Vanamie Art and Info Blog

Anarchitekton is a project by Catalan artist Jordi Colomer.

anarchitekton is the generic title of a video series made as a work in progress: Barcelona, Bucharest, Brasilia, Osaka are the first stops on this journey.
A peculiar character, Idroj Sanicne travels the city contaminating the streets with fiction. The models of the buildings are like grotesque banners, utopian provocations, or playful flags. Idroj runs to the broken rhythm of the cross disolve static images which, paradoxically, reflect a sense of unflagging movement.
A multi-projection in which each city is presented on a screen and everything happens simultaneously.

What is it about? Is it about the city, about its character, its space, about introducing fiction into reality (as the above statement would have it)? Or maybe it's about "On the one hand, the dream of edification in front of its reality; on the other, the dream of destruction facing its accomplishment. "? It certainly looks like a statement. A Manifesto (says Jean Pierre Rehm). "But a manifesto of what?" - he quickly adds. "Criticism? Is it a matter of appreciating the difference between this scaled-down model and the ponderous constructions of our cities? Or on the contrary their similarities?"
It is clear from the material on the page that the artist came into this well-prepared. He knows his art history (studied it at university), his architecture (university as well) and above all, he knows everything he needs to know about the specific places he goes to: their history, background, problems and solutions. This gives us a feeling of depth. It allows us to travel a bit further. But at the same time, it nearly imposes the idea that "he knows what he is doing". Does he really? And, above all, does he need to know? I have been recently captivated by the capacity good artists have of creating things wiser than themselves. This has recently become an actual ideal for many creators: don't control too much, let go of the kite just in time to see what the wind has to say... This might seem as a very slippery ground: after all, what is this Anarchitekton thing: an irony, a protest, a criticism, a proposal? If the apparently clear answer is "all of the above", it only deepens the problem. To put it bluntly, these interpretations are not only different, but they often contradict themselves. And if we demand some clarity of thought from people doing other activities, why shouldn't we expect that from artists?
Maybe today artists don't even want to interpret. They move closer to the object, to the reality they "express" or just "touch" or "double-see", and move out of the zone of personal opinion. It has been an unexpected discovery for me (although I do it when I create, too), since the ever-more subjective point of view seemed to be heading in the exact opposite direction, of "free", personal and voluntarily biased opinions and (mainly positive) discriminations. Instead, here we are, with artists simply, and gently, ever so gently underlining this or that segment of all this strange stuff we're made of. I get the feeling this process is much more difficult than it may appear to an unaware onlooker. You may disagree - but watch the artists. They pay their price, as they become increasingly transparent, light, ephemerous, nearly disappearing behind the copy of a bulding, letting the stuff speak by itself. Almost by itself. The cardboard building still needs someone to make it fly. And us.