The Cooper Union has announced it will remount its Vkhutemas exhibition in a reversal apparently brought on by discussions with students, co-organizers, curators Anna Bokov and Steven Hillyer, and members of the school’s Ukrainian community.
In a letter dated February 6, the school’s President Laura Sparks, Acting Dean Hayley Eber, and Exhibitions Committee Chair Alexander Tochilovsky explained their reasoning as the following:
“Leadership also carefully reviewed letters and fielded outreach from colleagues, peers, and individuals from throughout our community. These conversations have been important and instructive, and have underscored both the significance of this exhibition and the need to frame this work within the broader geopolitical context, both then and now.”
“At its core, The Cooper Union has always been a forum for public discourse and dialogue addressing the challenges and opportunities of our time. The School of Architecture encourages students to investigate the role of the architect and the societal, environmental, and political implications of their work and, in doing so, reinforces the notion that design and building are not just the end point of set ideas, but can often themselves prompt constructive debate and critical discourse.”
“It is in this spirit that, together with the exhibition’s co-curators, The Cooper Union will open the exhibition later this spring, supported by additional contextualizing material that will provide different frameworks for understanding these issues and the exhibition’s original pedagogical research and intent.”
The news follows last month’s postponement of the exhibition, which had received a 2021 Graham Foundation grant. NYU professor Peder Anker expressed his opposition to the exhibition in an op-ed published on Archinect. Parts of Anker’s argument, and the school’s subsequent decision to postpone the exhibition following its publication, drew the ire of the arts and academic communities, including an open letter signed by Rem Koolhaas and Harvard GSD Dean Sarah Whiting.
Their claims of censorship, collective punishment, and the attack on academic freedom appear to have won out over the concerns and anger lobbed at the school for putting on the show so close to the city’s traditional Ukrainian stronghold. Cooper Union did not provide a specific date for the exhibition to be remounted. Archinect will share more updates on the story as they are made available by the school.
9 Comments
Pinball Wizard, here.
Snip, snap! Snip, snap! Snip, snap! You have no idea the physical toll that three exhibitions have on a person!
Ukraine and the Ukrainian community in NY may have an argument against the show, but I don't think we ever heard from them.
While I understood the initial concern regarding the timing of the exhibition, I never found a link between its content and the current (abhorrent) Russian political regime.
the new york times article suggests there is some communication and agreement with the local Ukrainian community. Meaning their voice is not unheard, except maybe here?
On the face of it the Vkhutemas is difficult to connect to any kind of authoritarian leader or movement. The opposite is clearly the case and that can be a quite powerful message if there is a fear of supporting Russian soft power.
Cutting off fascist commentary makes sense if the goal is to quiet the voice of authoritarians. But silencing the voice of those who opposed authoritarian ideology in the name of freedom is Orwellian. We have had enough of that in the last few years to not want to invite even more.
Glad that there was a discussion, and perhaps the exhibition will be the better for it, but also glad that this show was not shut down as a result.
I should have said until unheard until now.
(above) And now I see from the Times article Will links there was some brief contact with Andrij Dobriansky, communications director for the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America.
Like Anker, he said he didn’t know the contents of the show, but that its perspective is “Russian-centric” and so necessarily presents “art and ideals through a colonizing, imperial Russian perspective” at the root of the current war.
Note the argument both make without any reference and, apparently, any knowledge of Vkhutemas or the show.
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