Discursive architecture: Tactics for Critical Intervention in the Work of BAVO

Criticism is largely an unprofessional affair, more often than not a friendly service, at best a civil service for the good cause of architecture culture. In any case, it is poorly paid and not meant to be taken seriously. Therefore architect-philosopher Gideon Boie proposes to rethink criticism on the basis of overidentification: a counter-strategy in which artists identify with the current trends in such an excessive way that it becomes rather difficult to digest.

In Discursive Architecture, Boie reflects on the practice of BAVO: the collective he co-founded with Matthias Pauwels in the early 2000s. Boie sketches how the strategy of overidentification and its wider psychoanalytical framework allows us to explore new critical tactics. The interventions of BAVO tackled various urgent social issues, ranging from regional development, city marketing and art in the public space, to spatial management, humane detention and mental healthcare.