Lecture SAC
Marc Wigley: Cutting Matta-Clark: The Anarchitecture Project

In his lecture, Cutting Matta-Clark: The Anarchitecture Project, Marc Wigley addresses the work of architect-artist, Gordon Matta-Clark, and opens the lid on how the so-called Anarchitecture exhibition in 1973 continues to influence and inspire a contemporary architectural and artistic imagination. However, while Matta-Clarke’s radical operations on buildings intervene on our assumptions about space and social life, the The Anarchitecture Project is shrouded in the mythology of the architect-turned-artist and not fully understood for how it opens up onto a speculative horizon for contemporary thought and practice. Wigley’s lecture is in part rooted in his contribution to the book, Cutting Matta-Clark: The Anarchitecture Project (ed. James Graham, Lars Müller Publishers, 2014).

Since establishing himself on the international scene in 1988 as co-curator with Philip Johnson for the exhibition, Deconstructivist Architecture, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Wigley has continuously made seminal contributions to the discipline of architecture. His research explores the intersection of architecture, art, philosophy, culture, and technology, and he has extensively published his innovative work. This includes his influential books: Derrida’s Haunt: The Architecture of Deconstruction (1993); White Walls, Designer Dresses: The Fashioning of Modern Architecture (1995); Constant's New Babylon: The Hyper-Architecture of Desire (1998); and Buckminster Fuller Inc. - Architecture in the Age of Radio (2015). In 2016 he co-curated the 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial with Beatriz Colomina on the theme, Are We Human? - The Design of the Species - 2 seconds, 2 days, 2 years, 200 Years, 200,000 years. In conjunction with the biennial, the two published the book, Are We Human? Notes on the Archeology of Design (2016).

Mark Wigley studied architecture at the University of Auckland in New Zealand where he received his Ph.D in 1987. In 1989, he was a resident fellow at the Chicago Institute for Architecture and Urbanism, and he has won several awards, among them the Triennial Award for Architectural Criticism in 1990 and the Graham Foundation Grant in 1997. Wigley is Professor of Architecture and Dean Emeritus at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. For almost two decades, Wigley he has also been a guest professor at the Städelschule where he teaches architectural theory in the Städelschule Architecture Class.