GILSANZ — GUTIÉRREZ — PARRA
1
black mountain college: an irresistible agenda
Sometimes it is not necessary to know where you are going, and just know where you don’t want to go. This possibility of not having a clear objective – more than that of resisting conventions or well-known paths – has been little explored in Keywords architecture history. This text shows us Resistance one of those strange cases, the Black Education Mountain College, an architecture school Community that, after too much resistance, ended Autonomy Essay almost in oblivion, without much descent.
esistance is a polysemic word whose meanings dis- R pute morality and science, psychoanalysis and politics, mechanics and electricity, philosophy and architecture. They are invoked by the ascetic and the researcher, the insubordinate and the engineer, each in their own environ- ment. The dove flies in the air, not in a vacuum, says Kant (2005), because air opposes its flight, as tangible reality opposes pure thought. Action and reaction, power and 114 resistance are, respectively, forces and capacities that make anz anz Universidad de Alicante, España a Profesora asociada, A n G i l s D í az a Universidad de Alicante, España ría Profesora titular, M a El i G u tiérrez tiérrez were once dealt with by Black Mountain College ( College Mountain Black by with dealt once were them between up open that possibilities the and touched, be can or are extremes these How down. knocked be to not as so away carried be oneself letting in consisting mid-term, term one, there could be another of a collaborative root, long- and resilient apassive, and instantaneous, is which down, brought being to –resistance activist –or active the Between resistance. of poles two the therefore, are, defense and Opposition it.” against oneself defend and something aforementioned says] Dictionary the action or violence of [the “To oppose resistance: of concept the in subsumed are virtue, moral the and impetus physical the is which virtus word Latin the of cross the and face the hand, other the On practice. into it puts who person the of itself body the by beginning circumstances, external to in give not to it: in quality aheroic is There dignity. of exercise the with emphasizes the dimension edifying that resistance connects o front of something. in stand to stop, to is resist to literally, is, that position”), sistere verb the and again”) origin, the resistere term, the of etymology Latin the vain in Not reciprocity. their in sense Joseph Hudnut challenges – among others, Columbia and with Harvard reacted to the moment’s socioeconomic and technological architecture (Ockman, schools 2012),American which thus with an environment of unusual pedagogical renewal in the coincides life of decade first its although And, (Cuff,1991). education architect’s the of axes as design on emphasis its and culture workshop the of outside irresistible an as school, BM –the teachings polytechnic and Beaux-Arts of models instrumental apparatus and legitimization of the inheriting the to externalities critical as understood –today practices its of capacity instituting the for and search, to eagerness its contingent,2 nostalgia, for others are reflectionstimuli. Celebrated for its to incentives are some for What schools. two the between locus college’s new the would participate in that trajectories transfer that defined Bauhaus – and of its kaleidoscopic formulations American – initiatives. its of many be projected to the BM the to projected be to founder Bauhaus the of shadow long the motivated Gropius Walter with friendship whose Albers, Anni and Josef of those known, is as are, together episodes both various professional and personal itineraries that sewn the same time, susceptible of comparison. Among the at but, terms, historical in incomparable are proposals continued that of its predecessor. German Its pedagogical which activity of years 24 after 1957, in dissolve would project educational its and center the Berlin, in closed ffers itself, precisely because it was never an architecture architecture an never was it because precisely itself, ffers Dictionary of the Dictionary Spanish Language first The Created in 1933, the same year that the Bauhaus Bauhaus the that year same the 1933, in Created M ephemeral and voluntarily fragile activity, for o zo 3 (Moran, 2009), the University of Southern , is composed of the prefix re prefix the of composed , is 1 Other illustrious architects of the , resulting in the concomitances C rra rra Universidad de Alicante, España Profesor contratado, José , supporting through Harvard through Harvard supporting P a (“to stop, stand, take take stand, stop, (“to M a rtínez (1739) (1739) (“back to to (“back BM C ) . C ,
S Carolina ( North of Archives State Archives, Western Regional /Source Fuente 1940-41. construction site, campus Eden Lake new the on work to Hall Lee E. Robert the from students heading off Program Work of /Group 1940-41. Eden, Lake de campus nuevo del obras las en trabajar para Hall Lee E. Robert del Program de rupo estudiantes del Work 1
ANC G ). partiendo partiendo WR A / : 115 ARQ 105 — SANTIAGO, CHILE California with Arthur C. Weatherhead (Howell-Ardilla, 2010) or the MIT with William Wurster (Dutta, 2013) – the BMC unfolded its transgressive agenda without the institutional umbrella provided by these universities (authentic scientific, intellectual and moral references of the country), approaching, in its experience of coexistence, more to the spirit of a self-sufficient reformist community (also with a long tradition in North America) than to any of the previous ones. This is why its pedagogies and dissident ways
2 of life are as inspiring as its vulnerability and resilience in the face of continuous threats, from normalization, political and
GILSANZ — GUTIÉRREZ — PARRA cultural, to the vigilance to which it was subjected during the ideological paroxysm of McCarthyism.
2 Lee Hall, actualmente “Democracy in Action” denominado Eureka Hall, Under this suggestive title, an article by John Evarts fue la primera sede del BMC (1933-1941). El edifico was published in the July 1941 issue of California Arts forma parte del complejo and Architecture in which he presented the BMC as an del Blue Ridge Assembly, attractive community educational project in the Blue Ridge Black Mountain, Carolina del Norte. / Lee Hall, Mountains, North Carolina. Written eight years after its currently named Eureka foundation, the report emphasized the pioneering character Hall, was the BMC’s first of the center and its proposal based on democracy, freedom, headquarters (1933-1941). The building is part of and autonomy for its students. The text was illustrated the Blue Ridge Assembly with images from its Work Program, where the collective complex, Black Mountain, of teachers and students put into practice the oldest and North Carolina. © Gilsanz, Gutiérrez, most recognizable understanding of architecture: the Parra, 2016 construction work (of the campus buildings). The chronicle of Evarts, a music teacher very committed to the project and its funding, was clearly promotional: he was looking for followers. It was not by chance either that the magazine stated that just a year before John Entenza had acquired – and was still pursuing, just like the BMC – alliances to sustain his notoriety. The entry of the BMC into the editorial and artistic circuits of North American modernity, its participation in exhibitions such as the ones MoMA dedicated to its most famous members,4 or the open days to attract potential investors, were part of a communication strategy showing the College as the country’s most advanced independent arts education institution. Cultural prestige and a revolutionary aura had characterized the BMC since its inception when, led by John Andrew Rice and accompanied by the tutelary figure of Ted Dreier, a group of professors expelled from Rollins College for their atypical teaching methods agreed to move to Asheville to continue their activity, free of any doctrinal restriction. With this aspiration, they founded a new liberal arts center destined to promote several events from theater, dance, performance, music, poetry, and parties, to architecture (Gilsanz-Díaz, 2017). Undoubtedly, fame preceded many of its teachers, who were related to the fields of arts and architecture, and science and humanities.5 Contemplated from the posthumous condition of our neoliberal present, in which it seems that everything ends (Garcés, 2017), the BMC’s images and stories excite the imagination discovering a stimulating learning scenario where everything was to be done. Words like freedom (Lane, 1990; Rumaker, 2003), community (Duberman, 2009), art (Harris, 2002; Katz, 2002), experimentation (Díaz, 116 2015; Blume et al, 2015) or modernity (Molesworth and 3 Er Blanchot’s terms.” other, in the common in headquarters, being shared, to use common“The only develops through the other and by the of the individual, but something that is never completed: expansion amere not is common the that stating explains, well (2011:1) Borja-Villel Manuel as spaces, both of margin atthe emerged have would private, the and public the of a new institutionality, beyond between distinguishing of aligned inmultiplicity the singularities, construction oriented to the composition of a common world. This atmosphere (Stengers, 2014) of heterogeneous realities environment, prefiguring, to some extent, a cosmopolitan natural and academic idyllic an to linked coexistence convictions as an example of instruction, creation, and political its and adventure pedagogical its explain to used its closure, the BM the closure, its to success its owed Bauhaus the If posterity. for institution the mark would resistance impossible whose antiheroes BM the myth, aheroic is Bauhaus the If moments. final its in even first-hand, program its of risks the all assumed school the staff, teaching the of property and assembly management, or in the fact that, by being the reflected, for example, instructure its of self-government capable of recomposing other common This presents. was experimenting through oneself to form subjectivities BM the conflicts, own its resisting and contrast In foundation.” its since Vorkurs the in defended had Itten Johannes that idealism of trace any of rid getting and pragmatism technical and (2019:68) points out, “rationalism, functionalism, objectivity Mesa Miguel as embracing, up end to contradictions its violence, the institution led by Gropius soon got rid of several confrontations not exempt from treason or after that remembered be should –it 2006) Danilowitz, and Horowitz 1999; Kentgens-Craig, 1972; Ellert, 1971; (Schawinsky, and participants workshops, methodologies, BM the with parallels certain shares – which Bauhaus the was that teaching architectural and artistic of Faced with the apparently untouchable modern paradigm Field Political a as Experimentation Activism: and Dissidence ickson, 2015) are some of the attributes most frequently frequently most attributes the of some are 2015) ickson, 4 C n C i ever divested itself of its first principles: first its of itself divested ever ntended to be, from the beginning, beginning, the from be, to ntended C i s a legend of of s alegend C i n its n its Carolina ( North of Archives State Archives, Western Regional /Source Fuente Albers. Anni Albers, Josef Gregory, “Molly” Mary Gropius, Walter (sentada), árbol), Nancy Newhall el (en Varda Jean Gropius, Ise Lawrence, Newhall, Gwendolyn Nora Lionni, Beaumont Ted Dreier, Lionni, Jacob Lawrence, Leo right to left /From derecha a Izquierda 1946 of summer Teaching staff during the en docente uerpo / 1946. de verano el 3 Carolina ( North of Archives State Archives, Western Regional /Source Fuente same summer. horse they built that Troy the in Varda Jean with students of Group / verano. mismo ese realizaron Troya que de caballo el en Varda Jean estudiantes junto a 4
C G rupo de de rupo : Leo Amino, Amino, : Leo W W RA RA / / . SANC SANC : : 117
). ). ARQ 105 — SANTIAGO, CHILE what it could not be and, therefore, the enthusiasm of its contemporary readings is due, in large part, to its impossibility. “It could not be,” could work perhaps as a good epitaph to label its inscription in the pantheon of modern myths. Activism was another of its cover letters. For example, in promoting solidarity action to raise funds in support of the Republican side in the Spanish civil war.6 Assuming the ideological commitment and all its uncertainties to its ultimate consequences, so as not to empty its proposal of political capacity – that is, its conscious decision not
GILSANZ — GUTIÉRREZ — PARRA to remove the conflict and the precariousness of its activities – destabilized the BMC’s agenda, but made it more relevant and also more exciting. Their resistance to uniformity was manifested not only in the radicality of their pedagogies, but especially in their alterity: inclusion and openness to women – despite the little recognition that historiography has given them (Gilsanz-Díaz y Blanco, 2018) – other sexual orientations, nationalities,7 political exiles,8 races,9 and social classes reflect their foundation in personal freedom against any axis of oppression, such as the implacable laws of racial segregation of the time. The dissent of the BMC regarding regulated academic modes and programs, its situation “outside the mainstream architectural institutions” (Moran, 2012:387), the controversial profile of some of its teachers, such as the anthropologist Paul Radin, the poet Charles Olson 5 Escena de The Danse Macabre: A Sociological or Buckminster Fuller, suspicions of embezzlement of Study dirigido por Xanti state aid for veterans to study in it, and the isolation of its Schawinsky, 1938. / Scene geographical enclave led the FBI to view the college as a from The Danse Macabre: A Sociological Study directed philo-Communist institution during the Second Red Scare by Xanti Schawinsky, 1938. (1947-57), and a threat to national security, keeping it under Fuente / Source: Western close surveillance and even infiltrating an agent.10 Regional Archives, State Archives of North Carolina (WRA/SANC). Manage Precariousness The BMC organization was based on a self-managed 6 La vida en BMC, baile un sábado por la noche en structure not strictly democratic but with a democratic el Dining Hall, Lake Eden spirit (Bojesen, 2012), whose operation required an Campus, c. 1945. / Life in absolute commitment to the cause. This implied that the BMC, Saturday night dance in the Dining Hall, teachers, men and women, moved with their families to Lake Eden Campus, c. 1945. the college. This condition generated a continuous flow Fuente / Source: Western of visitors who temporarily joined the center to teach Regional Archives, State Archives of North their courses. But, by being a transit place, the institution Carolina (WRA/SANC). was certainly unstable, both for teachers and students.
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6 7 But, despite this search for mutual recognition as a form of of aform as recognition mutual for search this despite But, orbits. cultural its and MoMA of interest the arouse thus, and, work latest their York New publicize to to traveled center’s main values. With this objective they frequently the as freedom of environment and talent their publicizing newcomer, everyone contributed to promoting the college, last the to Albers Josef from that, so pressing, more even became members new for search war, the the during down went numbers student the Because farm. and campus Eden Lake the on available land the cultivate to seeds musical construction instruments, materials, and even organize summer seminars, working buy books, tools, tuition income, the BM insufficient With students. new potential persuading included which subsistence, their ensure to mobilize to had also students financing; of means other provide would expand their payroll, contacting potential donors who to travel to had staff teaching the so remuneration, financial guaranteed barely staff the of conditions background of evident precariousness. The contractual (themselves) collectively was articulated against a causing disputes. and other each opposing often 2019), (Scott, it of notions or, different of rather, freedom their of expression an as classroom, the outside and inside exercises, exploration self- and Two-way learning Cunningham. Merce of choreographies the or Cage, John of happenings and Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic domes; the compositions with –tests demonstrated –previously well-known the dance; and theater, poetry, of explorations Olson’s Charles workshops; architecture Kocher’s Lawrence Studies; Stage or color lessons; Xanti Schawinsky’s theater laboratory matière drawing, Albers’ Josef of others, among case, the is 2017). This (Gilsanz-Díaz, experimental and experiential the approaching of ways open –as failure dramatizing I ( t – questions before answers, search before investigation results, before processes in is, that inquiry: personal and criticism of potential emancipatory the on based program educational an of magnetism the for and staff teaching irresistible. Both for the charismatic personalities of its 2018) recalls. nsecurity assumed from imagination and chance –de- chance and imagination from assumed nsecurity he Search versus Research by Josef Albers, as Weave as Albers, Josef by Research versus Search he However, this desire to (re) think themselves building BM the by projected image The 8 C ne eded other resources to C wa s undoubtedly r
Carolina ( North of Archives State Archives, Western Regional /Source Fuente galvanized steel. with galvanized with coated and stones, local concrete, precast in materialized and Kocher Lawrence by construction designed /Studies Building 41. galvanizado, 1940- acero de chapa con yrevestido local piedra armado, hormigón y materializado en Kocher Lawrence por proyectado Studies Building del 7-8
Construcción W RA / S : ANC
119 ). ARQ 105 — SANTIAGO, CHILE 9 10
9 Lawrence Kocher y Ted validating its agenda, the BMC never stopped operating on Dreier replanteando el the margins of what was instituted. Studies Building de Kocher, c. 1940. / Lawrence and In its resilient struggle to maintain its independence, Ted Dreier doing revisions the Work Program, in operation from 1936 until the on Kocher’s Studies dismantling of the BMC, became one of its main Building, c. 1940. Fuente / Source: Western Regional educational actions. It was also a way to temporarily Archives, State Archives attract students from other schools over the summer of North Carolina (WRA/ and, with it, extra income. The program – advised and SANC). supported by Walter Gropius during the twelve years 10 Estudiantes that the Albers11 were at the BMC – promoted one of trabajando en las obras their founding experiences: learning by doing based on del Studies Building en Lake Eden Campus, 1940- the theories of John Dewey. It consisted of a real-scale 41. / Students working didactic construction workshop, proposed as a communal on the Studies Building’s action, a training supplement mainly for the architecture construction in Lake Eden Campus, 1940-41. Fuente / student, although open to any profile with a combination Source: Western Regional of manual dexterity and physical effort. Under the Archives, State Archives condition of self-sufficiency and the imperative to build of North Carolina (WRA/ SANC). their own facilities, they intervened, to varying degrees, on a total of 34 buildings. Possibly the most unique for its scale and use was the Studies Building, which embodied one of the BMC’s central aspects: common life and individual learning. However, although advertised as a voluntary activity, the Work Program perverted the meaning and reach of collaboration by going beyond the limits of the educational experience. This happened in a sense that endures in our days, both professionally and academically, where young architects, students, and researchers put their talent and dedication at the service of a market that profits from the vocation in exchange for symbolic payments and opportunities always postponed, as Remedios Zafra denounces. Also, the celebration of precariousness disguised with enthusiasm (Zafra, 2017), which was endorsed by the publications of the center itself, has its counterpart in the testimonies of physically exhausted students who confessed were forced to work as “slaves.”12 Similarly, the constant difficulties and disagreements in the task organization reflect the complex and ambitious nature of the Work Program for this college, which, it should be emphasized, was not an architecture school but was built to guarantee its survival and never clarified its status, nor the accreditation of their titles.13 The architecture teaching was very irregular, like almost everything that took place there. However, 120 whether due to Walter Gropius’ ubiquitous influence, 11 competition, and acted rather as a quarry. BM the which for institution an atHarvard, training their complete to students recruit to Seidler, Harry with happened it as them, urging or Program, Work the in participate to students its advising central schools And, on in the America. other North hand, interwoven the college’s agenda was with those of other how reveal that names proper Wurster, William or Bauer Catherine Sert, Lluís Josep Rudofsky, Bernard Kopp, Burchard, Serge Chermayeff, Norman Fletcher,Anatole Charles Breuer, Marcel as such time, on courses deliver or collaborate to teachers proposing hand, one the On assure teaching results. Probably, the myth of flexibility flexibility of myth the Probably, results. teaching assure remotely managed its presence in the BM the in presence its managed remotely Gropius limitations. economic and material its despite garde, the BM the garde, avant- particular its express would that aplace create t the testing ground, which was the BM on them or, dislocate even, them, disperse could it time, same the at although, place, their find could student every that so flexibility and inclusion ideal: great its were content and methodologies its professors, its of profile and hybrid interdisciplinary of The authentic teachings. possibility the complicating agendas, own their with life (and often interrupted) the college’s cultural and artistic irrupted who and it through passed who personalities the for opportunity aprofessional –or, was it if rather, project their of part been have to grateful –many students BM the extent what to is raises legend its that questions the of one resistance, food. buy to art without and, electricity in the end, selling their works of group of students in conditions of extreme deprivation, asmall with endured who rector last the Olson, Charles with closure agonizing its to creation its from present was This 2012). (Nieto, world the in being of away as action BM the of energy the interests, the divergence between its members’ sensibilities and from arising experiences common the of framework the In myth the resist story(s), the Claim he dedication of Lawrence Kocher, Lawrence of dedication he 12 Aside from the romanticismAside inherent in any Numantine C d ecidedly opted for modern architecture architecture modern for opted ecidedly C w as a center where to train train to where acenter as C C t d urned to ephemeral id not imply any any imply not id 14 or the desire to to desire the or C , w C hich could not not could hich ’ s curriculum. s curriculum. 12 Carolina ( North of Archives State Archives, Western Regional /Source Fuente Shifris. McMillan, Eunice Martha Niro, de (arrodillado), Robert Brett, Albers Betty Stone, Fred Martin, Bela Jalowetz, right to left From / aderecha Izquierda 1939-40. c. class, drawing Albers’ /Josef 1939-40. dibujo de lase c. Albers, Josef de 11 Building Studies del terraza la y sus estudiantes en Carolina ( North of Archives State Archives, Western Regional /Source Fuente 1942. c. terrace, Studies Building’s his students in the and Kocher Lawrence
C L awrence Kocher Kocher awrence , c. 1942. / 1942. , c. W W RA RA / / S S : : : Lisa : Lisa ANC ANC 121 ). ). ARQ 105 — SANTIAGO, CHILE 13 14
13 Estado actual del was already too exciting in the BMC, even though, as Oliver Studies Building. / Current Wainwright (2019) argues, it has rarely been successful. A status of the Studies Building. great part of that faculty were artists, many exiled, who © Gilsanz, Gutiérrez, were trying to carve out a path for themselves on the Parra, 2016 American scene and, for them, the BMC represented a
14 Detalle de uno de los space where they could experience creative processes and frescos pintados por Jean earn a future, embraced by the prestige that the institution Charlot durante su visita manufactured for its visitors. If those who passed through al Studies Building en el verano de 1944. / Detail of contributed more than what they received, it would also be one of the frescoes painted a question that can be extrapolated to the contemporary by Jean Charlot during his university and its demandable commitment to society. visit to the Studies Building in the summer of 1944. The BMC functioned as a large network of personal © Gilsanz, Gutiérrez, relationships in which some recommended others to Parra, 2016 teach classes and obtain funding. In fact, their number of graduates was very low, around 15 %, and a large part of the students only attended one or two years and then went to another university to graduate. Furthermore, it is striking that, unlike the disciples of the Bauhaus masters, the names of the BMC graduates have hardly become more relevant later, with few exceptions.15 The most recognizable remains of the BMC are found in published and oral stories, in the art pieces that have survived, in recent monographic exhibitions and in the enormous quantity of graphic, photographic and archival material, a whole microcosm preserved with intellectual and dissemination effort made by the Western Regional Archives and the BMC Museum and Arts Center in the city of Asheville. Despite Olson’s assumed ending, in which the BMC would dissolve and disperse its members across the United States as a replica of the Bauhaus diaspora, and despite certain unsuccessful attempts to replicate the experience or at least to get closer to it,16 what remains of the BMC are, fundamentally, idealized narrations that evoke its program as a seminal and sentimental episode of the American avant-garde. The study of this legacy, however, allows us to vindicate all the pedagogical and transformative potential of architectural history and theory in order to revisit it, infusing “timely knowledge with untimeliness” (Ockman, 2017). Its material imprint is the self-built campus, although the standing buildings barely preserve its vestiges; neither the Blue Ridge Assembly, which was its first 122 headquarters, owned by the YMCA, nor the Lake Eden Gagliardi, 2008). and (Latour tradition modern the inherit to easy never is it says, Latour as reenchantment, any or disappointment beyond that, and differences absorb can that coexistence of forms reinventing of difficulty the confirms also it Surely, longer. any resist not could simply it if or label, a BM the conceived architects its extent what to unknown really is it arouse, may this that fascination the Despite legend. its to add only loser the of myth Promethean the with identification its and decline 2017) –this (Ockman, present” own its of history the rewrites generation –“every crises current our of urgency From the 2015). play with a completely divergent political vision (Stutzin, and recreation of aplace into facilities its transformed has –that girls –not boys Christian for just camp summer asegregated now is inclusion and progressivism of quintessence the symbolized once that campus The battle. ever, alosing than today, more seems conservatism c resisted the present, producing new forms of subjectivation subjectivation of forms new producing present, the resisted curricula. innovative other of pragmatism the and scientism opposing thus going, were they where well very knowing without out carried were including of architecture, kinds, various manifestations BM the In disorients. not-place, as utopia, any But sparks. political by activated being therefore, explored from another knowledge and other conditions, be could it key –that aLatourian in again read would contemporary institutions promulgated, betting – we other that knowledge expert the from architecture save to desire the –was Appalachians the of acorner in crystallized –fleetingly utopia its Bauhaus, the Unlike seduction. is education that ideal the to appealed College Mountain Black it, preceded that avant-garde the Like conclusion In omplex. Ironically, its resistance to regulations and and regulations to resistance its Ironically, omplex. s an ephemeral project, if it began with an ‘in progress’ progress’ ‘in an with began it if project, ephemeral s an In reality, when thinking about it in another way, it another in it about thinking when reality, In 15 C , a rtistic rtistic C
( Parra, 2016Parra, Gutiérrez, © Gilsanz, Dining Hall. the from Seen trees. the background, among Studies Building in the the with (1941-1957), campus BMC former facilities, Lake Eden, Hall Dining el desde Vista entre los árboles. Building Studies del edificio BM del campus antiguo Eden, Lake de nstalaciones Rockmont, Camp 15 1941-1957), con el el con 1941-1957),
I . /Camp Rockmont al fondo fondo al
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ARQ 105 — SANTIAGO, CHILE (Deleuze, 2004) with which to look to the future. Indeed, resistance, as a form of democracy, accredits the conscience of those who, not knowing what they want, however, are clear about what they are defending. Défendu means forbidden in French. And those who forbid themselves and their group the normal course of events, are also resistant. “We are lacking resistance to the present,” Deleuze and Guattari (1994:108) also said, because those who resist, try not to cave to the present time (Esquirol, 2019) and those who manage it politically by imposing restrictions and protocols that stabilize their negativity.
GILSANZ — GUTIÉRREZ — PARRA But if the BMC’s agenda was irresistible, its vocation did not resist what it proclaimed. Its radical contingency, instead of the rationality of any strategy (Pérez Soto, 2008), did not allow us to expect any continuity in the results, its creative proposals being mere contingent actions, and not so much the product of new attempts. The dislocated experiences of the BMC testify that resisting is, above all, cultivating the opportunity of other worlds, opening the possibility of its future: by frontally opposing the hegemonic, the resistance opens flanks to the alternative. Its members found a first opportunity to resist any hint of uniformity of architecture studies in the liberal arts: arts and crafts as a preamble to the study and exercise of what drew them together but did not summarize them. Although the BMC was not an architecture school, perhaps it could have become a preliminary architecture school. That is to say, to have become an extensive Vorkurs, because, before training architects, it would have built bridges between the layman and the architect (Cuff, 1991), training its students to become so. Perhaps, because it did not want to be what it could become, it succumbed by resisting its own cause: not teaching how to make architecture, but overflowing it through imagination, criticism, and experimentation, as its founding principles reflected (Reynolds, 1998). In short, it was an instituting pedagogical project that performatively questioned categories, knowledge, and validation instruments with unprecedented radicality and extreme fragility. And its ambition, if you can call it that, of not certificating architects led to its exhaustion. Contrary to the Bauhaus, whose closure served, like the outbreak of a supernova, for its teachers to spread their modern certainties around the world with different fortunes, from the BMC no new stars emerged (Albright, 2017-2018), but a way of teaching that invites you to consider opportunities to be on the margins, to “give (us) something to think about.” This, as indicated by Marina Garcés (2013:92), would be the challenge of any critical educational commitment today. Facing the acquisition of competencies and skills for the market, the great challenge is to “give ourselves the space and time to think,” which implies “learning to be affected” and, for this – as in the BMC – it takes courage to cultivate “the affective relationship with others,” there is also where education, as a form of resistance to established structures, reveals itself as a field of experimentation. Finally and precisely thanks to this intimacy with 124 others, it was not so much its political agenda, but the Notas /Notes Notas 8 7 4 1 5 2 6 3 years of the 20 the of years that shaped identity the American North in those crucial and cultural tensions socio-political internal, economic, day, by day opposing, contingent, is it as encouraging as vulnerable, is it as brave as proposal educational BM the reputation, own its negotiate to ability its and affections mobilize to ability its to Thanks Sputnik. of launch the and Deal New the of start the between exactly, elapse, that decades two than more the during indeterminacy the in resist project this of militancy the made that contacts of networks family circles, their professional interactions and their personal agendas of the members of the BM while it lasted. lasted. it while
from the Bauhaus, such as the Albers, Xanti Schawinsky, and Stefan Stefan and Schawinsky, Xanti Albers, the as such Bauhaus, the from T 1946. in representative student and astudent was Yglesias José writer Cuban the part, his For 1940. in ateacher was Mérida Carlos artist Guatemalan the while Spanish, of wife, his Lea, and 1941) and (1935-38 classes history taught Vilá, Portell Herminio A by Lawrence Kocher, would have led Hudnut to hire Gropius. hire to Hudnut led have would Kocher, Lawrence by encouraged that, aspirations reform own his was it that out pointing also while (2009:89), underlines Moran as country,” the in practices Bauhaus establish to efforts merely “not and se were per important Harvard, at later and Columbia at both 1930s, early the in innovations curricular his fact, In teachers. European of arrival the preceded W Scrapbook 1937-1938, P BM W L A during the previous decade. facilitated already had Ted (Dreier), nephew her through Dreier, c BM to retrospectives several dedicate would MoMA Subsequently, Schawinsky. Xanti and Feininger, Lyonel Albers, the by works included 1938 T I BM the in event” an as of idea the understand better to us allows family lexical This come. also occur or contagion contiguous, touch, tangere verb the from and ‘ States. United the in spokespersons its as acted finances, and programs educational school’s the overseeing to addition in who, Lerner, Max and Jung Carl Dewey, John others, among knowledge, of areas various from figures together brought responsibilities, legal without council, expert This 1949. and 1939 between College Mountain Carolina State Archives, Asheville, North Carolina (hereinafter afew. just name to Dehn, Max mathematician the or Merce Cunningham, John Cage, Buckminster Fuller, Robert Creeley, M and Harvard to linked also Wurster, Bauer Catherine sister her of closeness the and Department Architecture its in presence Mock’s Elizabeth 1940s, early the Since exhibition. solo Albers collective, “is contingent (implies contact).” or individual bodies, other with and objects with association their and individuals between spread and imprint) (impress, shape emotions explains, (2004:18) Ahmed Sara As itself. discovery the to thanks exciting is which objects, and bodies between contact the to due anywhere, and anytime at not, or randomly happen Contingent’ derives from the Latin prefix con prefix Latin the from derives Contingent’ n cases like that of Joseph Hudnut, this pedagogical renewal even even renewal pedagogical this Hudnut, Joseph of that like n cases onsolidated the BM eaflet found in Ted Dreier’s file. Western Regional Archives, North North Archives, Regional Western file. Ted in Dreier’s found eaflet he he he Bauhaus anthology exhibition organized by MoMA in in MoMA by organized exhibition anthology Bauhaus he mong Latin American teachers, the Cuban writer and historian historian and writer Cuban the teachers, American Latin mong mong them, Robert Rauschenberg, Willem and Elaine de Kooning, RA alter Gropius was a member of the Advisory Council of Black Black of Council Advisory the of a member was Gropius alter C BM P / SANC roject Collection 1925-1988, series. BM series. 1925-1988, Collection roject C f aculty was nourished by a constellation of exiled Europeans Europeans exiled of aconstellation by nourished was aculty ) , Private Collections, Theodore and Barbara Dreier, Dreier, Barbara and Theodore Collections, , Private th ARQ century. Maybe it wasn’t that pretty pretty that wasn’t it Maybe century. C C ’ C m s relations with the MoMA that Katherine Katherine that MoMA the with s relations C ( . 1 embers, culminating in the 1949 Anni Anni 1949 the in culminating embers, Gilsanz-Díaz, 2017), that is, what can can what is, that 2017), Gilsanz-Díaz, (“to touch,” “to reach”) from which which from reach”) “to touch,” (“to 956.78 Oversize. 956.78 C w as able to deploy an an deploy to able as C (“in association”) association”) (“in O versize materials: “ architecture architecture C , t heir heir IT , 125
ARQ 105 — SANTIAGO, CHILE Wolpe, as well as other recurring visitors such as Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer or Lyonel Feininger. Among the exiled Spaniards, the brothers Francisco and Fernando León were BMC students with scholarships through the mediation of Fernando de los Ríos, who was also a member of their Advisory Council (1943-1949). See correspondence from Joseph Phyllis in WRA/SANC, BMC Research Project 1933-10973, V Donated Material, Box 7, and also the BMC Bulletin for the 1939-40 academic year, WRA/SANC, BMC Project Collection, Box 10 and the BMC Bulletin Newsletter no. 15, 1941. 9 The admission of the students Alma Stone Williams (1944) and Sylvesta Martin (1945), as well as teachers Carol Brice (1945 and 1947), Roland Hayes (1945), Percy H. Baker, (1945), Jacob Lawrence (1946 ) and Gwendolyn Knight (1946), was an authentic exercise of resistance, not without debate, which corroborates the openness to diversity defended and practiced by the BMC. For example, in 1947, 5 African American students were enrolled out of a total of 100, with 6 GILSANZ — GUTIÉRREZ — PARRA teachers of that race joining, all of whom were awarded scholarships and paid, respectively, by the Julius Rosenwald Foundation. 10 The FBI reports were released in August 2015, available at: http:// www.documentcloud.org/documents/2191031-bmcfbifile.html 11 The correspondence preserved in the WRA/SANC provides numerous samples of the professional and personal relationship between Gropius and the Albers, to whom the German architect entrusted the education of his daughter Ati, who graduated in 1946 from the BMC. 12 This is literally how it is stated in a June 4, 1942 letter to Ted Dreier, which was signed simply as Eve, a professor at the Highlander Folk School in Tennessee, an educational center that would soon play an important role in the fight for civil rights. 13 Its official recognition was managed through other universities that acted as advocates, such as Antioch College in Ohio. This is reflected in the letter of May 26, 1942, addressed to the then rector Robert Wunch on behalf of W. B. Alexander, dean of Antioch College. See WRA/SANC, BMC II General Files 1933-1956, Promotional Portfolio 1943-44, 25. 14 Lawrence Kocher, editor of Architectural Record between 1927 and 1938, was linked to the BMC from his first visit to the center that same year, being a member of its teaching staff between 1940 and 1943 and actively facilitating the access of his colleagues to editorial circles with similar modern ideas. 15 Although some students carried out teaching tasks, replicating the role-exchange model of professor-student, and even gained recognition in local circles, such as Franz Kline, Ruth Asawa or Claude Stoller, their relationship with the BMC was uneven and not all of them were formed entirely there. 16 For example, in 1980, the College of Arts at the State University of New York was renamed BMC II. The BMC is also considered a precursor to other American centers, including Marlboro College (Vermont, 1946), New College (Florida, 1960), University of California Santa Cruz (1965), Prescott College (Arizona, 1966), Evergreen State College (Washington, 1967), etc. Likewise, the collaborative spirit of the Work Program can be reflected in numerous subsequent experiences, from the Open City of Ritoque and the Universidad de Talca, to Hooke Park, the current test campus of the Architectural Association.
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