Politics of Somatic Architectures: An Almost

ABSTRACT

Politics of Somatic Architecture of Care - proposes a performative investigation of temporarily empty commercial spaces within the city of Bergen, culminating in a series of discursive spatial installations and a printed magazine. The project investigates heterotopic architectural elements that shape, define and/or provoke the configuration of closeness and distance. The rapidly changing restrictions and narratives, related to the pandemic, that define the spaces we move through will be examined from a queer perspective. Through the project we aim to blur the line between audience and artist by positioning the installations and accompanying research as protagonists, that modify the performativity of all participating bodies.

The first of four installments of the research will take place throughout March at TempoTempo - a temporarily closed bar in Bergen’s city center. The project will propose a research based interaction formulating different readings of this semi-public space. This documentation could be presented at the congress as spatial assemblage documentation and essay.

Politics of Somatic Architecture of Care is envisioned by the performative researcher Danja Burchard and interior architect and researcher Maike Statz. 

We understand architecture as a container that effectively guides, defines and restricts collective movement. Formations such as the queue or other compartmentalizations of bodies as we can find in bars, changing rooms, enter and exit performances, and also invisible structures related to health and safety rules propose specific somatic performative actions and/or elements.

KEYWORDS

Somatic Architecture, Queer Phenomenology, Architecture and Power, Speculative readings

MODALITY

ONLINE COMMUNICATION

SECTION

ART - TERRITORY

BIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCE

Burchard is a creative producer and artist currently based in Bergen.

Their work is concerned with speculative narratives inherent to the construction of power, gender, and identity. Currently they develop a series of speculative manuals investigating micro-phenomenons such as the ALMOST or the Space Between The Lines. Maike Statz currently lives in Bergen, Norway. Working across the fields of interior architecture and art she is interested in the influence of architecture on individuals and society. Currently engaged in research on the relationship between gender, sexuality and space Maike uses writing and installation as a means of examination. .