Architecture of Autonomy (Change)

Project: Architecture of Autonomy (Change), 2017
Location: May 18 Democracy Square, Gwangju, Korea
Client: Gwangju Biennale, Folly III
Architect: realities:united
Project Team: Jan Edler, Tim Edler, Christopher Gramer, Johannes Frölich, Charlotte Popp
Collaborator: Moon Hoon Architects, Gwangju

Visible from a great distance, the installation Architecture of Autonomy is located on the roof of the Cinema Culture Complex, a public high-rise directly opposite the important Asian Cultural Centre. The building is in the immediate proximity of the May 18 Democracy Square, a central site of the democratic citizens’ movement of the 1980s in Gwangju, South Korea.  

This work, whose mutable appearance is configured by its visitors, is a component of a "View Folly" that was developed together with the Korean architect Moon Hoon (Seoul), and whose hidden viewing platform reveals a spectacular vista of the mountainous landscape surrounding Gwangju. 

Architecture of Autonomy consists of 33 triangular, manually revolvable metal profiles lined up one after the other that, together, form a large-format display panel. The 3 surfaces of each object are each lacquered in different colors. The word "CHANGE" can always be read on the visible surface of the installation, no matter in which direction the individual profiles are turned and which color codes arise. The call to change, which is directed into the urban space in a typical advertising format, can be taken up by the visitors immediately and very directly – but only within a recognizably limited scope for action. Through rotation, a vast number of different color combinations can be produced, but the central message, "CHANGE," and the underlying system nonetheless remain unchangeable.