Luc Merx in conversation with Christian Mosar (Artistic Director of Konschthal and curator of the exhibition Ruin Echoes)
Cairo’s plasterers work mostly outdoors, directly on the street. Their workshops serve not only as working spaces but also as showrooms. Interior walls and façades are covered with samples and serve as catalogues of ornaments. The result is often grotesque. Decorative systems from the Belle Époque are deconstructed and reassembled as spatial collages; symbols of popular culture appear alongside historical forms, with Mickey Mouse next to acanthus leaves.
The improvised order of the plaster workshops is simultaneously unfinished and ruinous.
Luc Merx works as an architect at the intersection of architecture, art and design. In the research project “Rokokorelevanz”, he investigates the potential of history as a reference for contemporary design practice. Luc Merx teaches at the Architecture Academy Maastricht, is an APL Professor at RPTU Kaiserslautern and was a professor at the German University in Cairo.
He will present his book and his photographic documentation of the Cairo workshops.
Mediators: Luc Merx and Christina Mosar
Free of charge | According to availability| No booking required.
Additional Info
- Audience For adults
