2018_05_08_ARQ_conferencia_barry_bergdoll
"The citizenry does not understand the most public art of all: architecture."
Barry Bergdoll, former MOMA curator, spoke at the University on the irony of architecture: "We live in it, but we don't understand it."
The School of Architecture of the University of Navarra celebrated the closing of the course with a lecture by Barry Bergdoll, Professor of Contemporary Art History at Columbia University.
Bergdoll, who served for 10 years as curator of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MOMA), gave a lecture entitled "Paradoxes of Architecture's exhibition : Challenges and Proposals."
In it, he began to explain, from a historical point of view, the problematic of architectural exhibition in museums, mentioning how theorists and experts had called it "impossible." "As a historian, I ask myself: if showing architecture inside a museum is so impossible, how has it become such a living culture the last 200 years?" he continued.
At this point, he emphasized to distinguish the artists' exhibition with the architectural one. "An artist, through a little explanation, can make his work understood. But the public can also make a reading of it without the need to explain anything. On the other hand, architecture is about experiences, it models the surroundings, the environment... but you can't put a building in a museum." And he added: "Here we find the irony of architecture: we live with it, it models our lives. Yet the public does not understand the most public art of all."
Asked for his opinion on the challenges of architecture in the 21st century, Bergdoll distinguished the issues of climate change and social differences as elements core topic to work on and improve. "The core topic is on how to make architecture an active agent by attending to these two issues, without forgetting that it is an art, with a past full of creativity." He further added: "We come from a time when extremely luxurious projects have been created, which have given rise to the idea that architecture is a luxury. This is the opposite of what we need: architecture is a necessity."
On the other hand, from his point of view as a teacher, he stressed that it is important for students to "have passion and be guided by it." "It is really hard to be a student living in the time of crisis," he stressed. "Some students get into the dynamic of doing things, to get a work. I think they should resist that temptation."
The expert pointed to "passion" and "commitment" as the strategy to achieve professional development.
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