“We can say that we do not think through the things themselves, but through the representations of these things. » This is how the exhibition curator describes this sensitive homage to drawing. Begin Again. Fail Better was imagined by Manuel Montenegro and mounted at the Kunstmuseum in Olten by the latter, Marco Bakker and Dorothee Mesmer. It presents a selection of sketches, preliminary drawings or sketches of architectural design ideas and strategies. Exhibited in pairs, these allow us to appreciate the progression of a thought, the movement that takes place between the eye and the hand in search of a project strategy. First a sketch, sometimes a summary statement, a schematized idea. Then a plan or a section, showing a first elaborate state of a project in progress.
This tour de force is the fruit of patient research work by a passionate researcher and curator, who extracted these pairs of images from around fifty funds from the collections of Drawing Matter in England, from the gta Archive of the ETH Zurich, the Archivio del Moderno of the Academia di Architettura Mendrisio, the Archives of Modern Construction of the EPFL, the Fondazione Archivi Architetti Ticinesi, and Studio Vacchini. The drawings are presented in the alphabetical order of their authors, that is to say without order, in order to avoid any hierarchy. They date from the Renaissance to the present day, although most come from the second half of the 20e century. The Archizoom gallery at EPFL has invested all its energy in reuniting this precious ephemeral collection before it disperses again.
The selection is completed by around fifty drawings sent by Swiss architects, young and old, currently practicing. Responding to the call, they took part in the same game, sending two drawings, between the embryonic stage and the master blueprint which will guide them towards the project. All invite us to immerse ourselves in the patient exercise of projection – which was formerly called designoeither design, or drawing. With a few hundred
pairs of drawings the exhibition achieves a subtle objective: not to make a smug apology for the demiurgic genius of the architect; The aim here is to explore the mechanisms of creation, by exploiting these documents as an archive of thought in movement.
Didactics of drawing
Such an exhibition could usefully be aimed at people who are unfamiliar with “patient research” and the difficulty of creating a project from a blank sheet of paper. However, we regret that the system is missing some information, or even photographs of the projects carried out, in order to provide essential references to the uninitiated. Despite the intelligence and precision of the subject, the exhibition risks only concerning architects, who definitely only manage to interest those who already practice it in their art. The exhibition should, on the other hand, find a good response at Archizoom, in a framework which links academic research and educational mission, particularly among students who must learn to project – that is to say, to doubt – whether with a pen in hand, or by tapping on a keyboard. In all cases, the project is a matter of doubt, and of collective doubt.
Related:
Vadémécum: les cahiers d’Álvaro Siza. Article by Manuel in TRACÉS, June 2022
Although it is possible to appreciate the Ledor the characteristic of a line drawn by hand and which is specific to each architect, this is not the central aim of the exhibition. Certainly, a sketch reflects an approach, a hand, an author. But a drawing, says Montenegro, is always rooted in a constellation of collaborations that architects have with their colleagues: “All the lines drawn are imbued with countless stories, experiences and shared knowledge, acquired through visits made, books read and problems solved. » Some early sketches are surveys of villages, ruins or existing buildings.
Thus Karl Moser, already sketching the proportions of the Antoniuskirche in Basel based on a Florentine basilica flanked by its bell tower.
Thus Hans Hollein, sketching a small village in Arizona to compose the masses of a strangely futuristic communication center.
Thus Alberto Ponis, meticulously following the lines of his rigorously gridded notebook to arrive at a totally organic plan: one of his famous villas nestled in the hollow of the Sardinian cliffs (who would have thought it?).
Drawing, from anxiety to comfort
“The process of drawing,” explains Manuel Montenegro, “aims to make the unknown, if not known, at least controllable in a certain way.” This is what these pairs of collected sketches tell which, although stretching from the 16e au 21e century, are similar: the transition from a state of anxiety to mastery of concrete problems.
The themes of repetition and failure are said to have been inspired by a conversation with Alvaro Sizá about the state of anxiety the Portuguese architect feels at the start of each project. This anxiety, he explained, is gradually subdued by the first notes then the drawings, the variants and the alternatives which gradually strengthen his confidence, and put him in a state of “comfort” when these notes and these drawings become richer. through dialogue, with its customers and colleagues.
This is how Manuel Montenegro became interested in rhythms of thought, which can be “fast” or “slow”, like the title of Daniel Kahneman’s best-selling book. Rapid, instinctive thinking, practiced automatically, fails to innovate, explains the psychologist; while slow thinking (used in a context that we do not control), advances by trial and error, with caution.
This explains the enigmatic title Begin Again. Fail Betterborrowed from a poem by Samuel Beckett which glorifies failure – but also, perhaps, creation. This epigraph encourages us to understand this selection of drawings as an apology for trial and error in the project. The drawings on display teach us that architects initially place their project within a body of familiar knowledge, clinging to known things, shared solutions, tested elsewhere. They thus create little by little on paper an environment of trust in which we can, in a second step, try something new, cautiously, by exploiting failure and the constant renewal of traits which little by little freeze a emerging idea.
Thus Alphonse Laverrière, sketching vertical expressionist contours worthy of the skyscrapers of Chicago before giving the future Bel-Air Métropole Tower its more modest proportions, around 1930.
Thus Hans Leuzinger, architect of legendary alpine huts, sifting a territory with all kinds of surveying measurements before daring to launch, with a sure hand, into an ink rendering of the Tödi hut, at the Sandpass, in 1929.
Thus Lux Guyer, placing small colored boxes in the rooms of the plan that she draws so that the spaces come to life.
Begin Again. Fail Better is one of the rare exhibitions that provide an understanding of what the act of projecting is. Go visit it with your friends who talk about architecture without ever having held a pencil. Take the time to explain to them what this job is: search, fail, start again, search again. Draw.
EXHIBITION from November 5 to December 2, 2024
Begin Again. Fail Better
Opening reception – Monday November 4 at 6:00 p.m.Introduction by Marco Bakker and Manuel Montenegro.
Speeches “On Beginnings” par Sophie Delhay, Pier Vittorio Aureli, Jo Taillieu, Catherine Gay, Nicola Braghieri, Charlotte Truwant.Guided tour – Tuesday November 12 5:00 p.m.
Upon registration, in EnglishGuided tour – Tuesday November 19, 6:30 p.m.
Upon registration, in FrenchArchizoom EPFL
archizoom.ch
