps be compared to Christoph Architekt 1890-1965, Allerheiligen Presse, Innsbruck and Galerie Nächst Sankt Stephan Schlingensief’s idea to build an op- Vienna, 1975. era in Ouagadougou. Both of them Braun, Alexander: Die wunderbare Welt des Paul Thek, in: Kunstforum International, Vol. work towards the encounter of two 132, Nov.-Jan. 1996. cultures within an open dialog. It’s Glasyd C. Fabre/ Georges Duby, Jean-Pierre not about forcing the own culture Raynaud, Paris 1986. upon others but about the enrich- Sources of Figures: ment of one another. AVL achieves Fig.1: Leonardo da Vinci, Proportion Pattern, Venedig Accademia; http://commons. this by the use of hand crafted ma- wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Vitruvian.jpg terial which reminds us of African Fig. 2: Swiss Commemorative Coin, Modulor by Le Corbusier; http://commons.wikimedia. huts, not by the form itself, which as org/wiki/File:Swiss-Commemorative-Coin-

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