open in Palazzo Malipiero, Venice, 20 May – 26 November 2023
co+re Positive Arrogance at La Biennale Architettura, Venice
Following an invitation by Professor Zoran Lazović, the Curator of the Pavilion of Montenegro at La Biennale Architettura, Laboratory of the Future in Venice to take part in their Mirages of the Future exhibition, Darko and Davisi have responded with a triad – textual, visual and spatial Positive Arrogance Hypothesis: dialogic explorations of sustainable futures for Crna Gora.
“Nowadays everything small is vulnerable to the globalised currents of power which has, by the self-serving reification of a supposedly free market, abolished politics. Precisely as formulated by Guy Debord in the 1960s, the ultimate product of such ideology is that “the spectacle has spread itself to the point where it (…) permeates all reality”, ending how “the globalisation of the false was also the falsification of the globe”. We now live a grotesque era of insatiable greed, fetishized consumerism, mindless growth and competition – with conflicts instrumentalised to bring more and further solidify the arrogance of the Spectacle. Primitivism incarnated in the super-rich of 21st c., surrounded by environmental, social and cultural destruction, confirms - arrogance is bad.
To open up the paths towards brighter future, development patterns exactly opposite to that are needed. In such, sustainable world the smallness will be an advantage. The knowledge how to get there exist. We do know that small is beautiful and that it can be great; that degrowth and strict limits to growth have to be introduced and urgently implemented; that in order to not only talk but act and live (towards) achieving the right to oeuvre a paradigm shift is necessary. To bring down imposed “realities”, arrogance is needed. A positive arrogance.
Radically new ways demands courage, which indeed might be perceived as arrogant. Here we demand environmentally and culturally responsible and, thus, desirable futures. Those need a solid, strongly argued value base to support the self-consciousness of an untranslatable, irreducible self. In direction pointed by Internationale Situationniste, by demanding precisely (what might seem to be) impossible – soyez réalistes, demandez l’impossible - we seek new realism. (Re)definition of what the (im)possible is demands self-confidence. The sense of identity founded upon demand for a paradigm shift needs theory (eco-urbanity) and confirmation in practice (radical realism), a new kind of politics, renewed awareness of regenerative οἶκος. We need to laugh in the face of hyper irresponsible elites. The kings are naked again, and the best way to expose banality is – to hold the mirror.”
And, from there out Hypothesis spreads.
Three excellent assistants, Chananya Mona Auttavoothisilpa, Sudhinee Birdie Tridhip, Thanaree Pink Poomviset, final year students of architecture at Chulalongkorn University, INDA Programme in Bangkok, have produced digitalised presentation of Davisi’s and Darko’s orihon – ancient Chinese/Japanese folded, book format which has provided desired options in presenting and accessing the contents, the choice to variously (un)fold realities, to focus at particular issues (as pages) or at the whole, full totality of the work presented, at oeuvre - which corresponds with one of the main points of our essay - the One, the Many and the Innumerable.
The Positive Arrogance Hypothesis also features in the catalogue of the exhibition.