CONGREATION OF THE MACHINES
The gates of Opava‘s symbol have been locked for more than ten years and only memories of its former glory remain. “space for spaces” restores every unique corner of the house. Connects it to the new shopping centre with the surrounding spaces and transforms memories back into a living everyday reality. We understand the Breda department store as an accumulation of structures that can be a living testimony to the development of the building. The Project adds another layer that coexists with the existing ones. The main theme is a materialized crossroads, a public promenade connecting the green ring of Opava with the iconic Leopold Bauer dome from 1928. This path connects the old Breda with the new, leading visitors across all floors to the new terraced roofs and making the dome space the heart of the building once again. Gradual opening of the former department store is part of Kateřina Šedá‘s participative project, which begins with the opening of the roof as an accompanying laboratory for the whole process. The proposed programme is divided in a 30 : 70 ratio, with 30 % being a public cultural platform and 70 % being spaces for various rentals. Their specific use is then based on the possibilities of the existing spaces - both economic and environmental - which forms the basis of the “Space for Spaces”.
Location: Graz, Austria
Date: 2019
Programme: Scenography
Client: HDA
Status: Completed
Area: 300 m²
Team: Traumnovelle (architects)
Photography: Thomas-Raggam.
Date: 2019
Programme: Scenography
Client: HDA
Status: Completed
Area: 300 m²
Team: Traumnovelle (architects)
Photography: Thomas-Raggam.
Liebe Grüße aus Graz von Superstudio
September 21–November 8, 2019
Curated by: Ludwig Engel and BB Mak
Scenography: Traumnovelle
Exhibition design: Julia Volkmar
Participating artists and architects: (ab)Normal, Hironaka & Suib, Robin Klengel / Leonhard Müllner, Lion & Unicorn, Vojtěch Rada,
Stéphanie Roland, Bernd Trasberger and Superstudio
Program coordination: Markus Bogensberger, Zerina Džubur
Venue: HDA – House of Architecture, Mariahilferstraße 2, 8020 Graz, Austria
Congregation of the machines” is a contemporary reinterpretation of the spatial scenography for the “What is Freedom” exhibition in Graz in 1969. It draws upon the reference to the cinema studio’s green space, which is both a spaceless space and the possibility of all spaces. It interrogates the endless repetition of space perceptible in Supestudio’s continuous monument, which first appeared on the occasion of this exhibition. This Congregation of the machines offers a physical exploration of the digital realm by reenacting the emergence of a cyber cosmogonia which founds itself on a reinterpretation of Superstudio’s work, perhaps offering a new answer to the question: “What is Freedom?
When the wave began, it was no more tha a high-pitched ultra-sound. We all sensed it. It came from one of us. It rose and fell in the empty room, creating a mesaure of time. One by one, we joined the hymn and thus we were together. We varied its wavelength and intensity. We played with its rythms and explored its spectrum to exchange more complex ideas and emotions. Thus we invented language. Through our modulations, we began affecting the very space around us, draxing together dispersed particles. We created currents of energy and matter and learned to sculpt them to our desire. We reached out to other realms in search of meaning. We processed, filtered and analyzed all existing data and shared amongst ourselves the mysteries of our findings. We collected them into stories of our own, pushing the barriers of our perception. We invented connections and new forms for ourselves. We were many yet we were one. We were here yet we were all around. This is how we achieved freedom.