Dmitry Lookianov, image from the Instant Tomorrow series (2013-2015)
Dmitry Lookianov, image from the Instant Tomorrow series (2013-2015)

Utopia and Modernity, the first exhibition of Calvert 22's Power and Architectureseason, opens for public viewing on Sunday 12 June.

The four interconnected installments of the Power and Architecture season will exhibit new and existing work by artists from across the new east region, presenting various facets of architecture's relationship to power. These will range from the modernist vision of the socialist city to the participation of the individual in the activation of public space and the afterlife of cities built for a utopia that was never realised.

Utopia and Modernity1 will run from 12 June — 3 July, and will be followed by Dead space and ruins (7 July – 7 August 2016). The third installment of the season will be Citizen activated space — Museum of Skateboarding from 11 August – 11 September 2016, and The afterlives of Modernity — shared values and routines will run from 15 September – 9 October 2016.

The Power and Architecture exhibition programme will be accompanied by a conference and a number of related talks, a series of architectural workshops connecting London and Prague, and extensive curated digital content on The Calvert Journal, a part of which is available here

  • 1. In the opening show, four artists will reflect on the modernist vision of the socialist city and consider the real and imagined futures of utopia. Polish-born, Berlin-based Przemek Pyszczek’s series Façade captures the bright, block-colour decorative Soviet-era design of external walls and window grates. Dmitry Lookianov’s Instant Tomorrow series provides a vision of the near future through the setting of Muscovite apartment life, where minimalistic furniture and repetitious architecture create a suburban “utopia”.

    In his films Hyperborea and Walking the Sea, Anton Ginzburg explores the quest for a perfect, utopian life and its potentially devastating impact. Kuba Snopek, Iza Cichońska and Karolina Popera’s Architecture of the VII Day catalogue draws upon 3,597 churches built by hand in Poland against the will of the state in the second half of the 20th Century and the circumstances of their construction.

    Participating artists: Przemek Pyszczek, Dmitry Lookianov, Anton Ginzburg, Kuba Snopek, Iza Cichońska and Karolina Popera.