Utopia's Revival

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Utopia's Revival

Author(s): Manuel Orazi and Alta L. PriceSource: Log, No. 13/14, Aftershocks: Generation(s) since 1968 (Fall 2008), pp. 37-40Published by: Anyone CorporationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41765227 .

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Manuel

Orazi

Translated

rom

he talian

by

Alta

. Price

Utopia's

Revival

Yona

riedman,onument,

006.

Installation

t

MART,

overeto,

Italy. hoto ourtesyhe

author.

The

bsence

f

Utopian

rive

s

perhaps

lmosts serious

s an

overdose

f

t.

-

Rem

Koolhaas

Therewere

already

hree xhibitions

his

year

dedicated

o

theworkof

Yona Friedman:

Tu ferais a

ville,

which

opened

n

February

t the

Arc n Rêve

Centre 'Architecture

inBordeaux(through une ); an exhibitiont thePortikus

gallery

n

Frankfurt

m Main

(through

May

4);

and

Megastructure

eloaded:

Visionary

rchitecturend

Urban

Design

of

theSixtiesReflected

by

Contemporary

rtists,

Septemberhrough

ovember

t MODEM

in

Berlin,

hanks

to the

support

f

European

Art

rojects.

t is

important

o

note hat

not

only

hese

astthree hows

but lso

Friedman's

most

ecent olo

showshave

multiplied

after

ecades f

absolute ilence

in

nstitutions

edicated o

contemporary

art: heCenter or

Contemporary

rt

n

Kytakyushu,

apan;

Fondazione

Bevilacqua

a Masa in

Venice;

entroAndaluz

de

Arte

Contemporáneo

n

Seville;

MART

Museo

di Arte

Moderna

Contemporanea)

n

Rovereto;

Musée d'Art

Contemporain

n

Lyon;

The

Drawing

Center

n New

York;

and

finally

he

Fondazione

Antonio atti

n

Como,

which

after

Joseph

osuth,

Marina

Abramovic,

immy

urham,

Joan

Jonas,

nd others

invited riedman

s a

visiting

ro-

fessor his

past

ummer

2008),

a

post

hat ncluded he

annual

directorship

f ts

prestigious

Advanced ourse

n

VisualArts.

But

why

does this

repechage

f Yona Friedman

ome

through

ontemporary

rt,

nd not

through

rchitecture?

In

truth,

many

rchitects

re rediscovered

years

fter

n initial

dismissal

by

ritics nd

historians.

Luigi

Moretti

s an

emblematic

example,

ut

others ometo

mind s

well,

uch

as

Superstudio1

with

shows

n

London

n 2004 and New

York

n

2005)

and

Archizoom,2

ho

are

being

eevaluated

because

they

ave

a

part

n

the

personal enealogies

f a few

well-known

contemporary

rchitects

not

only

f

older,

morefamousrchitects,ut lso ofyoungernes, uch s

PierVittorio ureli.*

riedman's

ase s a little ifferent.

With

he nd of

the

megastructure

eriod

brought

about

n

partby

the

publication,

n

1966,

f two

key

exts

or

V

1. eter

ang

ndWilliam

enking,

ds.,

Superstudio:ife

ithout

bjectsMilan:

Skira,

003).

2.Andrea

ranži,

o-Stop

ity:

rchizoom

Associati

Orleans:

ditions

YX,

006).

3.

ier ittorio

ureli,

he

rojectf

Autonomy:oliticsnd rchitectureithin

and

gainst

apitalism

New

ork:

Princeton

rchitectural

ress,

008).

Aurelis

partner

n

herchitectural

design

ffice

ogma.







contemporary

rchitectural

ulture,

obert

enturis

Complexity

nd Contradiction

nArchitecture

nd Aldo

Rossi's

U architetturaella

ittà The

Architecture

f

he

City)

Friedman nd

hiswork

were

eclipsed

o the

point

f almost

disappearing,

ike o

many

thers,

fter

disciplinary

utono-

my

gained

he

upper

hand

ust

before

he

postmodern

period.

Today

here re those

who have

tried o

reread

Friedman

within he

ontext f

the

1960s

utopists

whom

Tafuri

dismissively

alled

l'Internazionale

dell'utopia,

r

utopian

nternational,

s

a

parody

f theCommunist

International

in a rather

cursory

ashion4 r

even

n a

more

deeply

nformed,

ontextualized

manner,5

utulti-

mately

riedman

ow

enjoys

early

niversal

ame

n the

artworld.

One

might

sk

why

t

s that

today's

rt

world s reeval-

uating

riedman

nd

notother

rchitects.

ndeed,

ontem-

porary

rt

eems o have

increasingly

ollowed

trajectory

that onsiders

iewers

ust

as

important

s artists

nd

the

objects

hey

roduce

paintings,

culptures,

tc.);

conse-

quently,

he

process

f

involving

he

viewing

ublic

becomes

the

rucial

point.

n

other

words,

he

viewerbecomes

n

actor

artist)

nd

viceversa.

Friedman's

participation

n

Documenta

1

2002)

in Kassel

nd

n the

2003

nd

2005

YeniceBiennalesforvisual rts)6

upon

nvitation

by

co-curators

ikeUte

Meta

Bauer,

Carlos

Basualdo,7

nd

Hans-Ulrich

brist8

must

be

viewed

from his

perspective.

That

Friedman's

euvre

has

never

een aken

nto onsider-

ation

n ts

totality

s another

eason

or ts

return

o

the

forefront,

lmost

s

if

he

were

an

elderly merging

rtist

with

slightly

aded

past

record

n architecture.

et,

Friedman

as never

onsidered

imself n

artist,

t east

not

n

the

raditionally

nderstood

ense,

ven

f t s true

thathisvision f artnowcoincideswith he forementioned

line

of

thought

e

might

all

relational

esthetics

Apropos

f

this,

s

early

s

1978

Friedman

wrote:

I like o

think

f

art

as

communication;

s

a

result,

see

the

recipient

the

viewer,

the

person

who

receives

he

vision)

as

more

important

han

the

producer

the

artist). 9

Ultimately,

uch

statement

oesn't

ontradict

n the

least

Friedman's

arlier

esearch

nto

and

lifelong

uest

for)

participation

n architecture.

articipation

s

now

an

outdated

subject,

ut

t has

not

entirely

isappeared.

ean-Louis

ohen

hasdemonstratedhat heopening ftheprojectotheusers

or

what

he

calls

populism

has been

constant

emptation

f

postwar

modernism,10

ith

supporters

ikeGiancarlo

e

Carlo,

Bernard

Rudofsky,

nd

Lucien

Kroll,

mong

thers.

38

4.Exit

topia:

rchitectural

rovocations

1956-1976,

ds.

artinan chaik

nd

Otakar

acei

Munich:restei,

005).

5.

arry

usbea,

opologies:

he

rban

Utopia

n

rance

1960-1970

Cambridge:

MIT ress,007).

6.Trans,ote:s

pposed

o

he enice

Architecture

iennale.

7.

emocracy

nrealized:

ocumenta

ll_Platforml,

ds.

kwui

nwezor,

t l.

(Osterfilden-Ruit:

atje

antz,

002).

This

ook,

etailing

he

esultsf

Platforml,

he

irstf everal

onfer-

enceseld

n

onjunction

ith

Documenta

1,

resents

exts

y

heorists

liketefano

oeri,

ichael

ardt,

nd

Antonio

egri,mong

thers.

8.Obrist

laced

riedman

n

he

Utopia

Station

ectione

urated

ithinhe

2003

iennale,

irected

y

rancesco

Bonami.eeognionflitti:adittatura

dello

pettatore

Venice:arsilio,

00?);

published

n

nglish

s

Dreamsnd

Conflicts:

he

iewer's

ictatorship.

9.

ona

riedman,

'architecture

e

survie:

u 'invente

ujourd'hui

emondee

demain

with

preface

y

Michel

agon

(Paris-Tournai:

asterman,

978).

L'architecture

e urvie:

ne

philosophie

e

la

auverté,

ev.

d.

Paris:

ditions

e

l'éclat,003),

93.

ranslation

ourtesy

Victoria

elwyn.

10.

ean-Louis

ohen,

Promesses

t

impasses

u

opulisme,

ahiers

e

a

rechercherchitecturale

t

rbaine

5July2004):67-84.







But

this

onlypartially

xplains

he

scarcity

f studies

and

research hat

he rchitectural

ield as

dedicated o

Friedman

n

the

more han

-0

years

hathave

passed

ince

he was so

well known

orhis

1958

manifesto

rchitecture

mobile1

up

to

1966,

more r ess. f n thefirst ew

years

f

the

21st

century

riedman

s

experiencing

consistentome-

back,

f he

has

begun

o

publish

book

every ear

nd s now

translatednd

reprinted

n

many

ountries,12

t s not

because he

contemporary

rtworld s

reevaluating

im,

but

because t s

discovering

imfor hefirst ime.

o it s a case

of historical

isconnect,r,

f

you

will,

tiger's

eap

nto

the

past,

s Walter

enjamin

would

call t. Relational

es-

thetics

oes,

n

fact,

xplore

he nherent rtistic

possibilities

of nteraction ith hepublic, nd s often oundthrough

temporary

nstallations

nd

performances

n critical reasof

the

city

such s

Europe's

most

decayed

uburbs

almost s

if

t

unintentionally

imed o

remedy

he

shortcomings

f

the rchitects ho

designed

nd

built hem.1*

This s

yet

nother eason

why

relational esthetics

s

now almost

naturally

ediscovering

any typical

igures,

figures

ho are useful

precisely

ecause f their

atypical

nature

figures

ikeFriedman.

he

danger,

owever,

s that

Friedman's ationalworkwill be

impoverished

hrough

being

estheticized,

topping

t a

superficial

evelof

generic

public

nvolvement.he Friedmanian

proposals

f

self-

organization

lways

egarded

ociety

s a

whole,

s those

who haveread

Utopies

éalisables

14

is

mostbrilliant

ook,

first

published

n

1976

which

has not

aged

n

the

east,

ut

unfortunately

as

yet

o be

published

n

English),

well

know.

n

his

critiques

f the

myth

f

global

ommunication

and

democracies

governed

y

the media

mafia,

is con-

cepts

f

critical

group,

urban

villages,

city-continent,

etc., ummarize long eries f reflectionsaseduponper-

sonal

experience:

he

fight gainst

Nazism

n

Hungary

ur-

ing

World

War

I;

life

n

a kibbutz nd the

attempted

ut

failed

onstructionf an

entirely

ew,

classless

society

n

the

State f

srael;

he

U

architectureobile

nd Ville

spatiale

projects

which

soon sank

nto

oblivion);

eaching

n

American

niversities;

he vents f

1968;

hisworkfor he

United

Nations nd

UNESCO

in

poor

countries,

nd

so

forth.

The

originality

f

Utopies

éalisabless based

primarily

on

Friedman's

attempt

o

unite he earch or

manageable

anddemocratic orm fcommunity ith ndividual ree-

dom,

nd because f

this t has

long

been nubbed nsofar

s

it

ies outside

oth

onventional arxist nd

ibertarian

points

f

view

-

even

f,

ecently,

t

was not

entirely

ver-

39

11. rchitectureobileas irst

resented

at IAM0

Dubrovnik)

n

956.

12. riedman

ecently

ublished

wo

books

n

apan

hankso he

upport

f

the enteror

ontemporary

rt

n

Kytakyushu

Obrist

lso orksith

his

museum).

ee ona

riedman,

he

trompe

'œil

niverse

Kitakyushu:

Centeror

ontemporary

rt/

CA,

2002);

ities

Kitakyushu:

enter

or

Contemporary

rt,005).

ee lso

his

nthology

ro

omo

Barcelona:

Actar/Junta

e

Andalucía,

onsejería

e

Cultura,

006).

1?.or heresent-dayersionf ela-

tional

esthetics,

ee

icolas

ourriaud,

Relational

esthetics

Dijon:

es resseu

Réel,

998).

14.

ona

riedman,

topies

éalisables

rev.d.

Paris:'éclat,

000).

he ook

has eenranslatednto

erman,

Spanish,

ussian,

ndtalian.







looked

by

theneo-Marxist

philosopher

redric

Jameson.15

The failure f the

Utopian rojects

f the

1950s

nd

60s,

and

the vents f

1968,

asically

rought

bout

major

hanges

n

Friedman's

thought,ausing

him

gradually

o shift hefocus

of his studies rom

technology

o

society

s a

whole,

nd

especially

he

utopian

hinking

f Paul Goodman.16he

brother

f

architect

ercival

Goodman,17

professor

f

architecturet Columbia

University

nd one of thefirst o

invite

riedman

o

ecture

n

theUnited

tates,

aul

Goodmanwas

surely

n

influence n Friedman's

develop-

ment.

n

his

1961

ssay Utopian

hinking,

oodmanwrote

what eems o be the

starting

oint

f

Utopies

éalisables

ideas

are called

utopian

when

they

eemuseful

ut

pro-

posea differentstyle, differentprocedure, different

motive rom heusual

n that

particular

moment. hese

ideas can be of an

obvious ommon rder nd

easily

xecut-

ed,

but hen

they

would be

judged

impractical

nd/or

an

abuse

imposed

n the

peoplebyexperts

nd

ntellectuals,

reaction

exhibitingtrong

esistance

nd aversion.18

Becauseof

this,

orGoodman

utopists

musthave the

courage

o

fail,

dvancing

heir

project

n

solitude,

f need

be.19

t s

precisely

n

these

imes,

ithwhatRem

Koolhaas

calls

complete

absence f

Utopian

rive, 20

hat

riedman's

ideaswould eem o

gain

greater

alue. t s,then,

aradoxical

that he

prototype

f a cardboard

helter

or hehomeless

whichFriedman

uilt

with he

help

of a few tudents

t

MART

n 2006

-

is now

n thecollection

f a

contemporary

artmuseum.

Atthe ame

time,

his s

the

sign

f an

ump-

teenth

ailure:

hatwhat

houldbe

supremely

seful,

uotid-

ian,

offering

real

solution,

s

nsteadmummified

nd

dis-

played

n

a museum

ike chloroformed

butterfly.

swe

await

complete

tudy

rom

he

point

fview

of architec-

ture hat valuates riedman'slong

career

n ts

entirety

beginning

ith

his formative

experiences

n

Hungary

nd

Israel

we see

that

today

riedman's

message

s,

once

again,

dramatically

isunderstood,

ublimated

nto n

artistic rti-

fact,

nd exorcized

f

ts

political ignificance.

40

Manuel razi

eceived

is hD

inHistory

fArchitecture

nd

ofCitiest the chool f

Advanced

tudies

nVenice

ith

a thesis n

The rratic

Universe

fYona

riedman.

e

WRITES

OR

MC

ND BITARE.

15.

redric

ameson,

rchaeologies

f

he

Future:he esirealled

topia

nd ther

Scienceictions

London:

erso,

005),

228-29.

16. aul oodman

1911-1972)

ecame

one f he ostnfluentialocialritics

of he960sftere ublishedrowing

Up

bsurd:roblems

f

outh

n he

Organized

ystemNew

ork:andom

House,960),

hichookedt

he

rob-

lemsf

outh

n he

organized

ystem

ofmodernmerican

ociety

nd as

fundamentalorhe68 ebates.e

wroten

many

ubjects,

riticizing

he

failings

fWestern

echnological

ociety

and

making

racticalroposals

o reate

a modern

ociety

t humancale.

17. aulnd ercival

oodman,

Communitas:eans

f

ivelihoodnd

Ways

of ife

New

ork:

intage

ooks,

94-7);

reviseddition

960.18. aul oodman,Utopianhinking

(1961),

ater

ublished

n

Utopian

ssays

and ractical

roposals

New

ork:

Random

ouse,962),

-22.

19.

ee ier

ittorio

urelind anuel

Orazi,

The

olitudef he

roject,

og

7

Winter/Spring

006):

1-32.

20. Theresedo e

period

n

which

all f s new

xactly

hato o:

many

of

swould

rite anifestosand

some

f swereuccessful

n

ealizing

sectionsf hose

anifestos.

owever,

s

part

f hehift

n

ulture

n

heast

5

years,

nd ecausef ur wn

istakes,

thateliefnmanifestos,nd hatonfi-dencehate newhato o, ave

completely

ollapsed.owadays,

e

o

longer

rite

anifestos;

t

most,

e

write

ortraits

f

articular

ities,

n

he

hope,

ot f

eveloping

theory

fwhat

to owith

hem,

utf

nderstanding

howitiesxist

urrently.

n ther

words,

hisindf

onfidencesnow

completely

bsent,

ndtwillake

ong

timeor

nything

iket o eturn.

considerable

ercentage

f

eople

n

England

andknowbout

our

nti-

utopian

endencies,

incestudied

ere

in

968

would

aygood

iddance,'

ut

thebsencef topianrives erhapsalmosts eriouss n verdosef t.

Rem

oolhaas,

Dilemmas

n

he

Evolution

f he

ity,

ecture

t

ABE,

London,

006.

he

ommission

or

Architecture

nd he

uiltnvironment

is he ritish

overnment's

dvisor

n

architecture,

rban

esign,

nd

ublic

space.





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Utopia's Revival