International Architecture School Exhibition curators believe that next to digital enthusiasts there are still numerous spatial artists who prais knowledge of the hand

We asked Merilin Kaup, Ulla Alla and Margus Tammik, the curators of International Architecture Schools Exhibition “Handful” to talk a bit more about the topic of this year’s exhibition. The deadline for the Open Call is already on this Thursday, 31st of March. See more about the requirements here.

Could you explain a bit more what kind of techniques you had in mind when you chose the headline “Handful”?

The techniques can be anything: works could be about how „dads” fix and mend everyday objects around the house, the misuse of old tools to create the right results, it could be combining old knowledge with new technologies, but using the hand as the brains of the operation. It is important to keep in mind that the projects presented should have the hand as the main tool for creating the techniques, where the hand does more than just move a computer mouse. We are also inspired by traditional techniques such as different wooden joinery techniques, cloth-making and felting, metal-works, earth building, brick laying. We wonder how these methods can be tweaked and executed in less than perfect anthropocene conditions, for example. 

Have you used some forgotten techniques in your own work? Please elaborate.

We mostly work as bricoleurs, endlessly reusing and reinterpreting the materials around us, being adaptive and working with what we have around us. Be it finding material value in domestic dust on a poetic but also practical level, weaving it, using it as pigment or even creating bioplastic. Or building a sauna oven from scratch from the clay found in the bottom of a river and a few bricks from abandoned holiday houses.

What kind of works are you hoping to receive?

We believe that next to digital enthusiasts there are still numerous spatial artists who quixotically  fight the windmills, learning, practising and sharing the knowledge of the hand. We hope to receive a wide interpretation of the theme where the hand is the main character. With the exhibition we aim to highlight the importance of the non-verbal dialog between the hand and spatial creation. We are dreaming of getting works from not only people who have mastered techniques but also from people who are just learning and aiming to better their non-verbal thinking via the hand.