KUNSTHALLE EXNERGASSE

building < against refers to the non-conformist production of space, resistant buildings, protest architectures, autonomous and functionally open architectures, the preservation and cultivation of places, radical reconstructions. And even more radical practices of not building at all.

We write, compose poetry, and make sense of the inconsistencies in the city. In a guided process, we create haikus, shortest stories, crossed-out poems, and collaborative typewriter poetry. In Romanian, German, Hungarian, French, English, and any other languages and symbols you bring with you. Everyone is welcome; writing experience is not a prerequisite.

This multimedia workshop uses speculation and simulation to explore the dynamics of city life. Firstly, participants share the most significant challenges they face, discussing potential solutions and their vision for the future of the city. The next phase brings these speculative ideas to life. Using a virtual city built in a gaming engine, participants design the neighbourhood of the future they have imagined.

Together with the young people, we will build in the "Werft". Based on the exhibition and the specific materials on the shelf, we will develop materials and props for the final move-out at the closing event. In the workshop, we explore the question of how (building) materials and protest are connected and how we ourselves can create and produce “revolutionary materials.” The focus is on the experiences and views of the young people themselves.

In the workshop, we will first show a few fun “building materials” from the shelf, talk about protesting, and then work with clay, water, and wool ourselves in protest. This will take place in the shipyard. We want to pay special attention to the use of raw wool for all possible and impossible purposes in construction. The end result: wool paving stones, felt tiles, or even your own little “Wollbau” (cf. Folke Köbberling).

The Wharf, the “construction site by the water,” is a place for building, learning, reading, planning, and resting. Over six construction days, we will work with you to build a vehicle for protest, which we will ceremoniously drive out at the end of the exhibition. No skills, more thrills.

What’s the weight of a ton when distributed amongst peers, handled and moved around with archaic DIY instruments? With Moving Mass we aim to bridge the concepts of The Right to the City, Commons, and Action-based research. We’ll be looking at Mass both as an assembly of people and as the physical opposite of a void. Gravity, leverage, torque; using bodies and mass as means of transgression. Aiming to achieve what’s seemingly impossible we won’t necessarily be.

At the end of the exhibition building < against, there will be a festive exit. With our self-built protest structure, flags, and trumpets, we will march to St. Marx. A procession through Vienna, a parade for more autonomous free spaces. We hand over our structure and warm ourselves by the fire in St. Marx. Feel free to come in costume, as a clown, Pulcinella, or juggler, etc. We will go in any weather.