The Brutalism Appreciation Society

The radical architectural style of Brutalism first emerged in Britain in the mid-1950s. Its hallmarks are unrendered concrete walls and exposed building materials such as metal, stone and brick. Today it is gradually disappearing from our city skylines, as the largely unlisted buildings are pulled down. At the same time, supporters of the style have started coming together – particularly online. Among them is the Facebook group “The Brutalism Appreciation Society”, which campaigns to preserve these features of 1950s and 1960s town planning, and now has more than 50,000 members worldwide.

 

The exhibition The Brutalism Appreciation Society, curated by Inke Arns, showcases 21 works by international artists, responding to the Brutalist architectural style of post-war modernity, as well as selected posts from the eponymous Facebook group.

 

The 21 participating artists come from 11 countries: Belgium, Germany, France, Great Britain, Croatia, Austria, Poland, Switzerland, Spain, the Czech Republic and the USA.

 

In addition to artistic media such as sculptures, videos, video installations, soundscapes, street art and photography, the exhibition space features a large-scale graffiti work by the internationally renowned, Paris-based graffiti artist Darco FBI. The work has been developed onsite at the HMKV, and is a defining design element of the exhibition.

 

The HMKV exhibition is running in parallel to Documenta in Kassel and Skulptur Projekte Münster.