4 exhibitions curated by Marco Scotini Maria Papadimitriou 8.02/25.03.2007 Santiago Cirugeda 10.05/08.07.2007 José Dàvila 05.10/18.11.2007 Vangelis Vlahos 06.12/27.01.2008 The Borgovico 33 contemporary art space in Como is promoting Direct Architecture, Politics and Space curated by Marco Scotini. After the major Dan Graham exhibition in 2004 that saw the creation of the Half Square/Half Crazy pavilion opposite Giuseppe Terragni's Casa del Fascio, Borgovico 33 looks once again at the relationship between artistic practice and urban architecture. Over a whole year we shall hold four personal exhibitions by as many leading international artists focusing on ways to re-appropriate the contemporary city. Maria Papadimitriou, Santiago Cirugeda, José Dàvila and Vangelis Vlahos have been asked to imagine a versatile, public and temporary city space in the Borgovico 33 Cultural Association's intriguing 17th-century former-church base - a life-size pavilion that is a model for intervention and urban action. The project will be inspired by the concentration of examples of Modernist architecture in Como and will reflect on the transformation of the urban and social paradigm within the global city. It started on 8 February 2007 with the exhibition by Maria Papadimitriou. This will be followed by exhibitions by Santiago Cirigeda, José Davila in October and Vangelis Vlahos in December. As Marco Scotini says "The failure of the Modernist plan and the renewed focus, since the mid-1990s, on the history of planning "from the bottom" has extended the interest in the forms of direct participation to focus on how the global city is constructed. The very definition of "contemporary city" is now being used to describe a new formation that differs from that of the "modern city". Fragmentation and shapeless urbanity, self-organization tactics, the urban voids and the transitory and precarious nature of the new social subjects have linked the abstract Modernist model to concrete post-Ford practice. All current proposals for urban construction are also attempts to deconstruct the presumed neutrality of the International Style and its claim to transcend cultural frontiers and national identities . In the 1960s people spoke of "direct cinema" as a means of contact between film director and filmed situation, in the early 1970s Beuys opened an "Office for direct democracy" at Documenta 5 and many contemporary practices drink at the fountain of "direct action", but Direct Architecture, Politics and Space refers to an ongoing worksite, where the city is created in real time. The project will be accompanied by a catalogue, to be published at the end of the exhibition cycle. Download press release