Bodybuilding: online exhibition studies the contaminations between architecture and performance

Until 15 July 2020, the New York biennial Performa presents online videos and archival content focusing on the relationship between space, body and action.

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“Driftwood City” by Anna and Lawrence Halprin, a workshop from their “Experiments in Environment” series, Sea Ranch, CA, 1966. Courtesy Lawrence Halprin Collection, Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania.

Ugo la Pietra demonstrating “Il Commutatore” in Milan, Italy, 1970. Courtesy Archivio Ugo La Pietra, Milan

Artist Corsin Fontana demonstrating Coop Himmelblau’s “Soul Flipper II” at Galerie Stampa in Basel, Switzerland, in 1971. Photo Peter Schnetz

Moore Grover Harper’s “Design-A-Thon”, Dayton, Ohio, in 1976. Courtesy Centerbrook Architects and Planners.

Architect Kazuyo Sejima demonstrating “Pao I: A Dwelling for Tokyo Nomad Women” by Toyo Ito and Associates, 1985, Tokyo, Japan. Photo Tomio Ohashi

Performance view of “The Rotary Notary and His Hot Plate” by Susan Mosakowski, set design by Diller + Scofidio, at La Mama E.T.C. in New York. 1987. Photo J. Vezuzzo. Courtesy Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Christoph Schlingensief and Francis Kéré on the construction site of Opera Village in Laongo, Burkina Faso, in 2009. Courtesy Opendorf Afrika. Photo Aino Laberenz

“Superpowers of Ten” by Andrés Jaque / Office for Political Innovation at the 2013 Lisbon Architecture Triennial. Courtesy Office for Political Innovation

“ReActor” by Alex Schweder and Ward Shelley at Art Omi, Ghent, NY, 2016. Photo Richard Barnes

“L’air pour l’air” by SO–IL in collaboration with Ana Prvački in the Garfield Park Conservatory for the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial. Photograph by Laurian Ghinitoiu

“Marching On” by Bryony Roberts and Mabel O. Wilson. Performer Asante Garry from the Marching Cobras of New York City in Marcus Garvey Park, 2017. Photo Jenica Heintzelman

“What happens when performance enters the world of architecture? Understood as a tool, a method, or a heuristic device, performance is a blade that cuts into the matter of architecture. It slashes it open, but it may also help shape it,” write curators Charles Aubin and Carlos Mínguez Carrasco in the introduction to Bodybuilding. Architecture and Performance.

Starting with the book published last year, the New York biennial Performa expands its research with a digital exhibition, which can be visited for free until 15 July 2020. In the online channel performa-arts.org every day are transmitted films, performances, documentation of past events...

The “Bodybuilding” online exhibition includes rare archival materials by architects such as Aldo Rossi, Ricardo Bofill and Arata Isozaki, and works by contemporary authors such as Andrés Jaque and Cooking Sections.

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