Moving Constructions. Films from the Architecture Archive of gta / ETH Zurich

There is a certain discrepancy inherent in films in architectural archives, insofar as they are listed in the inventories like the other documents, but are largely left out of the historiography - the construction of historical narratives, so to speak. Moving Constructions reverses this relationship by exhibiting fifteen films from the gta archive in order to critically reflect on the interrelationships between film, architecture, archive and historiography. Architectural history is mainly based on “silent” objects: Writings, sketches, photographs, plans and models. While films also count as stores of knowledge and memory, they are also fragile materials that require special care and resources for their preservation and handling. This is one of the reasons why moving images are often overlooked in architectural discourse.

Based on these observations, a team of historians from the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta Institute) at ETH Zurich initiated a research project in the gta archive, which resulted in the exhibition gta films for the 50th anniversary celebrations of the institute in 2017. Deliberately selected films were shown at various locations of the Department of Architecture D-ARCH. In this way, the daily users of the building were encouraged to reflect on the importance of film both for architects and for a critical historiography.

Moving Constructions presents gta films in a new context. The linear and non-hierarchical display in the Garagem Sul exhibition space invites visitors to discover these archive materials along meandering paths and routes of their own choosing. Visitors are given insights into the broad field of the 20th century film world. century: From László Moholy-Nagy's groundbreaking Architects' Congress, which recorded the fourth conference of the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM), to construction projects such as the Swiss National Exhibition in Lausanne in 1964; from images for Variel, a Swiss company that generated markets for its prefabrication systems all over the world thanks to its commercial films, to interviews with Swiss architects such as Alfred Roth and Rudolf Olgiati; from documentaries on the Bauhaus to visits to Chicago during the interwar period and seventy years later.

The exhibition sees these cinematic documents as historical and institutional testimonies that are worth discovering, analyzing and preserving. The exhibition thus argues for the relevance of moving images for the history and theory of architecture. Based on a specific selection of films kept in the archives of a school of architecture, Moving Constructions encourages visitors to overcome disciplinary and geographical boundaries and to question the problematic status of films in architectural archives.

Organization: Garagem Sul at the Centro Cultural de Belém; Lab2PT. Commissioned by: André Tavares. Curators: Andreas Kalpakci, Jacqueline Maurer, Daniela Ortiz dos Santos. Collaboration: gta Institute of ETH Zurich. Supported by: Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.