Anna Weichsel

Work/Research

Working in collaboration with several contemporary German artists on historical buildings from the early 1930th - researching the history of this time, discussing their art work and developing architectural interventions based upon that - led to a concentrated pursuit of historical theory of art and architecture and their point of intersection.

Revived in those collaborations and questioning the overloaded theoretical explanations of designs in actual architecture I developed an interest in the forms and structures of communication and collaboration among architects and artists in the late 19th and 20th century. The focus of my studies is the relationship of conceptual composition and forms of communication within an international group of architects and the migration of their ideas in different societies. Not only the strong impact of modern ideas but also the chosen collaborators, their search for appropriate techniques of communication, and the slight changes thru inclusion in different cultures and political systems have an incredible impact on the reception of those ideas until today. To understand the backgrounds of societies and cultures I am surveying a wider range of material like magazines, ephemera of print media, estates of protagonists, and archival material of involved companies and political organizations.

As a base for exchange and articulation I joined the Akademie c/o in 2009 which is an open independent group of architects and theorists. The main objective is to find answers thru creative discussions about the production of space on a meta-theoretical level with a wide variety of scientists. To summarize the gained ideas I contributed an essay (Production of Space, 2010) focused on architectural phenomena of interaction in the public.