Urban Fictions for Possible Futures
Curated by: Daphne Dragona, Panos Dragonas
Exhibition design: Panos Dragonas, Varvara Christopoulou
The future never felt closer than it does today. A series of environmental, technological, and social shifts are changing the planet. The Earth resembles a city which keeps on sprawling outwards while other areas are abandoned due to climate change and extreme socio-political conditions. Life in the urban environment is reorganized thanks to intelligent systems constantly processing human and machinic behavior. Artificial ecologies promise to offer solutions to the problems of the ever-growing global population. As diverse images, once belonging to the future, become more and more part of the present, an urge to understand the ongoing phenomena becomes apparent.
The Tomorrows exhibition unfolded the multiple aspects the future presents today through the works of artists, architects, and designers. Their projects start from the challenges and the contradictions that shape the images of the future. The current scenarios are exaggerated, unexpected, and often paradoxical, aiming to raise questions, and to provoke discussions. Furthermore, taking into consideration that the future reaches different geographical areas at a different pace, many of today’s hypotheses underline the role of local conditions and needs.
The exhibition took both as a starting and a reference point the Ecumenopolis by Constantinos Doxiadis, the city that by the 22nd century would have occupied the whole of the inhabited planet. According to the visionary city planner, the desirable development of the future city for the human and the environment was based on the relation and balance between five fundamental elements, i.e. nature, shells, networks, society and anthropos [the human]. The elements of Doxiadis’ Ekistiks were used in the context of this exhibition to study the components of the future, and also to render understandable the changes in our expectations for the future. The five elements were transformed, redefined, and possibly reversed, while returning to one key and central question: Which future is, at the end, the one we want, and what will be our role within its formation?
The exhibition included a detailed presentation of Electronic Urbanism, a visionary project by Takis Ch. Zenetos that was in progress for more than 20 years. The original models for the house of the future, the city of the future and the furniture for the year 2000 were shown in public for the first time since 1971. The original presentation drawings were scanned and digitally reproduced. The exhibition also included archival material such as Zenetos’s personal notes and sketches which have never been exhibited before.
Tomorrows exhibition was presented at the Diplareios School in Athens, a half-abandoned 1930s Eclectic building in the run-down, not-yet-gentrified part of Athens’ city centre. Most of the available spaces at the Diplareios are small, worn out and covered in graffiti. The exhibition design took advantage of the setting, highlighting the juxtaposition between the abandoned 20th century building shell and the new media installations of the speculative projects.
May 16th – July 16th 2017, Diplareios School, Athens -GR
Organized by: Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens / Christos J. Carras
Organization: Konstantina Soulioti
Technical Planning & Supervision: TENSOR S.A. (G. S. Papadimitriou & M. Pantelidaki)
Lighting: L4A “Lighting for Architecture”
Visual Design: Beetroot
Photos: Mariana Bisti
The exhibition in Athens featured 32 individual and group projects by: Constantinos Doxiadis / Shu Lea Cheang / Design Earth / Demetra Katsota & the Coastal Domains Option Studio, University of Patras / Stefania Strouza & The New Raw / Cathryn Dwyre & Chris Perry / Emma Charles / Morehshin Allahyari & Daniel Rourke with ARTEKLAB, Antonio Esparza, Darlene Farris-LaBar and Geraldine Juárez / Erich Berger & Mari Keto / Kyriaki Goni / Aristide Antonas / Zenovia Toloudi / Michael Young & the Yale School of Architecture Advanced Studio / Metahaven / Takis Ch. Zenetos / Manolis Daskalakis-Lemos / Lina Theodorou / Penelope Haralambidou & MArch Unit 24, Bartlett School of Architecture / Liam Young / Lydia Kallipoliti & Andreas Theodoridis with Erica Vinson, Xueping Li, Seraphim Le and Dakota Pace / Point Supreme Architects / Zissis Kotionis / Tobias Revell / AREA Architecture Research Athens / Victoria University of Wellington / Adam Harvey / Ava Aghakouchak & Maria Paneta / New Affiliates & FarzinFarzin / James Bridle / Vassiliea Stylianidou / !Mediengruppe Bitnik / Pinar Yoldas.
For more information please visit tomorrows.sgt.gr
