Curators｜Oliver ELSER、Chun-Hsiung WANG
 

Preface / Jut Art Museum

Architecture has the ability not only to reflect the urban microcosmos, but also to represent the temporality of a society. In other words, an architectural history is also the history of society.

From the Jut Foundation exhibition Metabolism: The City of the Future in 2013, to the SOS Brutalism—Save the Concrete Monsters! at the Jut Art Museum in 2020, we have strived to reflect the requisite diversity of urban history and development by referencing the emerging avant-garde architectural ideologies of a tempestuous era, when the once global prominence of Modernism began to face various lines of interrogation and reactionary voices caused by a prevailing turbulence in world affairs. A retrospection and exploration of these experimental architectural trends and practices provides a glimpse into a non-monolithic and three-dimensional social contour.

SOS Brutalism—Save the Concrete Monsters! is the first-ever global survey of Brutalist architecture of the 1950s to 1970s, accompanied by proposed initiatives for rescue and preservation. Since its inaugural exhibition at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) in 2017, the touring exhibition has opened in cities including Vienna, Bochum, and Aalen. The exhibition has made its way to Taipei in 2020 for its first foray outside of Europe. The Taipei exhibition, co-organized by the Jut Art Museum and DAM, builds on the foundation of the original exhibition with the addition of six case studies of Brutalist architecture in Taiwan which strengthens the Taiwan perspective and commentary. In addition, an Architectural Education Workshop has been organized in collaboration with faculty and students from the architectural departments at six Taiwanese universities. The workshop aims to bolster the foundations of architectural education in Taiwan and to inspire the next generation of urban designers, planners, and participants to imagine a more multi-dimensional vision of cities through practice and exchange.

As the first museum in Taiwan to focus on issues of the future and of the city, Jut Art Museum emphasizes an urban viewpoint through this exhibition by presenting multifaceted narratives from the perspective of an architectural movement that enables viewers to observe and contemplate the origins of the influences on the city at present, and to continue the inquiry into architecture, urbanity, and future life.

Introduction

SOS Brutalism—Save the Concrete Monsters!  is the first-ever global survey of the Brutalist architecture of the 1950s to 1970s. The term Brutalism does not originate from the word “brutal”, but rather “béton brut”– the French term for exposed concrete. Brutalist architecture celebrates rawness and the bare construction. It is exceptionally photogenic and, in recent years, it has reached cult status on Facebook and Instagram.

Since its inaugural exhibition at the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) in 2017, the touring exhibition has opened in cities including Vienna, Bochum, and Aalen. The exhibition has made its way to Taipei in 2020 for its first foray outside of Europe. The Taipei exhibition, co-organized by the Jut Art Museum and DAM, builds on the foundation of the original exhibition with the addition of six case studies of Brutalist architecture in Taiwan which strengthens the Taiwan perspective and commentary to round out the content of a globalized panorama. In addition, an Architectural Education Workshop has been organized in collaboration with faculty and students from the architectural departments at six Taiwanese universities with its aims to bolster the foundations of architectural education in Taiwan.

The expressive style emerged during a period of experimentation and societal upheaval. Today many are at risk of being demolished. In light of this, the #SOSBrutalism campaign extends the exhibition online with a database of over 1,800 projects. At the Jut Art Museum, Brutalism is reexamined with unusually large-scale models and cast concrete miniatures. The exhibition features buildings from Taiwan, Japan, Brazil, the former Yugoslavia and Israel, as well as Great Britain, where Alison and Peter Smithson invented New Brutalism.

The Exhibition is co-organized by Jut Art Museum and Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM), based on the collaboration between DAM and Wüstenrot Foundation.

Information

• Opening Hours｜TUE-SUN 10:00-18:00 (Closed on Mondays)
• Venue｜Jut Art Museum (No.178, Sec. 3, Civic Blvd., Da'an Dist., Taipei City 106, Taiwan)
• Admission｜General TWD 100, Concessions TWD 80 (student, seniors aged 65 and above, and groups of 10 or more).
  Free Admission for the disabled and a companion, children aged 12 and under (Concessions or Free Admission upon presentation of valid proof).
• Student Day on WED｜Free Admission once on Wednesdays upon presentation of valid student ID

• Organizers｜Jut Art Museum, Deutsches Architekturmuseum
• Curatorial Team｜ Jut Art Museum, Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Wüstenrot Foundation
• Co-organizers｜National Taiwan Museum, Department of Architecture of Chung Yuan University, Department of Architecture of China University of Technology, Department of Architecture of Tamkang University, Department of Architecture of Shih Chien University, Department of Architecture of Ming Chuan University, Department of Architecture of National Taipei University of Technology, Alliance for Architecture Modernity
• Cultural Partners｜Goethe-Institut Taipei, eslite forum, eslite member
• Event Partner｜MOT CAFÉ
• Official Hotel Partner｜Hua Shan Din by Cosmos Creation
• Media Partners｜Architecture+Tectonics Taiwan、La Vie、xin ARCHI、Shopping Design、MOT TIMES、Art Emperor、BauNetz.de

Exhibition Team

• Supervisors｜Aaron Y. L. Lee, Alex Y. H. Lee, Shan-Shan Huang
• Exhibition Coordinators｜Wei Huang, Yu-Kuei Peng (JAM)
                                                          Oliver Elser, Felix Torkar, Maximilian Liesner (DAM)
• Assistant Coordinators｜Ying-Peng Chen, Yu-Ming Chen
                                                        Anna-Maria Mayerhofer, Emilia Prescher (DAM)
• Exhibition Construction Coordinators｜Wei-Jie Ou, Yu-Kuei Peng
• Communications and Marketing｜Szu-An Chen, Yen-Hsiu Chen, Yen-Shan Li, Shu-Yuan Chang (JAM)
                                                                            Miriam Kremser (DAM)
• Public Service｜Shu-Yuan Chang, Bing-Chi Wu
• Administration Support｜Shiang-Yu Huang, Bing-Chi Wu
• Registrar｜Wolfgang Welker (DAM)
• Key Visual Concept｜Yvonne Pietz, Olaf Rahlwes (Rahlwes.Pietz)
• Graphic Designer｜Min-Wei Liu
• Exhibition Designers｜Ospacearchitects、Anna-Maria Mayerhofer (DAM)
• Exhibition Graphic Designers｜Min-Wei Liu, Tsai-Yuan Tsai, Yvonne Pietz, Olaf Rahlwes（Rahlwes.Pietz）
• Lighting Designer｜l’atelier muxuan
• Documentary Producer｜HEM HEM MEDIA