Topic:The detente of the Arch¹

'The detente of the Arch' is a sentence I ended my previous lecture with ¹, and which I develop further here in a series of 'D's' : de-objectifiction, de-fenestration - all being words with an architectural ring to it. I thus want to describe the European condition - putting up a practice here - as 'a tentative search for new architectural form within an historical context'.

Subsequently I developed a thing with language which I believe helps me around complex matters.

I'm always amazed by the flipside of words : Detente can both be understood as 'relief', 'relaxation', as well as detention in the sense of 'doing time'.

At a distance may sound through Rem Koolhaas concept of 'voluntary prisoners who submit themselves to intoxicating games', to describe the dynamics of New York. There is Tafuri's reading of Piranesi's series of 'the Carceri' (ie. etchings of prisons) in the prospect of defining heterotopia.

With our proposal of the 'Detente of the Arch', the arrow points in the direction of overcoming the dialectics of the existing, that immanent desire of the general public to preserve and conserve.
It's the mirror I want to hold the Bronks theatre against, which we have built in the historical centre of Brussels.

Furthermore : The 'detente of the arch' incorporates words as tent, arch (- in Latin the words 'tabernacula', 'trabs' are referred to as relative terms) which I'd like to bring forward in the lecture with a slight theoretical twist.

¹ 'A Register of Wording - defenestration', Haifa, April 2013 + installation project for Venice Biennale