Solidarity in Architecture
OPEN23 looks into Solidarity as a fundamental and indispensable cohesion within architecture and within society as a whole. Does solidarity have the potential to lead the way through the ecological crisis, and can solidarity be a future driver for sustainable solutions?
We have to act
We can no longer settle with being in solidarity. At this point in time, we have to act in solidarity. What we once considered an ecological crisis, now manifests itself as a cosmological polycrisis with Earth in desperate need for our attention. The question is, will we – as architectural collective – be able to rise, invent new practices, new aesthetics, new paradigms? Dare we ask Earth, ’What do YOU want, Earth’ and will we accept, if the answer is ‘Please leave me alone’?
Curators
OPEN23 is curated by
Karen Kjærgaard, Aarhus School of Architecture
Katarina Bramsen Buhl, C.F. Møller
Mathias Skafte, SLETH
CURATORIAL STATEMENT
OPEN23 looks into Solidarity as a fundamental and indispensable cohesion within architecture and within society as a whole. Does solidarity have the potential to lead the way through the ecological crisis, and can solidarity be a future driver for sustainable solutions?
Through examples of new aesthetics and redefined ethics – from a new understanding of everythings´ entanglement – OPEN23 will discuss how architecture from a radically alternative perspective can contribute to solutions where solidarity overrules economic interests.
Facing the overwhelming climate changes, we find ourselves in the middle of a cosmological revolution, a polycrisis, with Earth in desperate need of our attention. It is said that Louis Kahn once asked a brick ‘What do you want, brick?’ and the brick said ‘I like an arch.’ ‘But arches are expensive, and I can use a concrete lintel over an opening. What do you think of that, brick?” Brick said: ‘I like an arch.’ The question is, will we – as architectural collective – be able to rise, invent new practices, new aesthetics, new paradigms? Dare we ask Earth, ’What do YOU want, Earth’ and will we accept, if the answer is ‘Please leave me alone’?
More than ever, we must consider every step we take, every move we make, every brick we lay. We can no longer settle with being in solidarity. At this point in time, we must act in solidarity.
OPEN23 invites Practice, Industry and Academia to explore the implications of a solidary practice. We´ll present a curated programme based on curiosity, critique and care, fueling a broader discussion about empowered Solidarity in architecture.
OPEN23 is not an unequivocal answer to all the challenges we are facing, but rather an invitation to look into other parameters of the architectural field of how we can join forces, share ideas, visions and dreams for the most eclectic of professions: Architecture.
Karen Kjærgaard, Katarina Bramsen Buhl & Mathias Skafte
THE DANISH ARTS FOUNDATION SUPPORTS OPEN23
The Danish Arts Foundation generously co-funds the development of new curatorial talents as part of developing of the OPEN23 programme.
With the appointment of two architects and former students at the school, Katarina Bramsen Buhl and Mathias Skafte, OPEN23 creates a curatorial concept in a process between the school’s curator and two external advisors.
With the OPEN festival, Aarhus School of Architecture wish to develope new formats for architectural dissemination.
