1.

La Siège du Parti Communiste Français: The Headquarters of the French Communist Party is a significant piece of architecture in Paris, designed by the renowned Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer in 1966. Awarded by Institute Francais as international artist laureates, we studied the building as researchers in residence with additional funding from Arts Council and British Council. Our approach was firstly to spend time experiencing the architecture and how it is occupied, interviewing people who work in the building and studying the extensive archive held in the headquarters, deep underground. We then responded to the dynamics of the building exploring political terms indebted to movement. This is a technique that we call ‘Days of Action’...

Project: Tate Modern

Commissioners: Tate Modern/Tate Exchange/Spike Island

Methods from method set employed: Days of Action

Collaborators: Hannah Davies(Liberate Tate/Greenpeace), Bo Lanyon(Spike Island)

Participants:Workers from across the strata of Tate organisation and members of the public forming a group for each event

Programme for each event over one/half day:Training,Silent tour,action-Solidarity Line, training, action-What is the Building Calling for? open mic line-in

(1.PCF Model)

2.

Using our methods we developed a psychological profile of the building under scrutiny that revealed deep schisms. The principal schism is a split in its identity between that of a political headquarters embodying the notion of the collective and communist ideals, and that of a spectacular location and backdrop for hire, supporting the consumption of the image. The schism is so entrenched that the building now has two names, respectively, ‘La Siege du PCF’ and ‘Espace Niemeyer’.

3.

The profiling charted the evolution of this and other schisms through the building’s history, multiple modes of operation and stakeholders’ perceptions deepening understanding of its ‘psychology’ and how this could affect users and be affected by those users in the future…

( 2. Daupalet House & Archive )