Years Of Solitude

The catalogue for the second Orléans Architecture Biennial: a call for an archipelago of solitudes.

For the second edition of the Orléans Architecture Biennial, six curators have been invited to tell the stories of solitudes around the world, where architecture is still a form of engagement with reality and a "promise" of freedom: Des rêves vus de près looks at the resistance of the Brazilian group Arquitetura Nova in the face of the Brazilian dictatorship (1964-1985); Mes réalisations parleront pour moi offers a reading of the Algerian work of French architect Fernand Pouillon; L'étrangère sur terrer brings together Arab artists and architects whose work is part of the Arab movements for emancipation from authoritarian discourse and systems; De la solitude à la désolation offers an uncompromising analysis of present-day Mexico; the collective installation L'architecture comme animal mutant is a hybridisation device in which every architectural creature frees itself from its creator.

The event is a biennial collection. As such, the MAXXI's collection is given pride of place, while a monograph entitled Homo Faber: un récit explores the work of one of the leading architects in the Frac Centre-Val de Loire's collection: Günter Günschel.

Between these landscapes, works by artists and architects (John Hejduk, Absalon, Karen Lohrmann & Stefano de Martino, John Cage, Takk, Santiago Borja, Ahmed Mater, Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine, Lacaton & Vassal, Julie Nioche...) form an open-ended primer on the notion, both feared and desired, of "solitude".