Naslov
Cultural Exchange as an Expanded Field of Architecture : The Decentering Architectural Criticism of the Yugoslav Praxis Group

Autori
Galjer, Jasna

Izvornik
CLARA Architecture/Recherche (2295-3671) 2020/1 (2020), N° 7; 62-75

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, članak, znanstveni

Ključne riječi
architectural criticism, Praxis group, cultural transfers, socialism

Sažetak
By exploring the context of networks, critiques, debates, dialogues, and collaborative practices, the article challenges common understandings of the ideological dimension of architectural discourses of the period of the 1960s and 1970s. It also considers its potential for rethinking theoretical issues involved in the critical dialogue with other currents of utopian urbanism and prospective thought influential at the time. Approaching the question of the political purpose of architecture and in particular the possibility of initiating social change through architecture, the article presents the problematic aspects of “the great divide” proposed to exist between the modes of cultural practice and of public discourses as discussed by Jürgen Habermas (Habermas, 1980) , especially concerning the role of the key aspects and changes of the media in creating and reconstructing the link to contemporary “periodical codes” and binary oppositions of so-called “typologies of criticism”. Architecture is deeply embedded within economic and other structures of power, and its capacity to operate as a critical force of change is therefore compromised. The very physicality of architecture always threatens to install a new status quo, and undermines its capacity to be ‘subversive’ (Leach, 1999 :112–126) . The article investigates the reception of ideas and ideologies, from Lefebvre’s theoretical studies and Habermas’s thesis of modernity as an incomplete, i.e., unfinished project, to Fredric Jameson’s arguments in a historical context of cultural modernity simultaneous with these texts, but in different conditions. The concepts and typologies of architectural criticism are analysed through representational practices of the period, from the first attempts to write and rewrite the history of architecture, which coincided with architecture in the expanded field of experimental and conceptual practices, to postmodernist narratives redefining the questions of identity by appropriating the strategies of performing arts in the public space throughout the early 1980s. The thematic framework is constituted by case studies on cultural transfer in the fields of philosophy, theory, sociology, spatial research, and architectural discourse, which played a key role in the strengthening of border-crossing networks. The theoretical and methodological point of departure is the analysis of the Praxis circle in disseminating the intense intellectual exchanges and Summer School of Philosophy held in Korčula (1964– 1974). Although recent scientific historiography has expressed greater interest in the interdisciplinary area of cultural transfer, there has never been a thorough critical perspective of the politically charged debates on the history of Eastern European intellectual critical engagement, or systematic study on the theoretical achievements in the architecture of late socialism. Nevertheless, as recent studies (Stanek, 2011) have shown, the dynamics and the exchanges between international intellectual networks have an impact far beyond disciplinary boundaries.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Arhitektura i urbanizam, Povijest umjetnosti

POVEZANOST RADA