The post-war years and the subsequent digital turn expanded possibilities to record and manipulate moving images, thus changing daily architectural practice. Even so, architecture archives continue to operate as repositories of still objects. In these collections of papers, publications, and models, the moving image remains an exception. This ambiguous position stems from a preference for the still object, which endures as the desirable source for architectural historiography, leaving little interest for high-maintenance filmic supports.
On the occasion of the 2017 jubilee of the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta Institute) at ETH Zurich, the exhibition "gta Films" uncovered fifteen films that arrived at the institute at different moments of its history and which were subsequently stored therein (and sometimes abandoned to oblivion). In response to this state of affairs, the exhibition pulled these films from underground vaults and presented them anew throughout the architecture department.
This workshop reflects on the materials of "gta Films", which are now on show at Garagem Sul in the exhibition "Moving Constructions". Three public dialogues with participants from around Europe will explore questions about histories, films, and archives. How to account for relations between architects and films in researching architectural histories? How to analyse the specificity of the filmic medium in different architectural contexts? How to address the placement of and access to filmic supports?
Building on the premises that characterise the films at the gta Institute, the workshop aims to chart the general conditions of films in contemporary architectural archives.
Workshop organised on the occasion of the exhibition "Moving Constructions: Films from the Architecture Archives of gta / ETH Zurich", presented in Garagem Sul, Centro Cultural de Belém, 19.02.-26.05.2019.
https://www.ccb.pt/Default/en/GaragemSul/Exhibitions/CurrentExhibitions?a=1611
Organisation: Garagem Sul + Lab2PT, Laboratório de Paisagens, Património e Território
Commissioner: André Tavares
Curators: Andreas Kalpakci, Jacqueline Maurer, Daniela Ortiz dos Santos
Collaboration: gta Institute at ETH Zurich
Support: Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia
The workshop will be conducted in English.
Free admission to the workshop with previous e-mail subscription until 15.02.2019 to garagemsul@ccb.pt