Christopher Hawthorne interviews Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee about this year's Chicago Architecture Biennial. The two reflect on the theme of the biennial—'Make New History'—and their role as curators.
Hawthorne: What attracted you to history as a guiding idea for this biennial?
Lee: We’re at a moment when we’re just coming out of this fascination with the new. I remember Rem Koolhaas, in [an interview] in the ’90s, somebody asked him, “Where do you think we are now?” And he said, “I think we’re waking up from the semantic nightmare of the ’80s.” So I was thinking, “What is the nightmare that we’re waking up from, if we had to think of the equivalent?” And at least from our point of view, being in L.A., in the schools, there has been a complete fascination with newness — new for new’s sake. To the point where there are architects who do really interesting projects and I would say, “You should also look at [German architect Erich] Mendelsohn,” suggesting it’s something they would be interested in. But they’d take it as a critique, like we’re accusing them of not being original.
Johnston: Like, “Someone’s done that before?”
Lee: At a certain point, newness becomes a disease.
6 Comments
More pedantic bullshit from practitioners that don't really depend on their practice for their sustenance.
What else is new[ness]?
from what I heard from someone working there, they don't even pay their employees on time (i.e. - months late)
Are you familiar with the firm Johnston Marklee? They have a lot of built work.
They have built work that is not really applicable to most of us.
"Make it New" as Moss would always say when I was in school.
He even said "Make it new again" at some point when the previous saying got old.
The hilarious thing is PoMo has completely taken over SCI_Arc this last year or two, but in the worst most gaudy sarcastic way imaginable. So much for making it new again.
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