Beauty in the Beasts: Ugly, Grotesque and Marginal – Architectural Futures

Ugly, Grotesque and Marginal – Architectural Futures will explore those disobedient architectural practices that the Beauty in the Beasts unit calls The Wild Dwellers.

Marie Canet and Andrés Souto Vilaros will tackle possible architectural futures by introducing the audience to their work which looks at the margins of architectures and redefines what ugly and grotesque are. Their presentation will be followed by a discussion with Beauty in the Beasts Unit tutors, Albane Duvillier and Elliot Rogosin.

The event will centre around the practices of the Wild Dwellers. They are those who are not part of the architectural canon, that are at the margin and who redefine notions of beauty, grotesque, kitsch and know-how. Those who have metamorphosed their homes and immediate surroundings to their individual obsessions or their wild attempts at togetherness. The event will open up a wild field of architectural possibilities.

Marie Canet is an independent curator, art historian and professor of aesthetics at the École des beaux-arts de Lyon. Her recent publications include: El Junto en la Sierra Speech Act Identity and globalisation (Presses du Reel, 2018) which looks into the production of alternative and solidarity-based knowledge through the linguistic, sexual, biological and geographical margins and Palestine First name Charlemagne (Presses du Reel, 2017), a biographical essay which explores the origins and influences of Charlemagne Palestine, as well as themes related to his life and artistic practice—spirituality, music, performance, avant-gardism—together with an acute analysis of his main works.

Andres Souto Vilaros is an architect, artist and educator. His work is led by architectural research with a focus on self-construction and popular culture and the way in which these interpret and appropriate official architectural forms. He takes inspiration from the masonry culture (cultura albañil) and questions how new relationships between self-builders, industry, materials, knowledge and intuition inform the collective unconscious.

Caption: Gerry's Pompeii, London.