The book features an encounters between creative communities: a community of forced displaced villagers, a community of artists, of designers, and of architects. The context was the village of Ein Hawd, an as of recently 'unrecognized' Palestinian village built within viewing distance of the inhabitants's former homes, now an Israeli artist village, Ein Hod. The encounter with the village was intense. It the hot summer of 2008, a group of over 20 artists and architects such as Matthijs Bouw, Yona Friedman, Dan Graham, Ali Kazma, MAP Office, Multiplicity, One Architecture, Tomas Saraceno & Museo Aerosola, Debra Solomon, Berend Strik, Sharif Waked, and many more, gathered from over the world and submerged themselves in the village's daily life. They slept on the free beds the villagers could offer for a period between a week and three weeks. In this time the artists, the architects and the villagers produced wonderful projects, shared amazing conversations, and arguments. They reflected on the profession, on the context, and on life.
This extreme condition forced them to stretch the boundaries of their professions and forced them to be creative in so many ways: architects practiced activism, villagers made art works, artists made architecture and the other way around, and so much more.
Village : One Land Two Systems & Platform Paradise
Description
Author Description
Malkit Shoshan is an Israeli architect, a researcher, and a writer. She is the founder of the Amsterdam based architectural think-tank FAST (The Foundation for Achieving Seamless Territory). Her projects, such as, One Land Two Systems; Atlas of the Conflict, Israel-Palestine; Where is Israel?; Territory of Desire in The South Caucasus; Archive of Displacement; ZOO, or the Letter Z, just after Zionism; explore and highlights the relations between architecture, urban design and activism. Articles about her work have been published internationally, in newspapers and in magazines including the NY Times, Haaretz, NRC, Frame, Volume, Abitare, Domus, and Monu; She exhibited work in numerous venues like The Venice Architecture Biennale, The Venice Art Biennale, The Rotterdam Biennale, mediamatic gallery, Storefront, NAiM, The Digital Art Centere in Hulon and The Design Triennial in Lisbon. She lectured at the architecture faculty in TU Delft, Harvard University, Columbia University, Berkeley University, Bezalel Academy, The Rietveld Art Academy, and at the Wageningen University. Currently, Shoshan is developing her Phd dissertation at the architecture faculty in the TU Delft and holds a fellowship at The New Institute (/NAi), in Rotterdam, where she develops a long term project titled Drones and Honeycombs, on the architecture and landscape of war and international relations. Maurizio Bortolotti is an Italian curator, based in Milan, Italy. He is the curator of the Zuecca Project Space international program in Venice. In 2010 he served as Art Commissioner for the First International Art Fair Art Gwangju, made by the Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju. He curated numerous exhibitions including: Ai Weiwei.Disposition, Zuecca Project Space (2013); Yona Friedman. Halic Center, Special project for the Istanbul Design Biennale (2012); Rirkrit Tiravanija, Untitled 2012 (a study for Karl's perfect day) or (the incomparable Karl Holmqvist) at the Zuecca Project Space (2012); Orientale (with Shwetal Patel), Zuecca Project Space (2011); Yona Friedman/Tomas Saraceno, MerzWorld (with Adrian Notz), Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich (2011); Dan Graham, Models and Video (with Gavin Wade), East Side Project, Birmingham (2011); Insight Turkey.2. Kutlug Atman. Dictionary, Galleria Francesca Minini, Milan (2009); Insight Turkey.1. Ali Kazma. Obstructions, Galleria Francesca Minini, Milan (2008). Platform Paradise, FAST, Village of Ein Hawd, Israel (2008); Local Modernity/Global Expectations, Special project 10th International Istanbul Biennale (2007) and Tomas Saraceno, Museo Aerosolar, Isola Art Center, Milan (2007).