Spatial City: Architecture of Idealism

Spatial City, the first exhibition in the United States of artwork drawn from the French Regional Contemporary Art Funds (Frac), brings together an international, multi-generational array of contemporary artists whose work contends with utopian thinking and the idealism and cynicism it inspires.,The exhibition Spatial City originated with the theoretical architecture of the same name by Yona Friedman (b.1923). In his first manifesto, Mobile Architecture (1958), Friedman defined the structures in this ideal city as being transformable, transportable and occupying as little ground area as possible, pushing structures to hover over the earth rather than occupy its surface directly. Friedman's ideas, disseminated in the aftermath of World War II, have influenced subsequent generations both indirectly and directly. While Friedman's concepts informed the framework of the show, the cynicism in postwar and contemporary culture. Artists in the exhibition are responding to society's complex problems: the failed utopian social experiments that resulted in the dehumanizing conditions of Brutalist architecture, the rise and fall of totalitarian states, the tensions resulting from post-colonial immigration, and the destruction of the environment in the name of progress.,Artists in the exhibition include: Lida Abdul, Christian Alexa, Elisabeth Ballet, Yves Belorgey, Berdaguer & Pejus, Katinka Bock, Monica Bonvicini, Jeff Carter, Maurizio Cattelan/Philippe Parreno, Jordi Colomer, Francois Dallegret, Edith Dekyndt, Peter Downsbrough, Philippe Durand, Jimmie Durham, Simon Faithfull, Didier Fuiza Faustino, Cao Fei, Robert Fillou, Elise Florenty, Yona Friedman, Dora Garcia, Ben Hall, Camille Henrot, Severine Hubard, Pierre Huyghe, Stefan Kern, Bouchra Khalili, Bertrand Lamarche, Vincent Lamouroux, Mark Leckey, Didier Marcel, Francois Morellet, Sarah Morris, Juan Munoz, Stephanie Nava, June Bum Park, Philippe Ramette, Sara Schnadt, Kristina Solomoukha, Tatiana Trouve, Marie Volgnier, Herman de Vries, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Stephen Wetzel, Raphael Zarka and others.,The catalog was edited by Polly Morris with Marie-Cecile Burnichon. It features photos from each institution's installation, along with critical essays, artist biographies and checklists of the work in the exhibition.,softcover, 114 pages, 8.5 x 11 inches, 62 illustrations ,