PRESENTATION OF THE PERMANENT ACTIVITIES

ETH ZURICH

In the first years of ILAUD — Urbino, 1977-1979, on the themes of participation and re-use —, the ETH team lead by Bernard Höesli — together with Tobi Stöckli, Martin Spühler, Herbert Kramel, Santiago Calatrava et al. — widely reflected on a series of alternative positions to the “political” participation which was proposed by Giancarlo De Carlo. These alternatives, which were substantially based on a disciplinary view of participation, were the object of the “permanent activities” of the school and were mainly communicated through a series of boards, or grids, composed of hanging pictures and texts. As testified by De Carlo’s comments on the presentations, they were strongly attacked and rapidly dismissed by the organizers of the ILAUD. The climate in the room was very tense and critical.

For our 2021 re-enactment, we are proposing an analogous set of boards / grids representing a possible assemblage of theoretical positions which are recognizable in the contemporary cultural landscape of the school. Interestingly enough, this frame of ideas still shows a meaningful continuity with the 1970s’ one. By re-enacting a fictional presentation of the ETH permanent activities for the 2021 ILAUD in Rotterdam, we would like to engage you in a similar confrontation between the contemporary positioning of the ETH team and of the ILAUD main organizers, whose role we kindly ask you to assume for the next 45 minutes. For this time spam, please forget the contemporary politeness of the academic discourse and be very critical!