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Consistently with what she proposed to the students of the twelfth edition of the CSAV and with her own artistic practice, Marjetica Potrč presents in her lecture some themes which are not strictly linked with the artworld, but that art should consider to be more efficient and to adhere in a more coherent manner with reality. Three thematic focuses on architecture and urbanism are juxtaposed to some of her projects in the aim of describing a “framework of civilization” more than an artistic research: Dry Toilet (Caracas, Venezuela, 2003) is analyzed in view of the opposition between formal and informal city, that should instead learn to coexist in order to solve the common problems that they face; the video Genesis (Barefoot College, Rajasthan, India, 2004) is illustrated in a wider speech that involves the issues of self-sustainability and of the transmission of knowledge linked to housing and energy supply as a transnational strategy of peace; the workshop conducted with CSAV students (Fragmented City, 2006) introduces the topic of the urban fragmentation of Western Balkans as symptomatic of the crisis of the modernist growth as a modality to visualize the new democratic project of former Yugoslavia countries.

Marjetica Potrč (b. 1953, Ljubljana, Slovenia) lives and works in Ljubljana. She is an artist and architect dealing with issues of social space and contemporary architectural practices, sustainability, and new solutions for communities. Her practice is strongly informed by her interdisciplinary collaborations in research-based, on-site projects, such as Théâtre Evolutif (Bordeaux, 2011), The Cook, the Farmer, His Wife and Their Neighbour (Stedelijk Goes West, Amsterdam, 2009), and Dry Toilet (Caracas, 2003). She translates these investigations into text-based drawings and large-scale architectural installations (“case studies''). Her projects focus on the city and its expansion, researching not only from an architectural or urbanistic point of view, but rather exploring aspects such as energy resources, watering systems and urban agriculture as social and cultural elements of the city development.

Her work has been exhibited extensively throughout Europe and the Americas, including major exhibitions such as the Venice Biennial (1993, 2003, 2009) and the São Paulo Biennial (1996, 2006). She has shown her work at the Guggenheim Museum, New York (2001), the List Visual Arts Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2004), the Curve at the Barbican Art Galleries, London (2007), the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin (2013, 2018), the PAMM Perez Art Museum Miami (2015) and the NTU Center for Contemporary Art Singapore (2019). Potrč has received numerous grants and awards, including the Hugo Boss Prize (2000) and the Vera List Center for Arts and Politics Fellowship at The New School in New York (2007). Since 2011, she has been a professor at the University of Fine Arts/HFBK in Hamburg.

Stefano Cammelli

Oltre la Cina immaginata dagli occidentali - Oltre la Città Proibita

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