YOUprison, Some thoughts on the limitation of space and freedom

YOUPrison Some thoughts on the limitation of space and freedom Curator: Francesco Bonami Turin , June12 - September 21 The Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation dedicates and important exhibition to the theme of prison architecture, with the show entitled YOUprison, Some thoughts on the limitation of space and freedom (June12 - September 21, 2008), curated by Francesco Bonami. In the year in which Turin will become the first Italian city to host the UIA World Congress, the Foundation proposes a controversial theme, of critical importance in the West and in the rest of the world as well. Today, architecture enjoys wide media exposure, thanks to the proliferation of spectacular buildings housing museums and theaters and other monumental projects, but prison design has certainly not received the same attention. This despite the fact that it is one of the most difficult and complex challenges faced by architecture, in which the organization of space personifies the legal and political principle of punishment for a crime. 11 international architectural studios have been invited to submit designs for a living unit of a correctional facility, a cell equipped with all the essential features the inmates require. The designs will be realized life-size, giving visitors the opportunity to physically experience a space designed for isolation and confinement. The cell thus becomes a tool for reflecting on the system it is the smallest functional unit of. The theme stimulates thought about many issues of public interest, such as the restriction of freedom, respect for human rights, instruments of surveillance and control and the evolution of urban development and its influence on the places we live in. Furthermore, the fact that the participants come from all over the world, including the United States, China, Iran, Lebanon, India and Italy, provides a perspective on contexts whose political and social priorities are markedly different. As is clear from the preliminary designs that have already been submitted, this commission requires architects to face issues that go beyond the usual architectural set, posing a dilemma which, for some of them, implies the taking of an ethical stance. Thus, more than a realistic prison cell, the space designed by these architects can become an installation which, using an elaborate interactive software, simulates different spatial configurations, depending on the degree of security required and type of crime committed, as in the design by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Instead, in the design submitted by the Serb architect Anna Miljacki, the cell is transformed into an exhibition space examining the relationship between the United States prison system and its relationship with the economic and industrial system, an issue hotly debated of late. Isolation as a milieu for intellectual work is the theme explored in the design submitted by Ines & Eyal Weizman, who create a library containing all the books written in prison, from the letters of Saint Paul to the works of Jean Genet and the works of political dissidents like Gandhi and Gramsci. The collection of "prison literature" will be donated to a correctional facility after the exhibition. Finally, Marco Navarra's NOWA studio has set up a collaborative project with two prisons, one at Caltagirone, the town where the studio is located, and the Casa Circondariale di Torino (Turin Correctional Facility), asking the inmates themselves to design a cell, real or imagined. In this way, those who actually experience the effects of daily living in conditions of confinement are directly involved. The hundreds of designs thus collected will be made into models which, like bricks, will make up the walls of the cell installed at the Foundation. The show will be accompanied by a catalogue containing the documentation of the projects realized and an in-depth theoretical critique, with contributions from philosophers, sociologists and writers invited to reflect on various aspects of the issue. Participating architectural studios: Alexander Brodsky, Moscow, Russia Atelier Bow Wow, Tokyo, Japan Diller Scofidio + Renfro with Hayley Eber, New York, USA INABA (Jeffrey Inaba) and SLAB Architecture (Jeffrey Johnson and Jill Leckner), Los Angeles, USA DW5 / Bernard Khoury, Beirut, Lebanon project_ (Ana Miljacki and Lee Moreau), Benjamin Porto and Dan Sakai, Brooklyn, USA NOWA (Marco Navarra), Catania, Italy sciSKEW Collaborative, Shanghai, China and New York, USA Kianoosh Vahabi, Teheran, Iran Yung Ho Chang- Atelier FCJZ, Peking, China Eyal+Ines Weizman, London, UK Info Sheet Title: YOUprison. Some thoughts on the limitation of space and freedom Curator: Francesco Bonami Inauguration: Thursday June 12, 2008, 7 p.m. Place: Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, Via Modane 16, Turin Info FSRR: tel. +39 011 3797600; fax +39 011 3797601