2007

Undecided Utopias

Pages focuses on when design becomes the sphere of exploitation and misrecognition, and how the place becomes subjected by design.

14 April–13 May 2007 / Casco HQ
Exhibition opening: Friday 13 April, 18:00-21:00

In the waters of the Persian Gulf, eighteen kilometers off the southern coast of the Iranian mainland, lies the coral island of Kish. Since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the island has been a field for economic, touristic and architectural experiments. 

Undecided Utopias focuses on a privately initiated architectural competition involving up to twelve German architecture firms to design a huge international tourist and business resort. When design becomes the sphere of exploitation and misrecognition, the place, subjected to such design, is brought to a certain extra–geographic mode. Such excess provides the best ground for the coming together of various geographic and cultural points of views and fantasies, enacted in design.  

Undecided Utopias is part of an ongoing series of projects related to the island of Kish. Pages magazine started its activity in 2004 by publishing a bilingual Farsi/English magazine as well as developing projects and collaborative activities with practitioners in different cultural fields, with critical views on art, culture, urbanism and social issues.

Colophon:

Nasrin Tabatabai
Babak Afrassiabi

Undecided Utopias is supported by Gemeente Utrecht and the Mondriaan Foundation.

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