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Xtreme Architecture at MIT, Democracy in Action at Art Interactive
BY RANDI HOPKINS
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Slovenian artist and architect Marjetica Potrc is drawn to the varied visual expressions and significant sociological ramifications of our most basic urge to shelter ourselves from the elements, to put a roof over our heads. Marginal, even transitory structures, often made from found and recycled construction materials, and the communities they form, are the focus of her installations. And they’re immensely pleasurable to look at — colorful, askew, playful. She’s like an imaginative kid making forts, but with a real-life urgency. Potrc, who was awarded the prestigious Hugo Boss Prize in 2000, is the subject of "Marjetica Potrc: Urgent Architecture," which opens at MIT’s List Visual Arts Center next Thursday. Potrc’s work often responds directly to the dwellings that make up such "unplanned" cities as shantytowns and squatter communities, and her past projects have included working with architectural students in rural Hale County, Alabama, to design personalized dwellings for local residents, and developing a geodesic structure that could be inexpensively assembled to join the multitude of temporary contraptions that spring up in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert during the Burning Man festival each summer. Her exhibition at MIT will feature Hybrid House: Caracas, West Bank, West Palm Beach (2003), a massive installation of housing units based on her research into these densely populated communities, and a new series of drawings of Boston’s Big Dig project. Across the hall, the List Center is presenting "Artur Zmijewski: Selected Works, 1998–2003," the first US showing of work by this Warsaw-based videomaker. Zmijewski’s videos look at relationships between so-called "normal" individuals and those with physical defects, challenging viewers’ ideas about perfection and success. With MIT taking a leading role in bringing rock-the-boat architecture to town, commissioning extraordinary new buildings and cool new art to fill and surround them, it’s fitting that the topic of this year’s edition of the always raucous Annual Max Wasserman Forum at MIT is "The University As Patron of Cutting Edge Architecture" — and a top-notch panel of experts has been assembled to kick it around. Architects Frank Gehry, Steven Holl, and Robert Venturi will be there, along with theoreticians James Ackerman, Kimberly Alexander, and Kyong Park; they will join MIT president Charles Vest and executive VP John Curry, with William J. Mitchell, head of MIT’s Program in Media Arts and Sciences, moderating. Three hours have been set aside for the forum next Saturday, but don’t plan to run off right on time; experience indicates that the event may go a little long. Plan to stick around — should be worth it. What with the Democratic National Convention coming to town to snarl up traffic this summer, the politically savvy folks at Art Interactive in Cambridge have organized "Participatory Democracy," which, opening next Friday, takes a relevant look at how we the electorate perceive our role in the democratic process. Five fine artists — Ravi Jain, Natalie Loveless, Jeff Warmouth, Andrew Warren, and Douglas Weathersby — present video, photography, installation, and performance art that uses humor and carnival games, among other techniques, to raise consciousness and provoke questions about the political arena as we know it. "Marjetica Potrc: Urgent Architecture" and "Artur Zmijewski: Selected Works, 1998–2003" are at MIT’s List Visual Arts Center, 20 Ames Street in Cambridge, May 6 through July 11. The Annual Max Wasserman Forum on Contemporary Art, "The University As Patron of Cutting Edge Architecture," is at MIT, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Auditorium 26-100 (and simulcast in Auditorium 10-250), May 8, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event is free, but reservations are required. For information about MIT events, call (617) 253-4400. "Participatory Democracy" is at Art Interactive, 130 Bishop Allen Drive in Cambridge, May 7 through July 29; call (617) 498-0100.
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