Research + Reflect: Le Corbusier’s Voyage Re-Visited
Lecture at the International Le Corbusier Seminar
10–13 December 2014, Cyprus International University, Nicosia, Lefkoşa
Research + Reflect: Le Corbusier’s Voyage Re-Visited
When Le Corbusier set out East on his pilgrimage to the Orient, he followed the earlier model of the Grand Tour.
The word voyage reveals complex material, epistemological, and political constellations. A voyage, by definition, is geared towards discovery. It can also be understood as an enterprise. The etymology points to the co-implications of voyage, research, resources, imperialism, and colonialism.
In 2011, I used Le Corbusier’s Voyage as a model for a curatorial research project and together with photographer David Bergé retravelled five of the citites along Le Corbusier’s original itinerary. In Athens, Belgrade, Istanbul, Rome, and Vienna I conducted interviews with architects, artists, theoreticians, activists, and urban scholars to discuss key aspects of Le Corbusier’s Voyage. The insights gained from these interviews form the basis for my lecture. Theoretically, I am interested in exploring, the epistemological and critical implications of the prefix re (back, again, anew, undoing) with regard to (curatorial) research when re-visiting the legacy of the Voyage.
Installation: Le Corbusier’s voyage reORIENTed 1911-2011, ElkeKrasny, DavidBergé, ARTEFACTFESTIVAL 2013
13-24 February 2013, STUK KUNSTENCENTRUM LEUVEN, Photo: Joeri Thiry, STUK Kunstencentrum
