Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA)
CCA launches a website accompanying the exhibition Actions:
What You Can Do With the City.
http://www.cca-actions.org
CANADIAN CENTRE FOR ARCHITECTURE
1920, rue BaileMontreal, Québec, CanadaH3H 2S6
On view 26 November 2008 until 19 April 2009, Actions: What You Can Do With the City presents 99 actions that instigate positive change in contemporary cities around the world. Seemingly common activities such as walking, playing, recycling, and gardening are pushed beyond their usual definition by the international architects, artists, and collectives featured in the exhibition. Their experimental interactions with the urban environment show the potential influence personal involvement can have in shaping the city, and challenge fellow residents to participate.The website http://www.cca-actions.org presents a playful toolkit to sort and browse the databank of individual actions from the exhibition, and challenges users to respond by posting their own thoughts or initiatives on how to improve the city through individual action. All entries will be displayed on the website and reviewed by the Actions team to be included a presentation at the CCA. ABOUT THE EXHIBITIONActions: What You Can Do With the City and its accompanying publication and website present specific projects by a diverse group of activists whose personal involvement has initiated vital transformation in today’s cities. These human motors of change include architects, engineers, university professors, students, children, pastors, artists, skateboarders, cyclists, pedestrians, municipal employees, and many others who address the question of how to improve the urban experience. The individuals and groups presented in the exhibition employ a range of approaches, from skating and parkour to dumpster diving and urban foraging. Some engage architecture directly by finding new uses for abandoned buildings, while others create tools for guerrilla gardening. In their individual critiques of urban modes of production and consumption, these actors share a conviction that the traditional processes of top-down civic planning are insufficient, and new approaches and tool s must be developed from the ground level upwards. Actions: What You Can Do With the City is curated by Giovanna Borasi, CCA Curator for Contemporary Architecture, and Mirko Zardini, CCA Director and Chief Curator, with Lev Bratishenko, Meredith Carruthers, Daria Der Kaloustian, and Peter Sealy. The design concept for the exhibition is by Andrea Sala, Milan, and the graphic design including display brochures is by Project Projects, New York City.
http://www.cca.qc.ca/
