One of the first Swiss performance artists, Manon has fashioned a career for herself out of the identities of others. Whether exploring the limits of gender or the beauty of decay, Manon continually foregrounds the instability of place and self. Her project She Was Once MISS RIMINI is one of her most brutal and touching. Here she literally depicts imagined futures for an aging beauty queen. Each exquisite image in this pictorial essay teases out the possible paths Miss Rimini – an alter-ego for Manon who “happened” upon a beauty pageant in the early 1970s and walked away with the crown – could have taken. A small-town diva? A hypersensitive viola player? Perhaps even a psychiatric patient?
Wherever You Find People captures the compelling story of the Integrated Centres of Public Education (CIEP) in the Brazilian city and federal state of Rio de Janeiro. This unique but relatively obscure experimental educational project is a prime example of socially driven public architecture and a testament to ambition and forward thinking. The CIEPs were conceived in 1982 by Rio’s State Governor Leonel Brizola (1922-2004), the anthropologist, author and politician Darcy Ribeiro (1922-97), and the eminent architect Oscar Niemeyer (1907-2012). Today a network of 508 CIEPs covers the entire state of Rio wherever you find people, you will find a CIEP. This new book is based on extensive interviews with key protagonists and richly illustrated with original sketches and annotated drawings from the Oscar Niemeyer Foundation archive, alongside visuals by Aberrant Architecture. It also features new essays illustrating how architecture can embrace the constraints and conditions of the modern world and engage creatively with the reality of today’s social, political, legislative and economic boundaries. Wherever You Find People contributes to a wider architectural discourse about the links between education, design and school building.
For many years the artist Rachel Lee Hovnanian has been analysing the drifts of our hyper-technological and hyper-connected society. She presented at the 59th Venice Biennale, Angels Listening, an interactive exhibition featuring seven large-scale bronze angels staged around a silver confessional box, each figure rendered in silence with its mouth “taped” shut.
Viewers were invited to participate by relinquishing their innermost thoughts, whether repressed due to fear of judgement or sheer inability, by writing them onto pieces of ribbon, placing these ribbons into The Cathartic Box, and ringing the awakening bell, a symbol of the role of the angels as mute listeners.
At the end of each day all of the new messages were compiled onto prayer-like mats and dispersed throughout the exterior gardens for future visitors to encounter and share as a collective stream-of-consciousness.
This book shares those messages. In listening to these stories, perhaps it is people who become the angels listening.
David Remfry MBE RA has long been fascinated by the relationships that develop between dogs and their owners. In this charming new book, his deft portraits in watercolour and gouache reveal the mutual understanding and sympathy of these partnerships. Many of his portraits are accompanied by sketches from the artist’s many notebooks alongside brief accounts by his sitters of how dog and owner came to find each other. Remfry’s lively watercolours and sketches illustrate such celebrities as Ethan Hawke (and Nina), Susan Sarandon (and Penny and Rigby) and Alan Cumming (and Honey). Some of the sitters were Remfry’s neighbours at the iconic Chelsea Hotel in New York.
Horticulture has been a core subject for photographer Marina Schinz throughout her career. This found expression in her previous books, Visions of Paradise, The Gardens of Russell Page, and A Tuscan Paradise. Visiting and photographing countless gardens around the world made her engage in gardening herself and culminated in major garden design projects for her houses, first in Westchester County (New York), then in the Hudson Valley (New York), and finally near Piacenza in Italy.
In Green Thoughts and Memories, Schinz looks back at her gardening adventures, interweaving horticultural observations with memoirs of her childhood in Zurich. Entertaining and engaging at the same time, full of practical considerations, and rendered with humour and philosophy, the book offers an unconventional appreciation of garden art. It conveys basic knowledge to put budding gardeners and rank beginners on the road to plant a mere tree or start an entire garden. In 12 chapters, it explores all the elements of gardening, such as weather, soil, labour, planning, flowers, shrubs, etc.
Richly illustrated in full colour throughout with Schinz’s own photographs of famous as well as unknown gardens around the world, this beautiful volume will appeal to anyone with a love of plants and gardens or with a desire to create a personal paradise.
Green is the new black according to Belgium-based garden architects Bart Haverkamp and Pieter Croes. It’s been more than 30 years now since they turned their love for nature into a business. During this time, they’ve completed countless and diverse garden projects, built up an enormous amount of experience and expanded their knowledge. Their method and philosophy evolved accordingly, resulting into their sought-after signature style. Their gardens – many of them on small plots, terraces or rooftops in the city – are anything but clean and fixed: rough outlines and plant selections are made beforehand, but they trust their intuition to make spontaneous decisions on the spot.
In this carefully curated and thoughtfully designed photo book, Bart and Pieter reflect on their work. Their aim is to share their vision and experience and to inspire all gardeners by showing how much is possible when you’re willing to let nature take its course. In this book, Bart and Pieter put their philosophy into words, as an introduction to 20 extensive and inspiring photo reports of their favourite or most important garden projects so far. The third part of the book holds short descriptions of these projects and useful advice on, for example, how to make your garden heat-resistant.
“In this abridged extract from Don’t Be A Tourist In London, Vanessa Grall suggests a few places to start a conversation in London… and one place to go and listen.” — Londonist
“Discover the capital’s secret spots with Vanessa Grall’s new book.” — Country and Town House
“The cliché says that when one is tired of London, one is tired of life – but I think this book might help some to rediscover the joys of both… there’s probably enough here to keep you going for things to explore for the next decade.” — Amateur Photographer
“This book will encourage the wanderer within. It is a true traveller’s companion as much as a beautifully designed collectable for your bookshelf.” — Polo Lifestlye
Discover the secret recipe for becoming an artful traveller in a messy world.
Don’t be a Tourist in London offers an escape route from the typical tourist itinerary to the British capital, unlocking a vault of thoughtfully-curated itineraries, local secrets, insider advice and little-known urban anecdotes.
For the third instalment of the best-selling Don’t be a Tourist series, the author takes us to her hometown to rediscover the personal joy of travel, following our instincts – not the tour buses. Each episode’s journey has its own mood, inspired by different traveller mindsets shaped by life’s relatable challenges and familiar emotions like heartbreak, career hurdles or strong personality quirks.
This book will encourage the wanderer within. It is a true traveller’s companion as much as a beautifully-designed collectable for your bookshelf. Within the pages of this beautifully bound hardback, you will find…
Secret Restaurants; Time Capsule Pubs; Cosy Hideaways & Unique Date Ideas; Unexpected alternatives to major museums; Film-worthy Walks & Quaint neighbourhood Discoveries; Hip London Hangouts; Aladdin’s Caves & booklover Havens; Places to be creative; Obscure/ Underground Adventures; Places to entertain the kids (or the kid in you!); Budget-friendly life-savers; Endless good-to-know advice and fascinating anecdotes.
One of the first people in Europe to consider the gifts which the Aztec ruler Montezuma gave to Hérnan Cortés as works of art was Albrecht Dürer: ‘Nothing I have yet seen has given me such joy as the objects brought to the king from the new gold countries […] Some pieces display an extraordinary skill; I have been astonished by the ingenuity of the inhabitants of those far distant lands,’ he wrote. It was 1520 and those works had been sent to Brussels.
The five centuries that have passed since the beauty of these objects was first noticed seem not to have been enough for the ancient cultures of Latin America to be fully understood. This catalogue of pre-Columbian art is a fresh attempt to examine and come to terms with artworks produced by a section of mankind that came to the attention of Europeans only after the voyages of Columbus and other explorers. It illustrates the collection of pre-Columbian art of Giancarlo and Inti Ligabue, one of the few collections of its kind in Italian hands: over 150 pieces from Mesoamerica and South America, an extraordinary corpus of objects which give testament to the excellence achieved by ancient artists. But it also tells the story of certain rare objects which belonged to the Medici Collection, one of Europe’s greatest treasures. Among these are two atlatls, spear-throwers covered in gold-leaf from the Aztec or Mixtec cultures, a Taíno necklace dating from the fourteenth or fifteenth century, and a Teotihuacan stone mask. These objects are accompanied by pieces from private European collections and a number of significant artworks from the Quai Branly Museum in Paris.
Essays by leading scholars and archaeologists, such as C. Phillips, C.F. Baudez, J.M. Hoppan, J.J. Leyenard, F. Kauffmann Doig, C. Cavatrunci, D. Domenica, and M. Polia, weave both scientific and humanistic interpretations of Amerindian thought. The Giancarlo and Inti Ligabue Collection of masterpieces of ancient Latin American cultures is part of a huge and broad-ranging hoard of objects gathered over a period of almost fifty years.
At the peak of the 1968/69 students’ riots at American Universities, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, together with Steven Izenour, pursued their Design and Research Studio on the topic of Las Vegas at Yale School of Architecture. The results of this were condensed into the book Learning from Las Vegas that became a classic almost instantly upon its first publication in 1972. The treatise excited the 1970s architecture world and has remained influential to architects, teachers and theoreticians to the present day. Some forty years later, Eyes that Saw: Architecture after Las Vegas offers a richly illustrated collection of essays by renowned scholars of art and architectural history, eminent architects, and artists, investigating Learning from Las Vegas and its heritage from various perspectives. Each chapter builds on the knowledge of the radical influence it had on architecture and urban design, visual art, and even on history more generally. Published alongside are documents from the Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates Archive at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as an illustrated chronology of the resonance in international media following the publication of Learning from Las Vegas in 1972. Contributors include: Stan Allen, Eve Blau, Beatriz Colomina, Valéry Didelon, Elizabeth Diller, Peter Fischli, Dan Graham, Neil Levine, Mary McLeod, Rafael Moneo, Stanislaus von Moos, Katherine Smith, Martino Stierli, Karin Theunissen, Robert Venturi, and Denise Scott Brown.
India, Jewels that Enchanted the World presents for the first time the remarkable history and unique legacy of 500 years of Indian jewellery, from the 17th century to the present. The essays, all written by leading international scholars, explore the rich, distinctive, and unique heritage of Indian jewellery; the striking boldness of South Indian ornaments; the delicate refinement of the Mughal period; the dazzling jewels of the post-Mughal maharajas; the cross-cultural influences between Europe and India in the 19th and early 20th centuries; and the creations of leading contemporary designers whose jewels display the enduring beauty of Indian design and craftsmanship.
Published to accompany a major exhibition at the State Museums of the Moscow Kremlin organised jointly with the Indo-Russian Jewellery Foundation, this lavishly illustrated catalogue brings together royal, ceremonial, and personal Indian jewels to showcase the entire range and variety of the jeweller’s art in India.
Wood is an ideal building material for sustainable architecture. It grows back and absorbs large quantities of CO2. But where does it actually come from in each case, and how will we make forestry and wood processing fit for the future? In what ways are conventional notions of professions and qualifications in architecture, engineering, and construction tested by using wood as building material?
French journalist Michèle Leloup together with architect François Leclercq — a pioneer of timber construction in France — have for a long time explored the ecological, economic, industrial, and technical challenges of using timber for major structures and urban architecture. This book summarises their findings using examples from the French forestry and construction industry. It also takes a look at Austria and the innovative work by Hermann Kaufmann, an internationally revered leader in the further development of traditional timber architecture. In addition, the book features five projects by Leclercq Associés.
Richly and attractively illustrated with new images by French architecture photographer Cyrille Weiner, The Wood That Makes Our Cities offers a concise survey of topical questions and findings in contemporary timber construction.
Maps that Made History is like a 1000-year-long journey around the world; every one of the carefully selected maps featured here has influenced the course of history in some way. This beautifully illustrated book gathers 100 marvellous old maps, each with a fascinating story to tell, from a 12th century Persian world atlas to a Soviet spy map. These maps were used to resolve conflicts, situate battles, construct a road or a canal, establish important shipping routes, even as propaganda tools. All the maps are reproduced in an oversized format, while accompanying text from an experienced team of historians explains the importance of each one.
In times of global crises, architecture must also seek new sustainable approaches to climatic and social challenges. Designed by Kashef Chowdhury / Urbana, the Friendship Hospital in southern Bangladesh can be regarded as pioneering in this respect. The hospital, which was awarded the 2022 RIBA International Prize, provides life-saving healthcare, as well as enhancing the identity of a coastal region that has been devastated by cyclones and soil salinisation as a result of rising sea levels.
Constructed in local brickwork, the architecture collects the valuable rainwater and uses the wind for natural cooling, while subtly interacting with specific characteristics of the world’s largest river delta. It also applies universal architectural means such as space, light and proportions to ensure the well-being of patients and the people close to them.
A profound architectural stance developed out of the geography and history of the local context makes this work globally relevant. This book, which includes a photo essay by Hélène Binet, presents plans, diagrams and model photos that offer insight into the design and construction process in one of the world’s most climate-affected regions.
What would life be like without cars, television, the Internet and computers, or the omnipresent smartphone? Setting aside the question of whether things would be better or worse, what we do know for sure is that today there are some inventions that we just can’t do without. And yet some of them are very recent, in their infancy we might say, while others are a little over a century old, which in any case is but a blip if compared to the history of humanity. They all have changed the existence of a considerable number of people, their advent has been such a breakthrough that it has always marked a “before” and “after”. The result of the brilliant intuition of exceptional men and women, of the perseverance and tenacity of great entrepreneurs or ingenious ideas of common people, these inventions have influenced and changed medicine, society, economics, culture, and history itself.
This book full of curiosities and explanations will guide readers to the discovery of the most important inventions that have influenced the contemporary world, from the end of the 19th century to our own time, revealing the secrets and events that led to their creation and introducing the exceptional figures who conceived them.
The great speeches since post-World War II to the present have marked eras and interpreted feelings, in a continuously evolving world, when faced with the eternal problems, like life and freedom, and also new challenges. Moving speeches with a great emotional impact, filled with ideas and values, sentences that have changed the course of history: Martin Luther King’s ‘dream’, Churchill’s ‘iron curtain’, Pope John XXIII’s ‘caress’, Obama’s ‘new beginning’. Not only states people, but scientists, literary figures, entrepreneurs, courageous girls like Malala who asks that the new generations may be guaranteed the right to education. A volume of 40 speeches, contextualised, explained and then given, in their fundamental passages, to enable the reader to immerse in those years.
The history of humankind has always been marked by natural catastrophes, migrations, discoveries, revolutions, and wars. But there have also been speeches that marked an era; instilling hope in crucial moments, reawakening the collective conscience of a population—or of all humanity.
In homes throughout the world, millions of people watched these speeches on television or listened to them on the radio, fascinated by the charismatic words, by the moral integrity, by the tireless passion and sacrifice of the orators, by those who dedicated their entire existence to the causes they believed in.
The thirty-eight speeches featured in this book were delivered over a period that ranges from immediately following World War II to today, and the authors include politicians and brilliant orators, as well as scientists, a writer, a missionary, a businesswoman, a talk-show host, and a young girl.
From Charles de Gaulle’s announcement of the end of World War II in 1945, Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” in 1963 and Stephen Hawking’s 2022 speech at his 60th birthday symposium, to Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union address in 2022, Speeches That Changed Our Times invites you to read these masterpieces of oratory without restraining the emotions they provoke, in the hope that learning from the past will help build a better world for the present and the future.
Contemporary And (C&) is a dynamic platform for reflecting and connecting ideas and discourses on contemporary art from Africa and its global diaspora. C& Magazine publishes weekly features, columns, reviews, and interviews in English and French. C& América Latina Magazine (C& AL) focuses on the connections between Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa. 2023 marks a special year for C& as the platform has turned ten! All that it holds. Tout ce qu’elle renferme. Tudo o que ela abarca. Todo lo que ella alberga brings together a selection of texts from the two online magazines’ living archives and gives insight into pivotal discussions and issues related to contemporary art in an African context.
Authors: Sandra Benites, Adriana Bustos, Dagara Dakin, Gürsoy Doğtaş, Keyna Eleison, Fairygawdzad, N’Goné Fall, Sheila Feruzi, Will Furtado, Thuli Gamedze, Camila Gonzatto, Mia Harrison, Russel Hlongwane, Mwangi Hutter, Ruth Ige, Kapwani Kiwanga, Yina Jiménez Suriel, Mokia Laisin, Prof. Peju Layiwola, Renée Akitelek Mboya, Jota Mombaça, Sabrina Moura, Angela Muritu, Enos Nyamor, Folakunle Oshun, Heriberto Paredes, Samera Paz, Marie Hélène Pereira, Natalie Perkof, Astarte Posch, Faith Ringgold, Leslie Rose, Theresa Sigmund, Suzana Sousa, Ethel Tawe, Ozolua Uhakheme, Raquel Villar-Pérez.
Text in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
Things That Cannot Be Put Into Words is an artist’s book written by Marie-Sophie Beinke and published by M-S B Verlag and HOPPER&FUCHS (originally published in German in 2021 by M-S B Verlag) and five translations of the same book as paperback editions. This publishing project consists of a mainly blank book, open to every possible idea and image. Things, that cannot be put into words: What has disappeared, the snatched away, the absent, the nothingness, the void are made present. Space for the thinkable, where words fail. An artist’s book that openly invites readers to critical thinking, dialogue and debate.
In That’s Brutal, What’s Modern: The Smithsons, Banham, and the Mies-Image, Mark Linder offers a new understanding of New Brutalism as a consequential, generative, and still pertinent episode in the history of imaging practices in architecture. His core thesis is that the most distinct identity and enduring influence of New Brutalism resides in Alison and Peter Smithson’s fitful and evolving fifty-year fascination with the imaging potential they found in the work of Mies van der Rohe.
In four chapters and around 50 image arrays, the book progresses from historical research to theoretical speculations on the legacy and potential of the Smithsons’ New Brutalism and their pursuit of the “Mies-Image.” The chapters situate New Brutalism in the context of emerging theories, practices, and cultures of imaging in postwar Britain, trace the Smithsons’ imaging practices and the appearances of the Mies-Image as it evolves in their projects and publications over five decades, reconsider Reyner Banham’s evaluations of Mies and his role in New Brutalism, and explore imaging theory and its potential to re-evaluate the significance of New Brutalism.
This book will appeal to a broad audience among architects, students of architecture, and those with a serious interest in modernist and contemporary architecture, but also among scholars in multiple academic fields including architectural and art history, visual studies, media studies, and photography.
From the technologically revolutionary to the downright ridiculous, this collection of concise musings documents the varied and often humorous relationships humans have developed with members of the plant kingdom.
These pithy stories span species celebrated as tribal fodder to delicacies elevated as some of our most valued possessions, from the ultimate symbols of devotion and love to campaigns that resulted in genocide, revolt and the shaping of the global political landscape, demonstrating a relationship between humans and the plant kingdom as broad, wonderful, and strange as the plants themselves.
Working from his Urbana practice in Bangladesh, Kashef Chowdhury designs architecture that is rooted in the history and nature of its location – whereby the latter also relates to a spiritual and cultural level. This explains his fascination for Kahn’s parliamentary building in Dhaka, which inspired this volume of photo essays.
Kahn’s design is characterised by an innovative architectural language that combines western and eastern traditions, forms and materials. For instance, in view of the great importance of water in Bengali tradition, he placed the building complex by an artificial lake. Furthermore, although it is defined by strict geometrical forms, the parliamentary building reflects the transcendental nature of the National Assembly, defining the hopeful founding years of the independent state of Bangladesh.
The Homes that Shaped Us is the first monograph on the work by Park + Associates, showcasing a selection of the renowned Singaporean firm’s award-winning houses. Singapore’s residential architectural scene is notable for blending futuristic design with sustainable practices and cultural influences. For over 25 years, Park + Associates has been quietly earning praise and plaudits for designing houses that stand out for their architectural innovation, yet which are very much designed as family homes. The studio’s bespoke designs respond to context, lifestyle, and the client’s own ideas. The firm is noted for designing for the tropical climate of Singapore, with emphasis on natural light, cooling effects of water and including beautiful green spaces. The houses showcased in this stunning monograph document the evolution of the firm since its inception in 1999, provide valuable insight into its work, and reflect the joy the Park + Associates team finds in designing homes. Each project is illustrated with beautiful photography and detailed floor plans and elevations. This book is a valuable and inspirational resource for anyone interested in architecture and design, with particular reference to tropical climates and modern contemporary comfort.
A visual journey through two centuries of history: this book collects 100 iconic photographs that captured crucial moments in human history. From world wars to space exploration, civil rights movements to climate change, each image is a window into the past, present, and even a possible future. Taken by legendary photographers or anonymous witnesses of their time, these pictures showcase the powerful storytelling ability of photography as a tool of collective memory. A striking, emotional, and visually rich volume—this updated edition of a bestselling classic brings history into sharp focus for today’s readers.