Thanasis Moutsopoulos, Keynoter

LEARNING ARCHITECTURE

8th International Conference
Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Gallery of Science and Technology
Belgrade, Serbia
4-5 December 2020

THANASIS MOUTSOPOULOS, KEYNOTER

Thanasis Moutsopoulos is Associate Professor of History of Art History and Cultural Theory, School of Architecture, Technical University of Crete.


IS THERE SUCH A THING AS AN AMATEUR ARCHITECT?

Abstract

The number of art workers this year has reached the highest point in human history, both in percentage terms and in absolute numbers. Without specifics, it’s clear that today more people than ever are studying in any kind of professional art school, even more likely to attend similar part-time classes. And then there are amateurs, many still prefer to be self-taught and creative without going through strict studies, such as the old social example of the “Sunday Painters”

The very limits of the artistic phenomenon have expanded so much that it includes categories that until recently no one had imagined as part of the arts: video artists, youtube bloggers, djs, exhibition curators, performers of all types, artists-activists, … And then there are the old, but also perpetually changing, areas of amateur creativity or expression that today seem to be experiencing unprecedented recognition from the world of media, free press or online blogs and the hipster community: housewives who cook amazing dishes, villagers-embroiders , artisans, amateur singers and instrumentalists of traditional music,… And we must not forget that there is a growing universe of hobbyists who, after eight hours of professional employment, in an often boring compulsory job. , find happiness in what really fills them, board games or videogames, assembling kits or puzzles, collecting and searching for objects,… But, these things are not art, are they?

Increasingly, these boundaries tend to widen and change, as the distinctions between expression, creativity and art tend to collapse, every day, as we speak.

The “Castle” of Architecture seems to be still holding, perhaps because in most countries (Japan is a notable exception) there is a strict requirement for a professional degree as well as a Guild membership. So all people around the Architecture Cosmos are Professional Architects? Well, a whole new community of  (Non-Architects) Architecture Bloggers, Photographers, 3-d videogame designers or Ruin wanderers reveals a new world arising. Architecture and Design Schools could be next in a long line of transformation…


Bio

Thanasis Moutsopoulos studied at the National Technical University, Athens, Greece.  Master of Design Studies, Harvard University, PhD NTUA. PhD N.T.U.A. Formerly Adj. assistant professor at the Department of Architecture, University of Patras, Greece (2000-2005).  He teaches History and Theory of Art and Architecture at the School of Architecture, TUC. Collaborated with many reviews (Mute, Archis,…) He was appointed commissioner for the Greek Pavilion (“Athens 2002: Absolute Realism”) at the Venice Biennale of Architecture (2002). He was the artistic director for the Photosyngyria exhibition, an international photography event in Thessaloniki, Greece (February 2005) and Visual Arts in Greece 2005 at the Contemporary Art Museum in Thessaloniki. He curated a great number of group shows in several museums in Greece. Recent international publications: Red Utopia: North Korea and On Cultural Influence (ed. Steven Rand, Heather Kouris).

Photo: Gerasimos Domenikos / FOSPHOTOS