Exhibitions

This current Big City Forum exhibition by Claret-Cup examines how the city of Los Angeles takes shape in the imagination of its inhabitants. In an attempt to explore how maps can communicate and express concepts beyond the physical skeleton of Los Angeles, this exhibition considers the city landscape in emotional terms, with the belief that hope and resistance act as the true animators of the city.

This project continues Claret-Cup’s exploration into the capacity of maps to collect intangible impressions about the city and give form and visual structure to our emotional picture of it. IDLA, tales of Deliberate Localism engages the public in discussion about Los Angeles’ diverse and authentic heritage of functioning and loved urban moments. The focus is on individual stories that intersect, weave together and form the connective tissue between the larger, physical gestures of the metropolis.

The exhibition, which visually unfolds over the course of six weeks, includes a sampling of their previous map-based works in addition to an abstract and unfinished map of the Los Angeles basin, waiting to be annotated by the public through two participatory events conducted by Claret-Cup.

On September 6th, during the panel discussion that kicks off the second phase of Big City Forum’s City of Hope, City of Resistance, Claret-Cup will pose a question regarding the city’s identity to a larger audience, activating the participatory nature of the project. This question will turn into a more precise invitation during the course of the exhibition at private and public events that are designed to bring together diverse visions of the city by multiple participants.

During an event on October 18 from 5-7pm, these viewpoints, recorded and reformulated by Claret-Cup into a series of artifacts, images and written text, will be liberated by visitors from a vessel displayed in the reading room. Participants will collectively “annotate” the Los Angeles basin map on display in the Armory’s Mezzanine Gallery.

The project will be on view in its complete and unfolded state for one week before the conclusion of Claret-Cup’s participation in the show.

About Claret-Cup
Claret-Cup is the collaborative team formed by Bojána Bányász and Donatella Cusmá, practicing architects who are contributing to the man-made environment as much by drawing and building as by photographing, stitching, teaching, cooking and curating. Expanding the bounds of what might be called an architectural practice, they seek zones of experimentation where architecture is personal and emotional. Ms. Bányász and Ms. Cusmá are adjunct faculty at Woodbury School of Architecture in Los Angeles.

     • Read Press Release

    • See Exhibition Pics on Flickr

Big City Forum’s residency at the Armory is supported with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.