The opening of the exhibition Being There: Photography in Arthur Erickson’s Early Travel Diaries will be taking place at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal on Thursday, November 14, 2024.
Curated by David Covo, the exhibition examines architect Arthur Erickson’s exchanges with people, places, landscapes, buildings, rituals, and ideas during his early travels in Europe and North Africa between 1950 and 1952, and in Asia in 1961.
“Drawing on a prescient understanding of site and environment, Erickson was convinced that architecture must be experienced to be understood. He knew that travel and the privilege of being present in different places would be a lifelong preoccupation and crucial to his continuing growth as an architect and thinker,” reads the CCA’s website.
The exhibition, presented as a geographical and thematic reading, is structured around two collections: Erickson’s letters and photographs. It also features his correspondence from his 1961 trip to Japan, Cambodia, and Indonesia, which includes a series of letters to Gordon Webber, his former teacher and mentor.
While Erickson’s physical presence in a place was crucial for him to understand the essence of a site and a building, photography and writing were forms of site annotations in Erickson’s architectural practice. The photographs and letters produced during his travels include a narrative of his experiences and reveal discoveries and insights that reappeared in his architectural work.
Being There is part of a longer, ongoing investigation at the CCA into the use of photography and new media as a means of studying the built environment. This new chapter aims to explore how travel photography acts as a mode of note-taking and thinking in design practice.
The exhibition’s grand opening will take place on November 14, 2024, and the exhibition will run until March 16, 2025.
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