The Funambulist is a magazine that believes that the politics of its production and management should be held to the same standards as the politics of its contents. In this regard, and although self-critique is always challenging, this presentation examines how the magazine meets and fails this mission. Graham grantee Léopold Lambert reflects on the work to date and presents future directions for the publication.

Léopold Lambert is a Paris-based, trained architect who collaborated with Madeline Gins in 2013–14. He is the editor-in-chief of the print and online magazine The Funambulist, dedicated to the politics of space and bodies. He is the author of Weaponized Architecture: The Impossibility of Innocence (DPR-Barcelona, 2012); Topie Impitoyable: The Corporeal Politics of the Cloth, the Wall, and the Street (Punctum Books, 2015); La politique du bulldozer: La ruine palestinienne comme projet israélien (Éditions B2, 2016); and States of Emergency: A Spatial History of the French Colonial Continuum (forthcoming, 2019). He has been the recipient of four Graham Foundation grants between 2014 and 2017.

Related Graham Foundation supported projects:

2017 Publication grant to Léopold Lambert for The Funambulist
2016 Publication grant to Léopold Lambert for The Funambulist
2015 New Media grant to Léopold Lambert for The Funambulist Podcast
2014 New Media grant to Léopold Lambert for The Funambulist Podcast

Image caption: The 20 first issues of The Funambulist since September 2015

The work of Arakawa and Madeline Gins is usually approached through art theory, philosophy, or even sciences; yet, rarely is it examined through the underlying, yet powerful, political dimension of their groundbreaking work. This presentation will first attempt to demonstrate how all designs are calibrated on a certain idea of what a body is, almost always reinforcing societal normativity and its violence in doing so. It will then illustrate the ways through which Arakawa and Gins designed architectural projects that fundamentally subvert such normativity and, as such, can be read as one of the rare examples of revolutionary political architecture.

Léopold Lambert is a Paris-based, trained architect who collaborated with Madeline Gins in 2013–14. He is the editor-in-chief of the print and online magazine The Funambulist, dedicated to the politics of space and bodies. He is the author of Weaponized Architecture: The Impossibility of Innocence (DPR-Barcelona, 2012); Topie Impitoyable: The Corporeal Politics of the Cloth, the Wall, and the Street (Punctum Books, 2015); La politique du bulldozer: La ruine palestinienne comme projet israélien (Éditions B2, 2016); and States of Emergency: A Spatial History of the French Colonial Continuum (forthcoming, 2019). He has been the recipient of four Graham Foundation grants between 2014 and 2017.

Related Graham Foundation supported projects:

2017 publication grant to Léopold Lambert for The Funambulist
2016 publication grant to Léopold Lambert for The Funambulist
2015 new media grant to Léopold Lambert for The Funambulist Podcast
2014 new media grant to Léopold Lambert for The Funambulist Podcast

Image caption: Léopold Lambert, Human Engineering vs. Arakawa+Gins, collage, 2019

For more information on the exhibition, Eternal Gradient , click here.

5:30 p.m. Comments by curator Irene Sunwoo; Stephen Hepworth, director of collections at the Reversible Destiny Foundation; and exhibition designers Carrie Norman and Thomas Kelley

6:00–8:00 p.m. Opening reception

Please join us for a reception and introductory remarks by exhibition curator Irene Sunwoo; Stephen Hepworth, director of collections at the Reversible Destiny Foundation; and exhibition designers Carrie Norman and Thomas Kelley to celebrate the opening of our winter exhibition.

Eternal Gradient traces the emergence of architecture as a wellspring of creativity and theoretical exploration for the artist Arakawa (1936–2010) and poet and philosopher Madeline Gins (1941–2014). Including over 40 drawings and a wide-range of archival materials, this presentation illuminates a pivotal moment within a collaborative practice that spanned nearly five-decades.

Eternal Gradient originated at the Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) and is made possible, in part, by the Estate of Madeline Gins and through a partnership with the Reversible Destiny Foundation.

The exhibition was curated by Irene Sunwoo, GSAPP director of exhibitions and curator of the Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery, with Tiffany Lambert, GSAPP assistant director of exhibitions. The Graham Foundation presentation is organized by Sarah Herda, director, and Ellen Alderman, deputy director of exhibitions and public programs. The exhibition design is by Norman Kelley, a Chicago & New Orleans architecture and design collective founded by Carrie Norman and Thomas Kelley.

Image: Arakawa and Madeline Gins, Drawing for ‘Container of Perceiving,’ 1984. Acrylic, watercolor and graphite on paper. 42 1/2 x 72 3/4 in. Photo: Nicholas Knight. Courtesy Columbia GSAPP. © 2018 Estate of Madeline Gins. Reproduced with permission of the Estate of Madeline Gins

For more information on the exhibition, Eternal Gradient , click here.

Arata Isozaki, DEME robot, 1970

Containing a wealth of texts and images, Thomas Daniell’s Graham-funded book An Anatomy of Influence elucidates the theory and practice of 12 leading Japanese architects (Hiromi Fujii, Terunobu Fujimori, Hiroshi Hara, Itsuko Hasegawa, Osamu Ishiyama, Arata Isozaki, Toyo Ito, Kengo Kuma, Kazuyo Sejima, Kazuo Shinohara, Shin Takamatsu, and Kiyoshi Sey Takeyama). Rather than the usual array of exquisite yet autonomous buildings, this newly released publication focuses on the hitherto unexplored lives of their architects, and the intellectual, social, and political environment in which they worked. The result is not only a fascinating perspective on modern Japanese architecture, but a profound recasting of our understanding of the modern Japanese architect.

Thomas Daniell is a Professor of Architectural Theory and Criticism at Kyoto University, Japan. A two-time recipient of publication grants from the Graham Foundation, his latest book is An Anatomy of Influence (AA Publications, 2018). His previous books include FOBA: Buildings (Princeton Architectural Press, 2005), After the Crash: Architecture in Post-Bubble Japan (Princeton Architectural Press, 2008), Houses and Gardens of Kyoto (Tuttle, 2010), Kiyoshi Sey Takeyama + Amorphe (Equal Books, 2011), and Kansai 6 (Equal Books, 2011).

Related Graham Foundation supported projects:
2015 Publication grant to Thomas Daniell for An Anatomy of Influence

2008 Publication grant to Thomas Daniell for After the Crash: Architecture in Post-Bubble Japan

Join us for a talk by Alex Mustonen and Benjamin Porto of the New York-based collaborative design practice Snarkitecture. This event will take place in advance of the unveiling of The Beach, a large-scale interactive installation that will open to the public on Saturday, January 19 in the Aon Grand Ballroom at Navy Pier. Snarkitecture’s work focuses on the reinterpretation of everyday materials within a conceptual approach to create unexpected engagements with our surroundings — centered on the importance of experience, this premise extends to The Beach, an all-white ocean of over one million recyclable, antimicrobial plastic balls.

Following the talk, the bookshop will host a book signing of Snarkitecture’s recent catalogue, published by Phaidon.

Snarkitecture is a New York-based collaborative design practice established to investigate the boundaries between disciplines. The name is drawn from Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of The Snark, a poem describing the “impossible voyage of an improbable crew to find an inconceivable creature.” In its search for the unknown, Snarkitecture creates work that includes large-scale projects, installations and objects.

This talk is presented in partnership with EXPO CHICAGO and Navy Pier. For more information about the upcoming installation The Beach at the Aon Grand Ballroom at Navy Pier click here.

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