In conjunction with the solo exhibition by Aristide Antonas, The Pulp of Things, the artist will devote a conversation with Adam Szymczyk (Artistic Director documenta 14, Athens and Kassel, 2017; Verein by Association, Zurich) to the current transformation of urban infrastructures. Given the rapid gentrification of urban spaces and the increasingly dense network of online retailers, delivery services, and co-working facilities, Antonas and Szymczyk discuss the implications for urban planning, architecture, and social interaction. The concept of urban housing as an “autonomous cell” that Antonas articulates in his exhibition serves as the starting point for scrutinizing the current tension between isolation and connectivity and how an increasingly privatized infrastructure relates to Western narratives of voluntary withdrawal.

Aristide Antonas (b. 1963 in Athens) is an architect, philosopher, writer, and visual artist. He lives and works in Athens and Berlin. Since 2012, he has been a professor of Architectural Design and Theory at the University of Thessaly, Greece, and has taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna since 2021. Antonas has published books, short stories, essays, and screenplays, including Archipelago of Protocols (2016) and Urban Planning for Murder (2015). His work has been shown recently at Daejeon Museum of Art, South Korea (2022); Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice (2021); Frac Centre-Val de Loire, Orléans / France (solo, 2018); documenta 14, Athens and Kassel (2017); Vorarlberger Architektur Institut, Dornbirn / Austria (solo, 2016); Swiss Architecture Museum, Basel / Switzerland (solo, 2015).

Adam Szymczyk (b. 1970 in Piotrków Trybunalski / Poland) is a curator and author based in Zurich. He was artistic director of documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel (2017) and served as director and chief curator of Kunsthalle Basel between 2002 and 2014. At present, he is curator-at-large at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. In 2022, he co-founded Verein by Association in Zurich to initiate and realize exhibitions, publications, and other public projects in the realm of contemporary culture. Recent exhibitions and projects include Life, Without Buildings, at gta exhibitions, Institute of History and Theory of Architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich (2022); Yannis Tsarouchis: Dancing in Real Life at Wrightwood 659, Chicago / USA (2021); Elisabeth Wild: Fantasías (2020) and Michel Auder: Dreams that Money Can’t Buy (2021), both at Karma International, Zurich; Tirana Patience at the National Gallery of Arts in Tirana (co-curated with Nataša Ilić, ongoing since 2019).