Artworks emerge from the disappearing skin of changing cities

Andreas Fogarasi: Nine Buildings, Stripped. Jednota/Golem Misfits/Golem. Foto: MUO - Zdeněk Sodoma
STORIES FROM THE TRIENNIAL SEFO 2024

How to preserve the memory of the architecture of the second half of the 20th century for future generations? In the Central European space, this is a problem amplified by the shadow of the communist dictatorship. As a result, the vast majority of buildings are irretrievably falling into disrepair and only a fraction are undergoing sensitive reconstruction.

Andeas Fogarasi, an Austrian artist and architect with Hungarian roots, has therefore begun to create a kind of library of the architectural materiality of this era.  In his project Nine Buildings, Stripped, he takes pieces of materials from reconstructed or demolished buildings that form their shells and creates original works of art from them. In a strictly guarded symmetry, he binds the ceramic cladding of Prague’s InterContinental or its windows together with industrial tape, for example. In addition to their aesthetic role, these works have the function of collective memory.

The Olomouc trace of an investigative conservationist

For the Olomouc Triennial SEFO 2024, Fogarasi created three works from two iconic buildings in the Hanseatic metropolis. The former Jednota building on Svoboda Avenue was built in 1966-1974 to a design by architects Vladimír Polesný, Ivo Kučírk and Alois Haltmar and is currently undergoing a total reconstruction. Fogarasi combined a large piece of ceramic mosaic, a grey boletic panel and an aluminium beam to create a historically and artistically strong work.

The fact that art also reflects themes that are still alive and emotionally strong is evidenced by two other objects by Fogarasi. The artist has focused on the never-built and generally condemned campus of the Faculty of Science of Palacký University in the Hejčín district of Olomouc from the 1990s. Comparing the reality and the plans, one can see how the generously prepared complex of buildings by architects Ludmila Kramolišová and Karel Doležel eventually became just a lonely building, nicknamed the Golem by the locals. The Olomouc Region is currently deciding what to do with the building.

In Golem, Fogarasi tied together various types of flooring, artificial stone and artificial leather. However, as the artists did not always have the required material available during construction and sometimes had to use a different type of linoleum or tile – cheaper and more accessible – Fogarasi created the Golem Misfits. This brings together just these forced and unwanted materials that were used in the building.

Andreas Fogarasi’s systematic work creates a catalogue of materiality typical of the second half of the 20th century. In addition to its artistic value, it fulfils the function of an archivist and conservationist.

Translated with DeepL.com

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