curiosity cabinets

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Joseph Beuys created a series of vitrines in the 1980s bringing together various items used during, from the location of, or otherwise remaining from a number of his actions. These objects, fetishized by their enclosures, seem to collect the detritus of an event into a work that helps the action to sustain and gain resonance with different times and audiences. They also remind of “wunderkammer” popular in Germany from mid-16th to mid-18th centuries. These “Curiosity Cabinets” are often described as the predecessor to the modern museum.

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Led by Michael E. Young, Gaye Bezircioğlu, and Nazlı Kök, members of the Arch 498 Graduation Project Studio (Critical Practices Unit) at Izmir University of Economics Department of Architecture are developing proposals for a mixed-use high density residential / art production and exhibition development in the center of Izmir. Projects begin with the fetishization and re-contextualization of everyday objects, architectural spaces, and daily encounters to form “cabinets” of “architectural curiosities,” which will form the basis for the architectural design.