Capitalist modernity, with its emphasis on innovation, growth, and progress, its economic system based on consumerism and profligacy, has led to a ruthless exploitation of humans and nature. Architecture has played no small part in this, as the statistics on greenhouse gas emissions and construction and demolition waste prove. As a counterstrategy to this creative destruction, The Great Repair advocates a focus on repair, in which nurturing, maintenance and repair become the key strategies for action. The exhibition aims to reorient the foundations of our systems of thought and economy toward economies of repair and care, in order for the economy to be re-embedded in society, and the latter for its part in the natural environment.
Through a range of diverse installations and representations, the exhibition presents concepts and prototypes that address current challenges, paradoxes and inequalities in urbanisation, economic activity (such as agriculture or mining), architecture and energy practices.
‟ The exhibition questions the possibility of a socio-ecological transition towards a new material culture.”
Study director of the Master in Architecture
“Sufficiency and post-growth approaches should (…) develop paths to a new planning and political culture: rather than placing emphasis on ‘less’, they might offer ‘more’. More quality of life, more social equity, more independence, more clean air, more time and space, more conviviality.” – Florian Hertweck, Professor in architecture (quoted in: KoozArch)
The exhibition also proposes to rethink the way we practice architecture, both in the classroom, the office, or on the construction site.
‟ We need toolkits to empower architectural workers in their struggle for fairer employment conditions, as well as a vision for architectural practices that are built on notions of collective care and solidarity.”
Associate curator of the exhibition and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Luxembourg
An international project on the road
You don’t get to see the University of Luxembourg in Paris every day! After the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, “La Grande Réparation” is now on display at the Pavillon de l’Arsenal in the heart of Paris, until 5 May 2024. The fact that the Pavillon de l’Arsenal is hosting this exhibition is no coincidence: the vast location is undergoing a process of repair to improve accessibility and adapt to climate change.
The exhibition has been co-designed and co-produced by the German magazine ARCH+ and researchers from the University of Luxembourg and ETH Zürich, with numerous contributions from independent artists and architects and organisations such as TU Munich, EPFL, to name just some.
Florian Hertweck has undertaken the artistic direction with partners, and collaborators include University researchers Marija Marić (previously co-curator of the “Down to Earth” project, which represented Luxembourg at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2023), Caroline Faber, Céline Zimmer, as well as a group of students of the Master in Architecture.
Admission is free for this event, which is open from Tuesday to Sunday. For full details:
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The Great Repair exhibition © 11h45
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