Duration: 2011-2014
Founding: The Research Council of Norway
Architecture forms a seemingly immovable and durable presence, resistant to both display and displacement. However, buildings and building parts have, for centuries, provided material for the lively curatorial practice of disassembly and reassembly, collection and display. This tradition has received little scholarly attention yet forms a vital component of our cultural imagination, whether in the open-air museum’s simulated environment or in the on-going reassembly of architectural fragments within the city.
Place and Displacement: Exhibiting Architecture is a cross-disciplinary and international research project based at the Oslo Centre for Critical Architecture Studies at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. The project investigates various practices of displaying architecture in historical and contemporary contexts. Two closely interlinked themes organize the project. One considers preservation as a form of curation and displacement; the other focuses on architectural collections, models, miniatures, engravings and spoils, and their economies of validation and display. Together, the project investigates the processes of displacement in relation to collection, preservation and exhibition practices. The aim is to identify and contextualize the forces and complexities of different modes and technologies of commemoration when architecture is displayed.
The project is arranged around case studies that range from full-scale exhibitions of architecture in open-air museums; to the trade of architectural oeuvres; to the construction of imaginary architectural museums, scale models, mock-ups, specific exhibitions and the imaginary landscapes made possible by computer generated simulation.
Throughout the project, preliminary results will be disseminated in workshops, symposia and publications in conjunction with OCCAS. The project spans four years, from 2011 to 2014. The project sponsors and funds two senior researchers at AHO, professors Thordis Arrhenius and Mari Lending as well as two full-time Ph.D. positions. AHO also awards four three-month sabbaticals for visiting researchers: Dr. Ola Storsletten, The Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU), Dr. Victor Plahte Tschudi, Norwegian Institute in Rome, Oslo University, Dr. Wallis Miller, University of Kentucky and Dr. Jorge Otero-Pailos, Columbia University, NY.
More info at http://occas.aho.no