Jason Oddy will be joined by special guests to explore one of the lesser known but still most significant achievements of the legendary Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer and implications of his influence in architecture
During the course of his lifetime Niemeyer redefined the interaction between architecture and public space, imbuing the ideas of Bauhaus and Le Corbusier with a radically new perspective. More than once he came up with a way of reimagining both national identity and government, as well as the state as a provider of culture and knowledge. In 1968 the Brazilian was invited by Algeria’s then socialist president to embark on a series of ambitious, politically driven projects that he worked on until 1975.
Throughout his longstanding investigation of place the artist Jason Oddy has sought to lay bare the usually imperceptible forces that lie embedded in the built environment. In his series Concrete Spring, he once again treats manmade space as an ideological prism. In so doing this body of work places questions such as those of national awakening, the durability of humanist ideals, the amplification of the democratic agora and the transformative power of architecture centre stage.
Author and art critic Ben Lewis will be chairing the panel formed by Olivier Richon (Professor at the Royal College of Art), Owen Hopkins (Architecture Programme Curator at the Royal Academy of Arts), Ricardo de Ostos (NaJa & deOstos Director) and Jason Oddy. Together, they will discuss modernism, Niemeyer, phenomenologically engaged photography and the challenges architecture faces amidst the radically shifting geo-political landscape of our time.
Thursday 28, April, 6:30-8pm
Venue: 14-16 Cockspur Street, SW1Y 5BL
FREE ENTRY
RSVP Essential: culturalbrazil.rsvp@gmail.com
GALLERY 32
Embassy of Brasil in London
14-16 Cockspur Street SW1Y 5BL
http://londres.itamaraty.gov.br
