Buildering: Misbehaving the City

Buildering is a term coined for the unsanctioned use of architecture – fusing the words “building” and “bouldering” to describe a rapidly growing movement that reformulates how we live the city. Beyond acrobatics, vandalism and occupation, this practice becomes a metaphor for the creative misuse of built structure – denying the assigned/intended function of urban structures to re-open the possibility of alternatives. If we believe the premise that ideologies are implanted through the public's navigation of the city plan, then actions associated with buildering break the hypnosis of ritual and cultivate new freedoms - both physical and psychological.

“In the CAC’s 75th anniversary year,” Matijcio explains, “we want to peer into the future by re-imagining our history. The Buildering project provides a special opportunity to perform the CAC building and the city of Cincinnati – incorporating them as active collaborators and partners in perception. The city is seen as a given, fading from view through sheer familiarity, but the artists in this exhibition approach this subject with genuine curiosity, endearment and enthusiasm – imagining new possibilities in something we navigate every day.”
 
Buildering will explore this phenomenon from a global perspective, gathering both established and emerging artists from around the world. The artists include Ivan Argote (Colombia/France), Bestue-Vives (Spain), Etienne Boulanger (France), Egle Budvytyte (Lithuania), Michel de Broin (Canada), Didier Faustino (France/Portugal), Shaun Gladwell (Australia), Wiebke Grösch & Frank Metzger (Germany), Alex Hartley (UK), Iman Issa (Egypt), Antal Lakner (Hungary), Los Carpinteros (Cuba), Alison Moffett (USA/UK), Adam Putnam (USA), Pia Rönicke (Denmark), Monika Sosnowska (Poland), Sebastian Stumpf (Germany), Kamila Szejnoch (Poland), Lee Walton (USA), Carey Young (UK) and Héctor Zamora (Mexico/Brazil). Collectively they will generate a playful, mischievous and lively show with strong socio-cultural underpinning.

Buildering will also lay the foundation for the creative misuse of the CAC: positioning it as a stage to re-envision the building in a variety of ways. In combination with interventions inside and outside the galleries, and a summer of public programs throughout the city, this project will turn Cincinnati into an urban playground.

Performance provocateurs include Knifeandfork (USA), Allard van Hoorn (Netherlands), Willi Dorner Company (Austria), and this city’s “Cincinnati Movement.”