The Process in Question/ Bridge of Reversible Destiny, 1973-89 © 2016 Estate of Madeline Gins. Reproduced with permission of the Estate of Madeline Gins.
Tour details:
The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, February 2, 2019 – March 24, 2019
Niigata City Art Museum, April 13, 2019 – July 15, 2019
Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, September 18, 2019 – December 8, 2019
National Museum of Art, Osaka, January 7, 2020 – March 15, 2020
When we look back over the history of architecture, we find so many wonderful schemes that failed to see the light of day, and myriad exciting ideas that were that were kept safely locked away as nothing more than lifeless posals. Architectural dreams for the future; designs that although technically possible, could not be built due the social conditions and systems of their times; or proposals more focused on challenging an established system, rather than realizing an actual buildingan. All these schemes are the aptly-named unbuilt architecture, and uncompromisingly express the dreams and ideas of their architectural creators.
This exhibition featuring an array of international unbuilt architectural designs of the 20th century and onward, has the working title “Impossible Architecture.” The word “impossible” in this context does not mean “impossible” simply because of any radical or unreasonable demands of the architectural design, but refers to the restrictive boundaries of each project’s social time and place, encourages us to revisit and re-examine the possibilities lying at these architectural frontiers. By placing the focus on the impossibility of this architecture, paradoxically their extreme possibilities and rich potentials come to the for, abundantly fulfilling the very aim of this exhibition.
Through a diverse mix of plans, models, and other related materials, the “Impossible Architecture” exhibition closely analyze the extraordinarily imaginative projects of some 40 architects and artists, and casts the spotlight on new forms of architectnew that have never been seen before.