Elena Markus & Nick Förster: From Collective to Commoning

Workshop: From Collective to Shared The socialist collectivist ideal, which took on a more concrete form between the 1960s and 1980s, reflected an ideology that was meant to stand in contrast to the capitalist environment, representing the victory of the demands and desires of individuals. The narrative of the Cold War has evidently faded away with the "end of history" in the early 1990s. However, today, the demand to reject the hegemony of the neoliberal economy and private interests is once again emerging, both in the former Western and Eastern blocs as well as in the global north and south. The purpose of this workshop will therefore be to explore collective needs and individual desires. To understand the intricate relationships between the historical experience of collective ownership and the current discourse of sharing, we will focus on various concepts of collectivity as ideology and vision in the context of the political constraints of the 20th and 21st centuries. For examining the themes of collectivity and collectivism in architecture, we will use the Invalidovna housing estate in Prague, built between 1960 and 1967, and especially the experimental building of the Expo hotel, designed by Josef Polák and Vojtěch Šalda. Participants in the workshop will uncover the utopian past based on a series of reference points while also exploring the current possibilities of shared spaces, i.e., spaces designated for "us."

Elena Markus studied architecture at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. From 2011 to 2014, she was a curator at S AM (Swiss Architecture Museum) in Basel. Since 2014, she has been teaching at the Department of Theory of Architecture and Cultural Studies at the Technical University of Munich.
Nick Förster studied architecture in Munich and Aarhus. He collaborated with the Berlin-based Raumlaubor and in 2016 participated in the Lückenfülle project, focused on temporary uses of vacant spaces in Munich.
In 2018, Elena Markus and Nick Förster jointly founded the Agentur für Architekturarbeit (Agency for Architectural Work) and opened it with their research and exhibition project "SiedlungsRequiem."

The workshop is part of the Spolka exhibition: Spaces of Collectivity, which can be seen at Gallery VI PER. The workshop will be led by Elena Markus and Nick Förster and will be conducted in English. The maximum number of participants is 10. Registration at spolka@spolka.cc.