Anna Neimark and Hernan Diaz Alonso in conversation, “Rude Forms Among Us”
“Anna Neimark talks with Hernán Díaz Alonso about her SCI-Arc Gallery installation Rude forms among us (January 31 - March 15, 2020). She describes her discovery of Eugène Trutat’s photographs from the 1880s of the Neolithic Dolmen de Vaour, and the powerful impression of Trutat’s original prints. She explains the appeal of dolmens, which are nonmonumental, more modest structures produced by upright stones—the orthostats—topped by a capstone. Neimark and Díaz Alonso discuss how the installation sets Trutat’s prints in dialogue with Neimark’s large structure that emulates the form of the dolmen in Structural Insulated Panels (SIP). Neimark stresses the effect of collapse of time between a structure 6 days old and a structure 6,000 years old. Audience members join in the conversation that touches on scale, coordinate systems, pavilions, the structure as a house, the mythologies associated with Neolithic structures, and land art. Díaz Alonso concludes with comments on the evolution and significance of the SCI-Arc Gallery exhibition program.”
Site: Mr. Wren & Friends. Logo and La Grotesque typeface by Francesca Bolognini
First Office was founded in 2011 by Anna Neimark and Andrew Atwood to create a dialog between architectural practice and academic discourse. Their collaborative work spans buildings, exhibitions, and publications, all rooted in the belief that architecture is a form of cultural production.
The practice has engaged with leading institutions, including the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, the Chicago and Venice Biennials, MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program, and the Architectural League of New York. The projects and essays of First Office have been recognized with awards and compiled in Nine Essays (Treatise Press, 2015), as well as in Andrew’s publication Not Interesting: On the Limits of Criticism in Architecture (Applied Research and Design, 2017).
Anna Neimark
Design Faculty and Visual Studies Coordinator, SCI-Arc
anna.neimark@gmail.com
Andrew Atwood
Licensed Architect and Associate Professor, UC Berkeley
w.andrew.atwood@gmail.com
About
First Office was founded in 2011 by Anna Neimark and Andrew Atwood to create a dialog between architectural practice and academic discourse. Their collaborative work spans buildings, exhibitions, and publications, all rooted in the belief that architecture is a form of cultural production.
The practice has engaged with leading institutions, including the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, the Chicago and Venice Biennials, MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program, and the Architectural League of New York. The projects and essays of First Office have been recognized with awards and compiled in Nine Essays (Treatise Press, 2015), as well as in Andrew’s publication Not Interesting: On the Limits of Criticism in Architecture (Applied Research and Design, 2017).
Anna Neimark
Design Faculty and Visual Studies Coordinator, SCI-Arc
anna.neimark@gmail.com
Andrew Atwood
Licensed Architect and Associate Professor, UC Berkeley
w.andrew.atwood@gmail.com
Site: Mr. Wren & Friends. Logo and La Grotesque typeface by Francesca Bolognini