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Book Reviews BOOK REVIEWS influence in the construction of the modern TheCarioca School and the Paulista School. architectonic discourse through the exhibi- Comas, guest curator to the exhibition, writes tions Latin American Architecture since 1945 about the similarities and differences of the (1955) and Brazil Builds (1943) setting the two groups of architects and planners that current exhibition at the same level of its pre- shaped Brazil into its modern suit. He intel- decessors, announcing the making of ongoing ligently analyzes them through architectural historiography: “An exhibition and publica- elements and purposes that lets the text tion that function as an ongoing laboratory disseminate and weave both schools inside for constructing new histories” (p. 15). the concepts. Foundation, rule, continuity, Barry Bergdoll’s “Learning from Latin divergence, balance and extension are the America: Public Space, Housing and Land- methods to evolution within the time-frame scape” excels by far the other texts in the of the life span of the modern architects and book. His last exhibition inside the institution their buildings. Latin America in Construction: had to amalgamate his academic DNa with The last individual essay is by Jorge Architecture 1955 - 1980 the precise coordinating skills that require Francisco Liernur, also guest curator, who the heavy machinery of professional research addresses a more contextual piece of writing. Edited by Barry Bergdoll, teams in more than ten countries in Latin He searches for a correlation between Carlos Eduardo Comas, America. It is a grand-finale that sets the bar architecture and new general conditions of Jorge Francisco Liernur, Patricio del Real high in terms of ambition, inventiveness and modernization. He worries and disseminates Publisher: The Museum of Modern Art an important conjuncture in a period that on the city as the platform where architec- (MoMa) can unite nations under one nostalgic sense ture is planted and embodies deeper and iSBN: 978-0-87070-963-0 of progress and equality (later depicted as greater problems that shape progress, critical- Language: English faux hopes of developmentalism, struggle ly concluding and thoroughly ambushing the Year: 2015 and regime). It also gives us the answer we utopian ideas of modernity with the rise of 53 – 2015/2 are all curious about: why 1955? Why 1980? capitalism’s pragmatism. Idea is dead. A large-format, heavy, hard cover book with Although the latter is not properly answered, Plates is the section of the book that can a well-known photograph by Guillermo starting in 1955 was a strategy to consider not better translate the physical panorama of Zamora of Enrique del Moral’s Mercado de la only the first results being built, but rather the exhibition to the support the editorial Merced on its cover is the way the exhibition docomomo them being debated. Stepping aside from intent. It reincarnates a modern-day-editori- Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955 the turmoil of conservatism and entering al-World Fair where pages serve as pavilions – 1980 gets shaped into a book. One could the conversation completely aware of the to showcase the power of construction and not expect different from the Museum of critique was a means to critique the critique how architecture shaped progress, cities and Modern Art, which is well known for having too. Bergdoll has a couple of statements that regions. The authors of the different plates the same format catalogs with tradition- make clear his conclusions i.e. “Latin America are part of the modern research network, al design and pristine images. Next to its as the new sources of not only forms, but docomomo’s usual suspects, great academic contemporaries (Henry Matisse; The Cutouts, attitudes” a diplomatic strategy when one eminences from each country depicted in the Design and Violence and Björk), Latin America has to amalgamate a complete history of exhibition that have devoted their lives to the Book Reviews in Construction’s physicality doesn’t speak loud modern architecture in so many different study of modern architecture. In each one’s enough to stand out. It is a more modest, nations and conditions. His text is an intense own style, but tracing a common structure to academic and introspective publication. and rich journey from economic models, to context the illustrations, the authors set fly The catalog opens withPortfolio a contem- political processes and even the evolution of to a general state-of-the-art panorama on the porary photo-essay by the multi-published technique making the reading interesting, not characteristics of each nation that make them São Paulo-based architectural photographer only to scholars of the topic, but to a general so special. Ordered alphabetically, Argentina Leonardo Finotti that separates an inch from audience that can relate to a rapid-growth heads the plates also chronologically, one of his commercial work and captures good period that shaped most of the cities we live the few nations that showcases its historicist frames that serve as homage to the great in. Leaving value judgments aside, Bergdoll architecture, fruit of the European heritage modern photographers that are about to manages to speak on a broad spectrum that in the region, a cosmopolitan Buenos Aires come to life in the next pages of the book. provokes new readings when weaving all the that shows glamour and economic progress This editorial decision comes across as a pieces and examples together. Although loose in a more traditional and aesthetic way. The bit strange. Why introduce a retrospective ends remain towards a present day history illustrations, although a very impressive gath- exhibition book with a photo-essay that, and the void between 1980 to 2015, it seems ering of material, lack “traditional” qualities rather than speaking of the present, somehow like that can be a story for another exhibition, looked for in modern material. The quality mimics the technique, ambience and compo- and another conceptual discourse. of the opening photograph of Ruth Verde sition that the primary sources are about to After the curator’s introduction, comes a Zein’s Brazil, for example, differs a mile from deliver? One can start to tell, even from here, loud voice that plants itself like a life-lesson. the Argentinian imagery. Brazil is represented a more naive introduction to the publication, “For better or for worse, Brazilian Modern with by-the-book modern history, opens with Brazil will be pictured as one of the modern Architecture has a story of its own, and it’s a Brazil Builds, stating just how important the favorites. long one”, writes Carlos Eduardo Comas pro- nation is in this piece of research. The chapter Glenn D. Lowry in his brief but concise fessional scholar of the discipline. Brazil was a shows a cohesive notion of modernism with foreword doesn’t miss mentioning MoMA’s modern beast, and it was fed by two schools: its glorified giants like the Pilot Plan for 90 01 Carlos Raúl Villanueva, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Aula Magna, 02 Oscar Niemeyer, Palácio do Itamaraty, Ministry of Foreign Relations, Brasília, Caracas, Venezuela, 1952-53. © Leonardo Finotti, 2014. Brazil, 1962. © Leonardo Finotti, 2007. 03–04 BERGDOLL, Barry, “Learning from Latin America: Public Space, Housing, and Landscape”, in Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955-1980, New York, MoMa, 2015. 53 – 2015/2 docomomo Book Reviews 05–06 COMAS, Carlos Eduardo, “The Poetics of Development: Notes on Two Brazilian Schools”, in Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955-1980, New York, MoMa, 2015. 91 Brasilia by Lucio Costa (1957). Both schools are depicted in the panorama, referencing the previous essay by Carlos Eduardo Comas. Brazil is a brutal architecture of power and diplomacy that can only be compared to the number of spreads given to Mexico. Even though these two countries have a parallel emancipating progress in architecture, Mex- ico shows a completely different panorama than Brazil. Louise Noelle managed to show- case a broader spectrum of typologies, styles and experimentations showing how imbri- cate and autochthonous Mexican culture is and how strongly it is engaged with architec- Le Corbusier. Mesures de L’ Homme Le Corbusier Le Grand ture. From State projects, to housing projects, skyscrapers, immigration, poetic Barragan, Coordinated by Olivier Cinqualbre Edited by Jean-Louis Cohen the cover picture by Guillermo Zamora, and Frédéric Migayrou and Tim Benton the 1968 Olympics and even stretching the Publisher: Centre Pompidou Publisher: Phaidon research to experimental Agustín Hernán- iSBN: EaN: 9782844266996 iSBN: 978-0-714-84668-2 dez, the illustrations and their text paint an Language: French Language: English effervescent panorama of the country. The Year: 2015 Year: 2008 Caribbean region sadly misses out import- ant research developed by scholars in the Commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Drawing on an array of archival material, region including Gustavo Luis Moré and Alex Le Corbusier’s death, the exhibition organized including sketches, photographs, and cor- Martínez Suárez. It would’ve been interesting at the Centre Pompidou invites to a reread respondences, Le Corbusier Le Grand depicts to see this tropical smaller, but very valuable of his work through the prism of the humane in roughly chronological order not only the modernity, juxtaposing with the rest of the figure, not only in its physicality, but also in vast and varied output of Le Corbusier, but nations. It is difficult to detail all the research the perceptive and spiritual dimensions. also the major events, people, and forces that 53 – 2015/2 in the Plates section, and also unfair to do it Conceived in 1943, the Modulor influences a shaped the life of an artist who continues to isolated from the exhibition. whole generation of architects. Even though, fascinate those in and outside the architec- Authors: Argentina — Silvio Plotquin, such a reflexion about an essential and tural world.
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