2025 PLEČNIK MEDAL for Published Scholarship
Between History, Ideologies and Conflict
Author:
Raimondo Mercadante
Data:
Between history, Ideologies and Conflicts - Architecture in Slovenia 1968-1991
Category: Published Scholarship
Authors: Raimondo Mercadante
Foreword: Ákos Moravánszky
Published: 2024
Investor: Aracne
Web site: https://www.aracneeditrice.eu/en/pubblicazioni/between-history-ideologies-and-conflicts-raimondo-mercadante-9791221813234.html
PLEČNIK MEDAL for published scholarship
Through architecture and spatial development, we re-establish over and over the relationship towards the environment and the society, an endeavour which crucially contributes to the shaping of habitational culture. Only the awareness of the processes which have affected architectural discourse enables its critical evaluation and the transcending of lapsed notional frameworks. By chronicling micro-histories of the recent historical period, Raimondo Mercadante's book showcases the architects' work and workings, and unveils the wider systemic and ideological tensions, thereby establishing valuable insight into the activity, closely intertwined with the Yugoslav space though it was, on the broader European scale. As such, the work represents an important contribution towards the understanding of the contemporary architectural landscape.
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Between History, Ideologies and Conflicts, Architecture in Slovenia 1968–1991 - Jury's report
The 1980s were marked by profound social change; new paradigms arose in the fields of architecture, art, and culture in general. In its treatment of the recent history, Mr Mercadante's book doesn't apply Jameson's "cultural logic of late capitalism" and consumer aesthetic but instates the Slovene discourse in the polemics within the Yugoslav space and simultaneously within the broader Slovene-Italian and Slovene-Central-European contexts.
Mr Mercadante's chronicling of architectural activity and oral testimonies as well as the review of published scholarship through the prism of the re-examination of ideologies and conflicts offers an insight into the processes from the period of Socialist transition, starting with the pivotal year of 1968 as marked by the Vietnam war, the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, student demonstrations, the Prague Spring, and the beginnings of the endeavours towards private ownership in the Socialist states. The introductory section of the book focuses on the international "discovery" of Jože Plečnik and on the discussions of his role in the Ljubljana School of Arhitecture, while the closing section opens the debate on the post-Socialist landscape.
Mr Mercadante's analysis of the architectural activity in Slovenia transcends a mere chronological presentation of events and offers an insight into the intertwining of architecture, ideology, and social change. Through a detailed analysis of individual cases, he simultaneously unveils broader systemic dynamics. Such an approach is most valuable for our present time. It enables critical evaluation of architectural processes and serves as a reminder that architecture is not merely an aesthetic or technical discipline but also a mark of social tensions and political contexts. The understanding of the multi-layeredness of the field of architecture as laid out in the book may significantly contribute to the understanding of contemporary discursive practices in the architectural sphere and the dynamics in the field of spatial policies.
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