This exhibition is divided into three parts, "Modernization", "Global Network", "Everyday Life and Identities", as reported by Klix.ba.
MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art
Can a country build a new identity through architecture? Explore the extraordinary work on view in "Toward a #ConcreteUtopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980” and judge for yourself. Open this Sunday, July 15. http://mo.ma/concreteutopia
Within these units large-scale topics of urbanization, technological experiments and their application to everyday life, consumerism, monumental culture and the global influence of Yugoslav architecture have been processed.
Apart from photographs of buildings, drawings and models, three video installations have been set up by Mile Turajlić from Belgrade and works by contemporary artists Jasmina Cibic from Ljubljana and David Maljkovic from Rijeka.
Custodian of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Contemporary Arts in New York Martino Stirerli said that the idea for the exhibition came when he was on the Internet at the beginning of the year, watching the images of anonymous Yugoslav post-war buildings circulating social media.
Socialist Yugoslavia produced an incredible amount of radical architecture. @MuseumModernArt’s new exhibit looks at its legacy http://f-st.co/IC9vlDL
It was followed by a three-year research effort by the museum that re-explores the works of architects such as Bogdan Bogdanović, Svetlana Kana Radevic (considered the first female Montenegrin architect), Gerogi Konstantinovski and many others.
"Yugoslavia, a relatively small country in the Western Balkans, has had a significant influence on the global Cold War policy. Because the country was strategically linked to the Non-Aligned Movement under the Communist regime of Josip Broz Tito, architects and information could move freely thus creating the golden age of construction in Yugoslavia. The show will explore architecture - both hybrid and clear, specific monuments, skyscraper style, residential buildings, and block expansion," explained Stirli at the press conference and added that the guests will be the custodian Vladimir Kulić and Ana Kac, who will help him show several films, more than 400 drawings and a series of specially commissioned photographs Valentina Jeca. The exhibition began on July 15th and lasts until January 13th, 2019 at the MoMA museum in the heart of New York.
How modular kiosks flooded the entire ex-Yugoslavia
When Slovenian designer Saša J. Mächtig introduced his K67 kiosk model 50 years ago, he probably could not even guess the size of its mass usage and its purpose. The famous red kiosks could be seen as an individual element or as a modularly embedded structure throughout the former Yugoslavia.
Its purpose was miscellaneous: from grocery stores, newsstands and confectioner’s stores to the cable car station in the mountains but also at the border crossings for police stations.
"Its persistence to find its place is probably one of the biggest reasons for the success of this kiosk," says Maja Vardjan, custodian in the Museum of Architecture and Design in Ljubljana.
In theory, the K67 system has enabled an unlimited number of variations to fit the module, ArchDaily writes.
In the picture below you can see how all the kiosks have been compiled. Until 1999, when the K67 kiosk production ceased, 7,500 units were produced. While most remained in Yugoslavia, a large number of these kiosks were exported abroad, among others in Poland, Iraq, Kenya, New Zealand, Japan, the former Soviet Union, but also in the United States.
Today, no one is completely sure how much the kiosk K67 is still in use. However, in the memory of the successful eruption of its existence, the Museum of Architecture and Design in Ljubljana presented the kiosk K67 in its full splendor through the retrospective of Mächtig's work. In his essay, the custodian of the museum Maja Vardjan explained what is so specific about the kiosk K67."It is distinguished by its position in between architecture and industrial design, establishment within the modern city and society, participation in rituals of the everyday life of the citizens, and ultimately, but not less important, its persistence to find its place."
The kiosk served as a traffic, confectioner’s stores, cable car station in the mountains, and as police stations at border crossings.
How the K67 kiosk was created
During his studies at the Ljubljana School of Architecture during the early 1960s, Saša J. Mächtig also attended the Interdisciplinary Course B program, which influenced many generations of architects as well as industrial and graphic designers. Course lecturer Edvard Ravnikar potentiated on analysis, research work, experimentation, and concrete projects. His advice to students to "consider the smallest supplies and create a new spatial solution", has become the philosophy of creating to Mächtig.
During his first independent project on coffee shop design in Ljubljana, Mächtig heard about the idea by the Town’s Urbanism for designing new kiosks.
Mächtig presented the leaders of the city his kiosk design, which implied the application of new industrial materials and the logic of mass production. The leaders liked the idea, and the rest was history
Mächtig's original design kiosk consisted of five major constructive elements and auxiliary elements such as two variants of the canopies and interior elements such as shelves, lighting and blinds. This designed prototype, painted in a bright red color, was completed in 1969.
During the following years, after the K67 was introduced in the famous Design Magazine, the custodian of the prestigious MoMA Museum wondered about the possibilities of adding the kiosks to the collection in the museum. This idea has been realized but with certain omissions. Due to delays in delivery, the plan for inserting larger units into the museum window was denied, so Mächtig found two units placed outside of the museum on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition in December 1970. The second version of the kiosk, which was produced in 1971 could be disassembled, therefore if such kiosk existed in this form in 1970, it could be placed inside through the doors of MoMA museum.
Mächtig, who is a designer of restless spirit but also a skilled businessman, has encouraged the idea that the K67 in its development should follow the changing customer habits and progress in industrial processes in order to remain commercially feasible. However, his kiosk design has managed to maintain the urban paradox, i.e. to support the scheme of organizing the system of objects according to regulation and in the framework of clear dimensions, while at the same time stimulating and enabling the diversity of the same.
Today as a 76-year-old, Saša J. Mächtig continues to work on new kiosk design projects. Since 2003, he has been developing a new generation of kiosks whose testing should start soon.
And now the red kiosk finally arrived in New York.
Text by Cdm/Klix.ba, on July 21st, 2018, read more at CdM
