On February 17th there will start a major retrospective of Victor Brauner, at the National Museum of Art of Timisoara, as part of the city’s cultural activities related to being Cultural Capital of Europe, 2023.
Who was Victor Brauner ?
A very important Surrealist painter, active mainly in France, but born and raised in Romania.
We feel we need Surrealism, in architecture as well.
It is enough to remember the early works of Ricardo Bofill and Taller de Arquitectura, strongly influenced by surrealism. After all, at that time they declared: “For us Magritte is more important than Mies.”
Again, “For us Magritte is more important than Mies.”
What if we say “For us Brauner is more important than Mies ?”
And here we can easily remember what Frederick Kiesler said"I oppose to the mysticism of Hygiene, which is the superstition of "Functional Architecture", the realities of a Magical Architecture rooted in the totality of the human being, and not in the blessed or accursed parts of this being."
And this quotation is almost unavoidable if we reflect on the fact that the title of Victor Brauner’s exhibition is “Victor Brauner – Inventii si magie” – Victor Brauner – Inventions and magic.
Magic… how much of our architecture, today, is truly “magical ?”
Not much, although we do seem to be fascinated by “the new.”
But is everything that is “new” really magical ?
How could we create a MAGICAL ARCHITECTURE ?
Is the former Queen of The Arts (Architecture) unable any longer to feel / think in these terms, these days ?
Do we still believe in magic ?
Are we too “enlightened” to still believe in something so “irrational ?”
But let’s reflect on the two possible translations of the well known etching of Francisco de Goya: El Sueno da Razon Produce Monstruos.
It probably can be translated as “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters”, or, “The Dream of Reason Produces Monsters.”
But what if we say: The Sleep of “Unreason” Produces Monsters ?
What if we re-evaluate and revalue THE UNREASON ?
The Cain of Psyche.
We ask you to design A HOUSE FOR VICTOR BRAUNER.
A HOUSE FOR THE UNTOLD, UNSEEN, UNTHOUGHT.
BUT FELT, FELT, FELT.