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Power and Architecture at calvert 22

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Time 13:00
Date 10/06/16
Price Free
  • Produced by Calvert 22
  • Price Free, individual events may require booking, check updates on the website
  • Get ready for an epic season of events that address and explore questions and provocations around public space
  • Bring along a good mixture of friends, there's something for everyone in the programme
  • Surf to Power and Architecture Press Release
  • See you at Calvert 22

A season on utopian public space and the quest for new national identities across the post-Soviet world.

For the ideological champions of utopian society, architecture is a clear and potent manifestation of a society’s power, influence and status. From the gothic might of Stalin’s seven Vysotki to Astana’s gleaming Bayterek Tower, giant structures loom over the citizens of the former Soviet Union, signifying the grand ambitions of their rulers, past and present. Power and Architecture is a season that will explore the design of the built environment and its use as a device of influence, both physically characterising the skyline, and psychologically in relation to the people who live in its shadow.

Across the post-Soviet world, there is a common thread running through architectural styles. From grand monuments and high-rise cathedrals of geometric correctness to homogenised concrete blocks, repetitious and standardised landmarks to public art, we see the echoes of space designed with the futuristic ideologies of socialism, transitioned into the globalised hegemony of capitalism.

What effect do these architectural structures, designed by one regime and inherited by another, have on the people who live with their legacy? How is public space re-defined through external forces such as privatisation and capitalism, or re-used through independent culture and recreation? Power and Architecture will seek to answer these questions, looking at the evolution of the relationship between cities, public space and their citizens throughout contrasting eras.

Power and Architecture will comprise four main interlinked elements:
    — A conference and a number of related talks
    — An exhibition of new and existing artwork presented in four parts
    — A series of architectural workshops connecting London and Prague
    — Curated digital content on The Calvert Journal

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