Place and Displacement: Exhibiting Architecture

Briefly described, Place and Displacement investigates practices of displaying architecture in both historical and contemporary contexts, with cases drawn from full scale exhibits of architecture, through the trade in architectural oeuvres, to the construction of imaginary architectural museums. The overall aim of the project is to establish a productive review of the medium of the architectural exhibition through meticulous archive studies and a historiographical approach. As a method of developing and testing research findings the project stresses the importance of dissemination through symposium and open workshops as well as emphasising the production of English language publication. All through the project emphasis has been put on expanding and consolidating Place and Displacement's network through active participation by the project members in international symposium and events. In 2012/13 Place and Displacement hosted three of its four visiting researchers: Ass. Prof. Jorge Otero Pailos (GSAPP, Columbia University) Dr. Victor Plahte Tschudi (Oslo University) and Wallis Miller University of Kentucky. In 2013 Place and Displacement arranged the international conference Place and Displacement Exhibiting Architecture Displacement: Exhibiting Architecture. The symposium was hosted by National Museum department of Architecture and took place over three days with presentation of papers and workshops around the issue of architecture and display. 2013/2014 the main activity and focus for the fourth year of the project has been to revised and publish the preceding from the international symposium arranged by Place and Displacement spring last year (April 2013). The anthology Place and Displacement Exhibiting Architecture, Lars Müller publisher; Zurich 2014 was launched at the Architectural Biennale in Venice 6 of June 2014 with invited speakers presenting the book (Daniel Birnbaum, head of Modern Museum Stockholm and professor Beatriz Colomina, Princton University). This central publication for the Place and Displacement project represent a productive collaboration with the National Museum department of Architecture and the book launch complemented the museum exhibition in the Nordic Pavilion in Venice. Other main activities in 2013/2014 were the exhibition Model as Ruin (Nov 1-December 15 at the House of Artist Oslo) curated by Mari Lending and Mari Hvattum. The exhibition was followed by the publication Modelling Time: The Permanent Collection 1925/2014 (eds Mari Lending and Mari Hvattum) Torpedo Press 2014. The publication draw on the network of Place and Displacement in commenting on the re-exhibition of the 1925 Permanent Collection of Norwegian scale models, photographs and drawings. In November 2013 Thordis Arrhenius gave a keynote lecture at the conference Documentary Remains, On Architectural Exhibitions and is contributing to the forthcoming publication with the same name (Ed. Mark Waisuta and Mark Wigley). In spring 2014 Professor Mari Lending carried out her academic exchange with Yale University. Lending was invited by professor Eeva Liisa Pelkonen and will contributed to Yale University forthcoming book on exhibiting architecture: Exibiting Architecture - A Paradox, New Haven: Yale School of Architecture, 2014. (ed. Eeva Liisa Pelkonen). In 2015 the main activity have been to finalize the various academic output from the project specifically the two PhD students associated with the Place and Displacement project. AHO PhD candidates Tina di Carlo and Natalie O?Donell have completed their PhD manuscripts. External readers have assessed the manuscripts and defense committees are in the process of being appointed. Both PhD candidates are schedule to defend their dissertations early spring 2016. Further in late 2014 and in the first months of 2015 Thordis Arrhenius carried out her academic exchange with the Getty Institute of Conservation, Los Angeles USA as an invited guest scholar.

From the late 18th century on, conflicting conventions of curating architecture have been conflated with urgent discussions of how material culture is handed down, distributed and appropriated due to various ideals and ethics. Questions of authenticity, i dentity, value, and the ambiguous status of detached architectural objects, still lurk behind discussions about architectural exhibitions, inside and outside the museum. Approaching conservation as a curatorial strategy, the project's interrelated individ ual studies discuss the displacement of architecture from various angles using multifaceted source material. The two core AHO researchers frame the topic of architectural decontextualization with two case studies, one on the vernacular on display, the sec ond studying the collecting of modern architecture. Two PhD positions will secure recruitment within an under-researched field, conducting research in contempory heritage studies and modern practices of architectural exhibitions. The first of these projec ts considers the question of reenactment in relation to curating architectural heritage; the second investigates the status of the architectural model in relation to the exhibition of architecture. A NIKU researcher investigates the re-use and display of spoils, studying the redistribution of Norwegian stave-church material within a culture of curating. A UiO scholar will study the imaginary architectural museum in the relation to the production of baroque engravings, adding to the mulitfaceted modes of exhibiting architecture. Two visiting professors (Columbia University and University in Kentucky) provide the project with unique competence in experimental conservation and exhibition history. A strong network of academics and practitioners offer an exc ellent forum for scholarly exchange across disciplines, discourses and countries, aiming to challenge the methodological boundaries of the disciplines involved.