Intermediary Places. Intermediary Uses.

09.01.2016 / 18:00 – 20:00
With studioBASAR

Artist’s talk with studioBASAR, Bucharest.

The talk with the co-founder of the architectural office studioBASAR, Alex Axinte, will discuss the consequences of neoliberal policies on urban living in Bucharest using the example of their exhibited work “Evicting the Ghost”. This work documents the personal effects of evicted residents which were found on the sidewalks of Bucharest. Personal belongings were piled onto sidewalks, covered in plastic sheeting and sometimes even used as makeshift shelters. Working within public space began as a form of documentation and adaptation to these conditions and has gradually turned into an action-based approach for studioBASAR. The Romanian capital itself acts as a collection of superimposing contradictions and fractures that are negotiated in intermediary places. These seem to traverse the city at every level: spatial, institutional and social.

studioBASAR was established in 2006 by Alex Axinte and Cristi Borcan, both as an architectural studio and a public space practice. studioBASAR’s projects range from urban research, educational workshops and public space interventions, to competitions and different typologies of residential and public buildings. In 2010 studioBASAR published the book “Evicting the Ghost. Architectures of Survival” which was awarded “Best Book Award” at the Bucharest Architectural Annual, and in 2014 “The Public Bath” was a finalist project for the “European Prize for Public Space 2014”.
www.studiobasar.ro