Architectural activists headline April 14
talk show eying the ‘Curating Dilemma’

In Theory -- Curating Dilemma from TAMU College of Architecture on Vimeo.

Architectural activists Ana Dzokic and Marc Neelen, founding members of STEALTH.unlimited, a European architectural collective, visited Aggieland April 14 to participate as featured guests in an outdoor talk show at the Texas A&M College of Architecture.

The duo, whose practice spans urban research, spatial intervention and cultural activism, joined talk show moderator Peter Lang, associate professor of architecture, and guest Joshua Bienko, assistant professor of visualization, to discuss their experience as curators of unique, highly acclaimed exhibitions throughout Europe. The outdoor event, dubbed “Curating Dilemma,” took place. in “The Pit” on the south side of the Langford Architecture Center on the Texas A&M campus.

STEALTH’s appearance was sponsored by the Department of Visualization and the Texas A&M Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts.

“These last few years, curating has become a cross-disciplinary profession encompassing all aspects of art, architecture, design and even the urban landscape,” said Lang. “It is one of the hottest educational categories in the top schools of architecture and design, such as the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation in New York and the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.”

“As catalyst for dialogue, curators provide context for exhibitions,” Lang continued. “With broad experience that includes everything from performance architecture to major exhibits in European hinterlands, Ana and Marc promise to offer compelling insight on the challenging role of interpreting complex experiences.”

Collaborators since 1996, Dzokic and Neelen in 2000 established STEALTH.unlimited, an architectural collective based in Rotterdam and Belgrade. Their practice shifts perspectives between urban research, visual arts, spatial intervention and cultural activism. Considering space both a tool and an agency, they focus on innovative aspects of sometimes hidden, temporary or unplanned urban practices that challenge traditional methods for creating physical aspects of the city and its culture. By creating devices that can take the form of specific spatial interventions or occasions for knowledge exchange, STEALTH produces conditions to probe the shared authoring of urban space and culture.

Since its inception, STEALTH has initiated (or participated in) a wide number of internationally published and exhibited projects on the complexity and inconsistency of the contemporary city, like “Wild City” (Belgrade), “Urban Catalyst” (Amsterdam), “Adaptations” (Apexart, New York and Fridricianum, Kassel), “Challenging the Conservative Brain” (Kunstverein, Munich), “Cut for Purpose” (Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam), “Europe Lost and Found” (Western Balkans), “Plans and Slums” (Rome/Belgrade), “Port City Safari” (Rotterdam), “Constitution for the Interim” (The Netherlands), and “Cities Log” (Western Balkans).

Dzokic and Neelen recently exhibited at the 8th Sao Paulo Architecture Biennale, the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale (Italian Pavilion), the TriPostal – Lille 3000, the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam and the Center for Curatorial Studies at BARD University, New York.

In 2008 STEALTH co-curated the Dutch Pavilion at the Architecture Biennial in Venice, with the project Archiphoenix: Faculties of Architecture. In the same year, with the Slovenian artists and architect Marjetica Potrc they completed the project Fruit and Energy Farms in a Public Square, a public art commission for a schoolyard in Knivsta, Sweden, which followed their residency at Iaspis in Stockholm.

In 2009 STEALTH curated Episode 2 of the Tirana International Contemporary Art Biennale in Albania and initiated the project, “Public City,” in collaboration with Radical Education at Moderna galerija, Ljubljana, Slovenia

STEALTH’s curatorial works are interdisciplinary, multifaceted projects that often involve dense collaborations with large numbers of participants and experts. Their aim is to contribute to contemporary knowledge outside of expected institutional systems and shape opportunities where various fields of investigation meet.

Marc Neelen graduated in 1997 from the Faculty of Architecture at the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. Ana Dzokic graduated from the Berlage Institute Amsterdam and the Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade. Both are members of the School of Missing Studies network in the Western Balkans and co-initiators of Centrala Foundation for Future Cities.

For additional insight into the work of STEALTH.unlimited, visit their website.

- Posted: Mar. 30, 2010 -