Peter Noever. The Shake Down of Architecture

On the loss of ethics in building in all its monstrosity

National Center of Contemporary Art (NCCA),
Moscow, Zoologicheskaia str., 13
March 4, 2005, Starts at 18:30

Every day we are confronted with the “Shake Down of Architecture”. Cities like Shanghai, Moscow, and Dubai ostensibly demonstrate this ethos. Real-estate speculators and developers dominate the cities. Urban planning has long ceased to be a theme worth considering. Towers that were once functional symbols of power and progress are rotting away — Viagra Architecture: the last remaining means of aesthetic excitement in the softened image of our cities. In his last lecture series — at Dom Architektorow, Moscow, October 2004 and SCI-Arc, Los Angeles, March 2004, Peter Noever raised the question “Are the Architects the Root of All Evil?”

The MAK is a center for ART
At the MAK, the ideas of the artist and the intentions of the work are given free reign and if necessary, art is defended. Today more than ever the independence of the museum is the real challenge! Founded in 1864 as the Imperial and Royal Austrian Museum of Art and Industry, the MAK has pursued a continued commitment to combining practice and theory, art and industry, production and reproduction. The MAK regards itself as a laboratory of artistic production and a research center of social awareness. The powerful ideas created here today will serve as models for tomorrow. Art functions both as an investment in, and a prophesy of, the future of society. A museum construct is the ultimate transmitter for communicating ideas and products of individuals across generation and nationality. Through its connection to the past, a museum also serves as a projection screen and a producer of utopian potentiality, thereby articulating an alternative to the business model of the entertainment industry and its resulting lifestyle that seeks easy sensation and simulated experience.

Cooperations between the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation and the MAK
“Kunst und Revolution: Russische und sowjetische Kunst 1910—1932” (Art and Revolution: Russian and Soviet Art from 1910 to 1932), MAK, Vienna (1988);
“Alexander M. Rodtschenko/Warwara F. Stepanowa: Die Zukunft ist unser einziges Ziel” (Alexander M. Rodtschenko/
Warwara F. Stepanowa: The future is our single goal), MAK, Vienna (1991), Puschkin Museum, Moskow (Fall 1991);
“Josef Hoffmann: Ornament zwischen Hoffnung und Verbrechen” (Josef Hoffmann: Ornament between Hope and Crime) MAK, Vienna (1987), Eremitage, St. Petersburg (1992)
“Tyrannei des Schönen: Architektur der Stalin-Zeit” (The Tyranny of the Beautiful. Architecture during the Stain Aera.); MAK, Vienna (1994);
“Sergej Bugaev Afrika: Crimania”, MAK, Vienna (1995);
“Heaven’s Gift”, MUAR, Schusev State Museum of Architecture, Moscow (2001);
“Davaj! Russian Art Now. Aus dem Laboratorium der freien Künste in Russland”, Postfuhramt, Berlin (2002), MAK, Vienna (2002)
"Schyli-Byli, Russische Kinderbücher 1920—1940“ (Schili-Byli Russian Children’s Book 1920—1940), MAK, Vienna (2004);
"Alexander Rodtschenko Raumkonstruktionen“ (Alexander Rodtschenko Spatial Contructions), MAK, Vienna (2005)

Planned Exhibition Projects
“Das Laboratorium Konstantin Melnikov. Leben und Werk von Konstantin Melnikov” (The Laboratory Konstantin Melnikov. Life and Work of Konstantin Melnikov) Cooperation between the MUAR, Schusev State Museum of Architecture, Moscow and the MAK, Vienna.
Venues: Moskow, Vienna, New York “MAK NITE @ EREMITAGE” A long MAK-Night in St. Petersburg at the Eremitage.

“For me Vienna is unthinkable without Peter Noever’s MAK.”  Zaha Hadid

“I think Noever has a point.” Jenny Holzer

“MAK o muerte, there is no alternative.” Wolf D. Prix

“With you, Peter Noever, resistance begins! Long live life!” Paul Virilio

“Here in Moscow, MUAR carefully watches every movement of Peter Noever.” David Sarkisyan

“Peter, I respect your uncompromising position regarding position regarding any forms of misunderstanding and brutality, and I will always support your protests against forces which constantly try to lower the social, therapeutic, and cultural importance of museums.”
Sergej Bugaev Afrika

“Peter Noever likes to deny he’s an architect; but, all the while, he’s building a neighbourhood, a village, that might become a town, that might become a city, behind your back; Peter Noever denies he’s an architect, peter Noever never dreams he’s an artist, and all the while he’s talking with, and working with, architects and artists who flaunt their own work, brandish their own work like a spear — but, once we’ve become entangled in conversations with Peter Noever, once we’ve walked back and forth and through the museum that’s the world that Peter Noever’s made, whose work are we doing anyway as we go back to our desks & studios?
Vito Acconci

Peter Noever, born in 1941. Designer. Since 1986 CEO and Artistic Director of the MAK (Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Arts), Vienna. 1988—1993 Artistic supervision for the restoration and construction work of the MAK, Vienna. 1994 founding of the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles. 1975—1993 teaches Design Analysis at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. 1982—1994 Peter Noever is publisher and editor-in-chief of UMRISS, a magazine for architecture. 1988—1989 Guest professor for Museology at the Universities of Applied Arts, Vienna. Numerous guest lectures, e.g. Technical Universities of Vienna, Graz, Zagreb, Prag, Havana and Moscow, UC Berkeley, Univercity of Southern California, San Diego, Ball State University, Munice/Indiana, SCI-ARC Institute of Architecture, Los Angeles. Various media activities. Numerous books and articles on art, design and architecture. Since 1971 Peter Noever works on a work-in-progress, the landscape architecture project The Pit (Die Grube) in Breitenbrunn, Burgenland, Austria. Various architectural projects, including design of the MAK terrace, 1989; most recently “CAT — Contemporary Art Tower”, together with Sepp Müller and Michael Embacher. Curator and exhibition designer in Austria and abroad.

Chief curator for the Austrian contribution to the Triennale 1996, Milan. Numerous product designs. Consultant on basic planning, e.g. in Havana (with Carl Pruscha) for the Cuban Ministry of Culture. 1994, juror for design at the Academy Schloß Solitude, Stuttgart, Awards: Pan‘s Prize, Frankfurt 1991; Museum of the Year Award 1996, Council of Europe, Strasbourg; Austrian Decoration of Honor for Science and the Arts, Vienna; exhibitions of his own architecture and design works in Europe and the USA. Lives and works in Vienna.
 

Peter Noever's site

Russian version