21/06/2018
In
Title of the work
Brutal Monochrome
Short description of the work
–
Key words
Brutal – Monochrome – Skopje
Section
Photo
21/06/2018
In
Title of the work
Excerpt from SKOPJEd_destratification
Short description of the work
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Key words
Destratification – Skopje – SK14
Section
Photo
21/06/2018
In
Title of the work
Almost Blue
Short description of the work
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Key words
Opera Ballet Theatre – Skopje 2014 – Overshadow
Section
Photo
20/06/2018
In
Title of the work
Chromo Skopje
Short description of the work
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Key words
Chromo – Skopje – Macedonia
Section
Photo
20/06/2018
In
Title of the work
Skopje 2014 – Unknown magnitudo
Short description of the work
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Key words
Unknown – Heartquake – Brutalist
Section
Photo
20/06/2018
In
Title of the work
Lineamenti
Short description of the work
Libera interpretazione.
Key words
Geometria – Antico – Cultura
Section
Photo
20/06/2018
In
Title of the work
superstarSkopje
Key words
Maschera – Alterazione – Oblio
Section
Drawing
20/06/2018
In
Title of the work
Chromo Skopje
Key words
Skopje – Protest – Color
Section
Video
19/06/2018
In
Title of the work
Lost In Translation
Key words
Democracy – Falsification – Neo-brutalism form
Section
Drawing
19/06/2018
In
Title of the work
Skopje. A Transitional Model
Text by Jana Konstantinova and Anna Positano – Photographs by Anna Positano
Skopje is a case study to analyse contemporary architecture and identity in the Balkans, in the light of the current Macedonian political affairs and urban transformations. Several cultures and long-lasting migrations shaped Skopje’s urban fabric. Yet the city is mostly the result of political choices of the last fifty years. In 1963 the global political response to Skopje’s earthquake profoundly affected the city. As the Cold War reached its climax, international efforts to rebuild the city had the objective to pursue a global political stability. With the support of the United Nations, the Yugoslavian government adopted Kenzo Tange’s reconstruction plan of brutalist buildings, which made Skopje a modern, utopian metropolis. When Macedonia gained independence in 1991, nationalist politics changed the identity of Skopje’s architecture. The Socialist, international post-quake architecture could not represent Macedonian identity any more. Along with slow political transition, in 2010 the government announced a plan of urban renovation, Skopje 2014. The plan is turning Skopje’s brutalist heritage into neo-neoclassical buildings. The new confused and scattered built environment takes apart the civil society from architecture. This in combination with a young, uncertain political situation affects people’s personal and socio-cultural values. The plan attracted strong criticism since its announcement. Protesters have taken to the streets of Skopje and recently have turned into a Colourful Revolution against the general cultural austerity. Similar to other former Socialist countries, Skopje appears unable to re-examine and evaluate its architectural past. A city that once was the model of global architectural solidarity, now offers a case study of transitional post-Socialist dystopia.
Key words
Brutalism – Transformation – Politics
Section
Text
19/06/2018
In
Title of the work
Walking on broken glass
Typological shifts of Skopje and the continuing discontinuity of its urban landscape
The essay introduces a particular historical frame, interpreting the urban development of the city of Skopje as a self-referential paradox. Within its turbulent history, Skopje survived three significant typological shifts represented with the urban designs by the teams of Josif Mihajlovic, Ludjek Kubes and Kenzo Tange. Partially carrying out and later abandoning these projects, led Skopje to reawake each time portraying a new typological narrative.
In this context, the so called “project Skopje2014” is interpreted as the latest narrative which continues the discontinuity of the urban landscape. In addition, it poses a great ethical challenge for the urban thinkers in Skopje at present time.
Model 01 – “Traditional” Skopje 1890
Model 02 – De-facto to De jure 1929
Model 03 – From “Genius loci” to “Zeitgeist” 1948
Model 04 – From “Modern” to “Postmodern”
Key words
Skopje – Typological shifts – Historical urban plans
Section
Text
19/06/2018
In
Title of the work
MUP Mappe Urbane Personali – Skopje
Alcuni degli edifici in stile brutalista e modernista di Skopje sono qui scomposti e rivisitati attraverso pattern colorati per offrire una nuova mappa urbana (e personale), sospesa tra memoria e presente. La rigenerazione e rivalutazione in chiave contemporanea del patrimonio architettonico brutalista, avviene qui attraverso un uso politico e poetico del colore (così come utilizzato nella recente “rivoluzione colorata” del Paese, durante le proteste del 2016), con le sue infinite possibilità di reinvenzione e recupero creativo del paesaggio urbano.
Key words
Mappeurbane – Rivoluzione colorata – Skopje
Section
Drawing
18/06/2018
In
Title of the work
A plea for the balkanization of europe
Short description of the work
The storytellers of the new Balkan states are diligently handicrafting something using memories and desires. However the price cannot be measured in euros. The price is the transformation of the local inhabitants into foreigners. It is time we remembered the true history of the Balkans. In the 20th century, the history of the old multinational states was overwritten with a national history. Let us expose it. We will see: The “Balkanization of Europe” is not a doomsday scenario. It is, with its democratic characteristics, the only way.
Key words
Nation-building vs. Balkanisation – A-Better-History
Section
Text
18/06/2018
In
Title of the work
“Skopje 2030” interview with Simon Hartmann
Short description of the work
Simon Hartmann was born in 1974 in Bern, Switzerland. From 1994 to 2000 he studied at ETH Lausanne, TU Berlin and ETH Zurich. He collaborated with Rolf Furrer Architekten from 2000 to 2003 and he is teaching assistant at ETH Studio Basel from 2002 to 2007. In 2003 he founded HHF architects with Tilo Herlach and Simon Frommenwiler. HHF architects, based in Basel, has completed and ongoing projects in Switzerland, China, the United States, Germany, Italy and Montenegro. Simon Hartmann is a professor from 2009 to 2017 at HEIA Friborg. In 2011 he is Visiting Professor at the University of Innsbruck and in 2014 at the KIT of Karlsruhe. Since 2018 he has been Visiting Professor at the Yale School of Architecture.
Key words
Intervista – Interview – интервју
Section
Text
18/06/2018
In
Title of the work
Politiche di nazionalizzazione e architettura: la radicale trasformazione urbanistica della città di Skopje
Short description of the work
Al fine di comprendere le ragioni delle scelte che hanno portato alla distruzione del patrimonio architettonico brutalista, si propone qui un’analisi che mette in relazione l’architettura e il nazionalismo. Tale trasformazione urbana è dovuta al totale stravolgimento del centro di Skopje fortemente voluta dal governo VMRO-DPMNE. La ricerca mette a confronto più teorie derivanti dalla scienza politica, dalla sociologia e da quest’ultima applicata all’architettura. Il periodo cui si fa riferimento nello studio è quello compreso tra le ricostruzioni del 1963 e dei primi due decenni del XXI secolo.
Key words
Nationalism – Architecture – Skopje
Section
Text
18/06/2018
In
Title of the work
Skopje in the contemporary Macedonian film
Short description of the work
The article focuses on the representation of Skopje and its architecture in contemporary Macedonian cinematography.
Key words
City – Cinema – Skopje
Section
Text
18/06/2018
In
Title of the work
[re]thinking: brutal
Short description of the work
[re]thinking: brutal is not just a recall of a nostalgic socialist architecture, but also a brutal [re]design of an important representative building of skopje 2014, dreaming of new brutal because brutal maybe is not brutal enough.
Key words
[re]thinking – [re]drawing – [re]design
Section
Drawing
18/06/2018
In
Title of the work
People from Skopje
MEPSO lifting
Short description of the work
Quasi il 10% dei fondi del programma Skopje 2014 è stato impiegato per la costruzione di statue monumentali. La città si è popolata di persone inanimate: santi, poeti, re e guerrieri a cavallo. Nel frattempo le persone vere, con tutte le difficoltà, continuano a esistere.
Il piano di rinnovamento urbano Skopje 2014 comprende molti interventi di ricostruzione delle facciate. Un esempio è il rivestimento eclettico che ha subito l’edificio MEPSO: come in un lifting si sovrascrive prendendo come riferimento un’idea di bellezza generica e fuori contesto.
Key words
Monumento – Statue – Persone – MEPSO – Facciata – Lifting
Section
Drawing
18/06/2018
In
Title of the work
Brutalism, concrete, paper?
Short description of the work
Brutalism, concrete, paper?
Key words
Brutalism – Concrete – Paper?
Section
Drawing
18/06/2018
In
Title of the work
L’impero colpisce ancora
MoCA Expansion
Stroboskopje
LHSB – Lunar Hydrometeorological Service Building
SK-SK
Short description of the work
L’operazione SK2014 si sta attrezzando per far scomparire testimonianze importanti del modernismo di Skopje. Ma c’è ancora qualche speranza di salvezza nella lotta tra il “bene” e il “lato oscuro”.
Si vuole creare idealmente un dialogo tra il progetto contemporaneo e gli edifici del moderno a Skopje. Una convivenza possibile che porti un valore aggiunto al patrimonio esistente e non il contrario.
L’intento del disegno è fornire uno spunto per cercare di far notare come una seconda vita sia possibile per determinati edifici che caratterizzano Skopje, senza doverne cancellare il carattere originale, basta vederli da un altro punto di vista.
La luna è davvero l’unica speranza per salvaguardare il brutalismo macedone?
Invertire il punto di vista può permetterci di vedere tutto in un’ottica differente.
Key words
Resistenza – Utopia – Brutalismo – Megastruttura – Borko Lazeski – Luna – Upsidedown – Second life
Section
Drawing
18/06/2018
In
Title of the work
RE-new
Short description of the work
Al comando cancella/copia/incolla…ricostruzione sulla costruzione
Key words
RE – Costruzione – Reconstruction
Section
Drawing
18/06/2018
In
Title of the work
Il ponte che collega i due mondi
Architettura e Religione
L’imponenza di un muro in cemento
Short description of the work
Il ponte di pietra svetta in primo piano sugli edifici di “Scopje 2014” e collega Piazza Macedonia, figlia del nuovo piano di rinnovamento urbano, con il vecchio bazar ottomano
La cattedrale di San Clemente di Ohrid è un edificio modernista di Brezoski in cui è evidente l’influenza brutalista
Tratto della Muraglia Urbana di Kenzo Tange, il progetto basato sull’archetipo del muro
Key words
Collegamento – Storia – Brutalismo – Brezoski – Muro – Cemento
Section
Photo
15/06/2018
In
Title of the work
operazioni (il)legittime
Cattedrale
Tramonto
Short description of the work
In un gioco immaginario di infinite sovrapposizioni, l’anima brutalista della città potrebbe un giorno risvegliarsi e uscire dalle sue maschere storiciste. Qual è la vera identità di Skopje?
Central Post Office, Janko Konstantinov, 1974,1982,1989.
Il cemento armato non è solo grigio.
Key words
Involucri – Maschere – Sk2014 – Poste – Konstantinov – Brutalismo
Section
Photo
15/06/2018
In
Title of the work
The loot of Alessandro Magno [on a photo of Alessandro De Luca]
Monument to the wreckage
Short description of the work
Black shadows like the forms of Jean Arp that describe the places where ‘the Magno’ at the center of Europe hides his world.
1963. Extraction of the fragment from the epicenter of the world. Image of a permanent and transitory place to absorb the weight of history.
02 Black shadows like the forms of Jean
Key words
Epicenter – Black hole – FORGETFULNESS – 1963 – Libra – Transeunte
Section
Drawing
15/06/2018
In
Title of the work
Re-Building Skopje: The Curations of Past and Present in the ‘Capital of Kitsch’
Short description of the work
Architectural investigation into Skopje provides us with the tools to understand both the Yugoslav and post-Yugoslav architectural and political events. The contemporary architecture of Skopje exemplifies of the architectural production in the post-socialist Southeastern Europe and its deeply intertwined relationship with politics. The examination of the re-production of politics and ideology through architectural construction, allows for an insight into events taking place in Skopje today, in the deeply problematic processes of both canceling and negating of the communist past. I study the two reconstructions of Skopje, the post-1963 earthquake period and the contemporary architectural events in the city, and I argue that both projects exhibit the shifting relationships between architecture and politics, as well as its perpetual re-negotiations, and the paramount importance of their contexts in understanding the conjunction of the past and present in the city.
Key words
Brutalism – Heritage – Nationalism
Section
Text
15/06/2018
In
Title of the work
Investigating Skopje 2014
Short description of the work
Skopje 2014 is a construction project financed by the Macedonian Government with the superficial aim of strengthening the national identity and the recollection of the antique past. Indeed the construction project serves as a tool for money-laundering and therefore also is the base for the in Macedonia widely spread clientelism. During a monthly stay in Skopje, the authors obtained a picture of the situation. They captured their impressions by the use of imagery and text.
Key words
Brutalism – Neoclassicism – Klientalism
Section
Photo
13/06/2018
In
Title of the work
Sabagiro
Short description of the work
Sabagiro is a 10 minute video about traveling. In Chiatura, an industrial city in Georgia, inhabitants are still using the old cable car system which was built in the fifties to transport workers around the valley and up to the mines. Today only 20% of the system is still in use. In a rusty cabin crossing the valley, people meet, chat or sit still while staff members manage the system with old buttons and handlebars. The video shows the interaction between these people during their daily life in a very unusual scenery.
Key words
Timemachine – Elevator- Unusual
Section
Video
13/06/2018
In
Title of the work
196 days in the east
Short description of the work
This project is a personal approach on the experience of living in an Eastern European country. These selected photos were shot on film, on April 2015 in Macedonia.
Key words
People – Street – Macedonia
Section
Photo
13/06/2018
In
Title of the work
Skopje 2015
Short description of the work
Urban landscape Skopje, photographed in 2015.
Key words
Skopje – Architecture – Urbanism
Section
Photo