Nikolaus Hirsch Livres

In several theoretical essays, dialogues on collaborative projects and reflections on his own work, the architect Nikolaus Hirsch explores the critical transformations of contemporary space and its effects on spatial practice. On the threshold to disciplines such as visual and performative arts ("Planning the Unpredictable" with William Forsythe) he questions the notion of "boundary" as a phenomenon of social and political discourse, as a conflict between collaboration and authorship, as well as a physical limitation that negotiates between stable and unstable conditions. Nikolaus Hirsch is an architect based in Frankfurt am Main, who teaches at the Architectural Association in London and at UPenn in Philadelphia. His work includes the internationally acclaimed Dresden Synagogue, the Hinzert Document Center, the European Kunsthalle in Cologne and United Nations Plaza (with Anton Vidokle) in Berlin. He has curated Repräsentationen des Urbanen at the Berlin Volksbühne. His work has been awarded a number of prizes, including the World Architecture Award 2002, and has been shown in exhibitions such as New German Architecture in Berlin, Utopia Station at the Venice Biennial and Can Buildings Curate , AA London/Storefront Gallery in New York.

The Cybermohalla project takes on the meaning of the Hindi word mohalla (neighborhood) in its sense of alleys and corners, relatedness and concreteness, as a means for talking about one's place in the city. Initiated by the Delhi-based research institute Sarai/CSDS and Ankur, Nikolaus Hirsch and Michel Müller developed a project that involves approximately seventy young practitioners, the Cybermohalla Ensemble, who engage with their urban contexts through various media. Cybermohalla Hub, a hybrid of studio, school, archive, community center, library, and gallery is a structure that moves between Delhi and diverse art contexts including Manifesta 7 and, most recently, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. The Cybermohalla experiment has been engaged in rethinking urban life, and reimagining and reanimating the infrastructure of cultural and intellectual life in contemporary cities. The book not only documents the architecture of the project, which functions as an attempt to build knowledge, but also publishes insights that have emerged from the project as a whole. ContributorsCan Altay, Cybermohalla Ensemble, Rana Dasgupta, Hu Fang, Naeem Mohaiemen, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Jacques Rancière, Raqs Media Collective, Superflex, et al.

Throughout history, follies have been used widely in architecture, visual arts, and literature as a provocation, a frivolous diversion or strategic place of madness and satire freed from the constraints of societal norms. Since their initial inception in landscape gardens, follies have been used as medium or object, oscillating between aesthetic autonomy and social-political potential. Placed in contemporary cities, follies become critical tools to test the constitution and transformative potential of public space. Revisiting some of these historic sites, a series of eight newly commissioned follies forge links between every day uses and political practice linking contemporary Gwangju and a global political arena. The book takes the form of a glossary, situating the eight new Follies within a broader cultural discourse and presents the projects curated by Nikolaus Hirsch, Philipp Misselwitz, and Eui Young Chun as “foolosophy.”

From 2003-2007, one of the most exciting exhibit spaces in London was Flaca, in the home of artist Tom Humphreys. This copiously illustrated exhibition catalog looks back on those days through Humphreys' eyes. It's a perfect match with the Frankfurt-based museum, Portikus, and its tradition of interpreting the exhibition space in forever new ways. Humphreys made no pretense to offer an illustrative or historically accurate representation of his activities in those days; he created a group show with more than 40 artists, some of whom never showed at Flaca. The catalog expresses the energetic, engaged style that characterized Humphreys and his creation, Flaca. Contributing writers are Thomas Bayrle, Christian Egger, Nikolaus Hirsch, Sophie von Olfers with essays recalling the excitement of discovering artists in this cutting edge space, its historical chronology and much more.