brutal decay

There are those who still think the bravura brutalist design of St Peter's Seminary in Cardross, 25 miles from Glasgow, to be an eyesore. There are those who say it was blighted by technical problems from the day it opened 45 years ago. Then there are those who believe that this is one of the greatest modern buildings in Europe. Whatever your opinion, St Peter's was deemed important enough to be placed on the World Monument Fund list of the "World's 100 Most Endangered Sites" in 2008.

Now, Scottish arts group NVA, funded by Creative Scotland and a number of UK trusts and foundations, has been given two years to raise £10m to enable the partial renovation of the great concrete structure. The aim is to transform the graffiti-plastered ruin and the surrounding Kilmahew woodland strewn with litter into an arts-led public space...

Since the early 1990s there have been several attempts to find new uses for St Peter's, but the NVA proposal garnered praise internationally when it was unveiled at the 2010 Venice architecture biennale. But NVA has just two years to raise funds and to spirit the project into life. It wants people – and not just locals and artists – to join in the discussion and, hopefully, help raise funds. St Peter's is a site of international importance, but if NVA fails, the lands and ruins will return to the Archdiocese; and, then – without purpose and funding – they can only fall into further decay.

from The Guardian, 12 May 2011
St. Peter's in Cardross, by architects Gillespie, Kidd & Coia

summer games

Klaus Goehling

Bubbleplast Games,1970s

(via Betonbabe)

Arthur Leipzig

King of the Hill, 1943

art-sports

I think the reason to do something in the social realm now is that
America has all these spaces that are inhospitable to that
kind of interaction. And also as a whole we’ve just kind of
stripped away the social constructs that were always in place —
little things, from manners to speaking properly to the right
way to introduce someone, to more complex rituals like balls
and Masonic societies. All these things had intricate structures
in place that would allow someone to be in public and give them
some sort of water wings so they could interact. Now we don’t have that.

-- artist Tom Russotti, creator of Aesthletics, from here

good idea: Folly for a Flyover

This summer, a building will appear in the gap between the east and westbound traffic of the A12. Transforming the cavernous undercroft where the motorway crosses the Lea Navigational Canal, Folly for a Flyover will host a five week programme of waterside cinema, performance and play delivered in conjunction with the Barbican Art Gallery and CREATE 2011.

Constructed from reclaimed and donated materials and drawing influence from the surrounding buildings of Hackney Wick, Folly for a Flyover is an imagined piece of the area’s past, suggesting the story of a building trapped under the motorway.
By day the folly will host a café, workshops and events alongside boat trips exploring the surrounding waterways. At night audiences will congregate on the building’s steps to watch screenings ranging from animation classics, to experimental cinema with live scores, light shows and performances.

Like a giant construction-kit, the folly will be built over the period of a month by a team of volunteers. Having served one purpose it will be disassembled at the end of the summer, its components taking on new incarnations in the local area.

go here

cutting holes. art-filters.

Thinking of Gordon Matta-Clark today:
public space; precious-hood of architecture;
dereliction of cities; what it means to inhabit
a landscape and alter it through artistic imposition,
therefore making it useful again;
utility vs. folly and all that artistic seesawing.

image here

Peter Schjeldahl on Matta-Clark here

Chris Killip

public space

here

good idea+

BMW Guggenheim Lab

Linnea Glatt

good, sit-able public art