A HOUSE FOR NOT LADY GAGA

That is, for most of us.

But the longing belongs to ALL OF US.

We are all incomplete, we all long for “something else.”

"Tell me something girl…
Are you happy in this modern world?
Or do you need more?

Is there something else you’re searching for?

I’m falling
In all the good times I find myself longin' for change
And in the bad times I fear myself

Tell me something boy…
Aren’t you tired trying to fill that void
Or do you need more?
Ain’t it hard keeping it so hardcore"

In an interview with Lady Gaga about the new film A STAR IS BORN, the singer declared that the character she brilliantly plays is not her. But somehow what we think we might not be, it might actually be not so far from who we truly are.

But we want to dedicate this HOUSE FOR NOT LADY GAGA to all artists who are discouraged by an adverse society, by misunderstandings, by indifference. Yes, most of us are not Lady Gaga… but we could become… in the sense that if the longing is strong enough, anything could happen.

But strangely, this “not Lady Gaga” is somehow more moving than the “real” one… no more make up, no more the armor of extravagant design, no more hiding… just the real hair, the real face, the real posture, the real clothing, and last but not least, THE REAL VOICE, as amazing as ever.

Somehow we like this Lady Gaga more, since she can be anyone. Of course, the two Lady Gaga are related.

But this “less spectacular” Lady Gaga is all the more moving! Because, again, she is a paradigm, The paradigm of so many “unsuccessful” artists who struggle in the gutter to express and reach the unreachable.

That very longing mentioned in the text of the song Shallow.

And it is refreshing to hear Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper be disappointed, too, by the shallowness of our world, to hear them missing something deeper, that is, something TRUER.

Yes, let’s design A TRUE HOUSE FOR NOT LADY GAGA.

Maybe a struggling house… a house with wrinkles, yes, the wrinkles of worrying… but wrinkles that recede, when, in full light, beyond fear and rejection we let our truth, our “voice” blossom.

L’effet c’est moi becomes, indeed, l’effet c'est nous.

Let’s design A HOUSE FOR NOT LADY GAGA.

That is, A HOUSE FOR ALL OF US.

Please send us your work by December 31st, format A0, vertically oriented, as many sheets as you want.

Thank you,

ICARCH Gallery
www.icarch.us  



A HOUSE FOR PAUL VIRILIO

Paul Virilio died.

This French theorist obsessed by war, asked: what does architecture mean in the age of total war ? - a war which, even when it does not manifest itself explicitly, it is fatally in the making, with ever increasing speed.

Our age is indeed governed by speed. We cannot conceive "progress" without speed. But this glorified speed could also mean a quicker progression towards the end.

If indeed, as he said, the invention of the ship also meant the invention of the shipwreck, we are progressing towards the final (?) regression. He created the word "dromocracy" (from the Greek word "dromos" - speed). Speed - as a promise of a never (yet) reached freedom.

But, are we so free ?

And, more importantly perhaps, are we war free ? The human aggression didn't diminsh, it actually increased, with ever accelerating speed. As Einstein intuited, while confessing not knowing how the 3rd World War would be fought, he seemed sure that the 4th Wolrd War would be fought with sticks and stones.

Would this be "progress ?"

We are obsessed by "growth"... we grow, grow, grow... but what do we grow towards ? It seems the ultimate "growth" pushes us towards leaving Earth. It is no accident that three of the great princes of human "growth" and "success," Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson they all want to leave Earth. But towards what ? And why the urgency ? Maybe they too feel the fatality of infinite growth... like those less than pleasant animals that leave the ship when they feel the incoming shipwreck.

Lebbeus Woods thought that architecture is war and war is architecture. This equation seems brutal and simplistic. But maybe there is a truth here that Virilio intuited as well. 

We invite you to imagine A HOUSE FOR PAUL VIRILIO.

Would it be a bunker ?

Would it be burried deeply into the viscera of the earth ?

Would it be on the Moon, on Mars, or much, much further away ?

Would it be a memorial, a tomb ?

Or, looking the other way, would it be some kind of habitable kite, recognizing its fragility and laughing in the face of disaster ?

How would it be ? If Nomen est Omen, we cannot ignore the name of its "inhabitant:" Virilio. Virility. Virile. MANHOOD. This very manhood that invented speed, this very virility so prone to war, this very virility showing its muscles of ever increasing speed and ferocity. But could a philospher ever be "virile ?"

We ask you to design a house for a virile Philosopher. Maybe a philosopher defeated by this very incongruous "virility." Please send us your work by December 24th, 2018. We will publish all the works received on our website and we will organize a traveling exhibition with them. Please use format A0 to present your work, oriented vertically, as many sheets as you want. Please send them to works@icarch.us.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you,

ICARCH Gallery

THE HOUSE OF FLOWERS
A HOUSE FOR CHARLES RENNIE MACKINTOSH

It is very possible that between flowers and architecture, there is war. Yes, war. Architecture, by its very nature, even when conveniently declared as “sustainable” or “ecological,” is an aggression on nature, and very rarely it achieves that dreamt of harmony between Man and Nature.

Now, 150 years since the birth of the great architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh, we ask you to imagine THE HOUSE OF FLOWERS.

We are aware of the built-in contradiction. A house is a house, and flowers are flowers.

But what / how would THE HOUSE OF FLOWERS be like ?

Would it be a “hippie house ?”

Maybe… Flowers, peace and love do seem to somehow belong to the same field…

But why did Mackintosh renounce to build and why did he dedicate the last years of his life to painting, not just flowers, but also landscapes ?

Perhaps it was a good decision… after all, it seems these days we do have more buildings than flowers, and we do not speak here in exclusively symbolical or metaphorical terms.

To think of a flower, when building or imagining a building, means to almost think against architecture. But isn’t this the title of a book by Denis Hollier dedicated to the thoughts, and writings, of Georges Bataille ?

It is. AGAINST ARCHITECTURE.

But how to build, or to imagine building, on such a premise ? Jungendstil did it, of course… Art Nouveau was “nouveau” exactly because it assumed the lyricism of flowers, or of Nature, in more general terms. But to speak of flowers, just as to speak about butterflies, means to speak about VULNERABILITY.

Yes, we invite you to explore the theme of Architecture and Vulnerability. So THE HOUSE OF FLOWERS would have that mirific vulnerability of flowers.

The House of Flowers… The House of Vulnerability… it seems, indeed, that we are contemplating an almost Non-House, no ?

Yes, this is what we do: we invite you to imagine The “Non-House" of Sensitivity… The “Non-House" of Ephemerality, the “Non-House" of Fragile Beauty, the “Non-House” of accepting the limits, of accepting the transitoriness of life… if Art is the flower, and Life is the leaf, as Mackintosh said, then, to put it simply, we ask you to design THE HOUSE OF ART.

Art, this most fragile of all entities, Art, without which, truly, life would be just a leaf… without flowers.

Could we imagine a life without flowers ?

Impossible.

To imagine it, it would mean to imagine DEATH.

Celebrate life, and fragility, through THE HOUSE OF FLOWERS, now that we reached 150 years since the great architect who also drew and painted flowers was born: Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Please send us your work by December 10th, when there will be 90 years since Mackintosh died. Please register before the deadline to receive a registration number with which to anonymously identify your work.

Thank you,

ICARCH Gallery
www.icarch.us