‘Isms and ‘Wasms: 1980 in Parallax

The Jencks Foundation’s first research theme takes the year 1980 as its starting point. In 1980 the first ever Venice Architecture Biennale entitled The Presence of the Past famously announced Post-Modernism as the international mainstream of architecture. It proposed a new canon that was to be more inclusive and polyphonic, and sought to embrace a diversity of narratives, a variety of styles, contradictions and irony. Charles Jencks’ contribution to the Biennale When ‘wasms became ‘isms set out to map the various streams and traditions of Post-Modern Architecture through exploring the edges, the eccentric, the bizarre and the outsider cultures of architecture beyond the mainstream. Yet despite these ideals, none of the case studies and architects presented at the Biennale went beyond the European and North-American context. Looking back – once again – in order to look forward, this research theme reconsiders the Post-Modern canon from the critical distance of 43 years to reinvigorate the pluralism suggested by the Biennale and Charles. ‘isms and ‘wasms: 1980 in parallax borrows the term ‘parallax’ from the field of photography and foregrounds the shifting perspectives of lesser studied contexts, cultural and geographical sites. It invites voices from diverse, multidisciplinary backgrounds to remap the year 1980, while reflecting on its legacies today. This new research theme is launched by a commission and exhibition by Raqs Media Collective, and further explored throughout the year by a set of newly commissioned essays and diagrams, digitised material from the Jencks Foundation archive, public debates and a symposium.