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Marimekko Helsinki
Building Forum
"Some have dubbed it the "Bilbao Effect"; others, "the rise of design." However one refers to it, the relationship between art and architecture has undergone significant change in recent years. Though the association dates back to the very origins of both fields, a number of factors have recently conspired to raise new questions about their boundaries, premises, and cultural goals.
The theoretical principles defining modern art and architecture as self-sufficient, sustainable fields have come into question anew in the '90s. In the place of "isms," an eclectic complex of ideas and working methods have arisen, perhaps supplanting "theory" or, at the very least, relying on unstated rather than stated theoretical premises. Part of this transformation, the rise of "design" as an intellectual and pragmatic concern in art and architecture, has been aided by the emergence of new media, which have opened up new spaces of convergence and interaction. "Virtual design" may already be a decade old and remains as fuzzy a concept as "new economics," but it continues to challenge old notions in both art and architecture and significant creative energy continues to be invested in its development. Asymptote Architecture, for one, is currently designing the Guggenheim's "Virtual Museum." Yet what a virtual museum might mean remains to be understood.
Moreover—and not for the first time—artists and architects have infiltrated each others traditional spheres of activity: Architects and designers such as LOT/EK, Karim Rashid, Diller + Scofidio, Rem Koolhaas, M/M Design in Paris, and Open Office have been exhibiting in galleries, while artists such as Rachel Whiteread, Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, Franz West, Liam Gillick, Mike Nelson, Atelier Van Lieshout, and Jorge Pardo—to mention just a few—have followed in the footsteps of Dan Graham and Vito Acconci by turning to architecture and design in search of new agendas and vocabularies for contemporary art. Finally, all this has been unfolding in the wake of Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao, which is only one of several prominent museums that have become iconic architectural showpieces, and as such, another point of contact between art and architecture.
In order to consider the causes and consequences of some of these interchanges, Artforum has invited the following critics, curators, artists, and architects to participate in a twelve-day online symposium: John Rajchman, philosopher and critic; Jeffrey Kipnis, architecture curator at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio; Hans-Ulrich Obrist, curator and critic; Ronald Jones, Provost, Art Center College of Design; Catherine Ingraham, critic, professor of architecture, Pratt School of Design; Henry Urbach, gallerist and writer; Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset, artists; Galia Solomonoff, partner at Open Office Art and Architecture Projects; and Vito Acconci, artist and designer. The symposium is moderated by Philip Nobel, contributing editor for Metropolis magazine. Nobel has written on art and architecture for the New York Times, Architectural Digest, Artforum, and other magazines. He is currently writing an essay for a forthcoming book from the Princeton Architectural Press on the New York firm LOT/EK."
—The Editors