Advising researcher Design / Authoring the city / Brakin, Visualizing the visual/ Traces of Autism
The work of the last decade by architect Wim Cuyvers was mainly about ‘reading the city’. Particular cities he has looked at include New York, Sarajevo, Belgrade, Paris, Tirana. In these different cities he was mainly on the look-out for ‘public space’, that is to say, spaces where anyone can do anything at any given moment, or the non-private space, or non-privately owned space, in other words, space which is economically uninteresting. The weak and the vulnerable (junkies, gypsies, homeless people?) are seen as the ones who can point us towards the real public space (i.e. the non-privatised space). It turns out that the space of exclusion is the real public space. Inventories are mainly made while walking through the cities. Personal engagement and exhaustion and personal weakness are seen as (of course non-scientific) levels to be able to read the cities. Cuyvers' work results in schemes of the various cities, which show how public space is distributed completely differently in different cities, for example: the very outside limit, at the waterfront in Manhattan, where homeless people are living and the two rivers in the middle of Tirana (Albania), used as rubbish-dumps, where gypsies are trying to survive. Recently Cuyvers works only on the non-project of the refuge of ‘Montavoix’ near Saint-Claude in the Haut-Jura in France.
Cuyvers graduated as architect in 1982 in Ghent (BE). He has been teaching at Academie voor Bouwkunst Tilburg (NL), the Design Academy Eindhoven (NL), St. Lucas in Ghent (BE), École d’Architecture Paris Malaquais and the Technical University, Delft (NL). His work includes buildings (schools, kindergarten, private houses, laboratories, exhibition lay-outs) and urbanistic proposals.
He had individual and group exhibitions in Antwerp, Brussels, Venice, Bordeaux, Rome, Plymouth...
Writings of Cuyvers include:
1995 Wim Cuyvers (exh.cat). Antwerp, BE: deSingel.
Book without title. With Marc De Blieck. See www.b-site.be
Beograd – Den Haag, about the impossibility of planning. With Filiep Tacq. The Hague, NL: Stroom.
2005 Text on Text, Wim Cuyvers. Den Haag, NL: Stoom.
Different articles in Archis ('Behind the iconostasis', ‘General PS’, ‘Learning from Sarajevo’...).
Hasselt, BE.
Architecture. Hoger Architectuurinstituut van de Stad Gent, Ghent, BE.
Flemish Culture Prize for Architecture.
Wim Cuyvers & Filiep Tacq (Eds). Beograd – Den Haag. About the impossibility of planning. Transvaal, public space as intimate and its borders. The Hague, NL: Stroom.
Brakin. Brazzaville-Kinshasa. Visualizing the visible. With Agency, Kristien Van den Brande, Tina Clausmeyer, Dirk Pauwels & SMAQ. Baden, CH: Lars Müller Verlag; Maastricht, NL: Jan van Eyck Academie.
Tekst over tekst. [Text on text]. The Hague, NL: Stroom.
Ed van Hinte & Bas Princen (Eds). Artificial Arcadia. Rotterdam, NL: 010 Publishers.
Kristien Gerets & Katrien Vandermarliere (Eds). Wim Cuyvers. Antwerp, BE: DeSingel.
Edges of the city. In: Brakin. Brazzaville-Kinshasa. Visualizing the visible, pp. 212-213. Baden, CH: Lars Müller Verlag; Maastricht, NL: Jan van Eyck Academie.
Public space. In: Brakin. Brazzaville-Kinshasa. Visualizing the visible, pp. 290-319. Baden, CH: Lars Müller Verlag; Maastricht, NL: Jan van Eyck Academie.
Roundabouts. In: Brakin. Brazzaville-Kinshasa. Visualizing the visible, pp. 144-157. Baden, CH: Lars Müller Verlag; Maastricht, NL: Jan van Eyck Academie.
Inner cover. In: Jan Robert (Ed.). Schoonselhof, nu! Een eigentijdse visie op de Antwerpse necropool, p. 372.
De interpretatie van de publieke ruimte in de (niet-westerse) stad. Een gesprek tussen Zeynep Celik en Wim Cuyvers [Reading public space in the (non-western) city. A dialogue between Zeynep Celik and Wim Cuyvers]. In: Oase, 69, pp. 32-43.
Thoughts on the public space of Brazzaville and Kinshasa. [Alcune riflessioni sullo spazio pubblico di Brazaville e Kinshasa]. In: Domus, 896, p. 69.
Karl Blanchet & Regina Keith. Afrika braucht seine Ärtze selbst. [review of Brakin. Brazzaville-Kinshasa. Visualizing the visible.]. In: Le Monde diplomatique.
Jantine Claus & Mieke Prinse. Homoseks in Maastricht. Een interview met architect Wim Cuyvers. In: Mosaiek, 8 (2), pp. 43-47.
Katrin Bettina Müller. (14 November). Das Rot und das Gelb des Fortschritts. [review of Brakin. Brazzaville-Kinshasa. Visualizing the visible.]. In: Die Tageszeitung. Published on: http://www.taz.de/pt/2006/11/14/a0213.1/text
Bert Gellynck. (2 November). De (on)mogelijkheid van cultureel engagement. Cultureel ondernemerschap: architectuur en engagement.
Brakin. (30 June – 1 July). With Kristien Van den Brande, Tina Clausmeyer, Kobe Matthys, Sabine Müller, Dirk Pauwels & Andreas Quednau. Maastricht, NL: Jan van Eyck Academie.
On safety and informality. (24 – 25 November). With Koen Brams, Binna Choi, Min Choi, Tina Clausmeyer, Ole Frahm, Klaas van Gorkum, Iratxe Jaio, Dirk Lauwaert, Hinrich Sachs, Jorinde Seijdel & Annelys de Vet in Authoring the city. Maastricht, NL: Jan van Eyck Academie.
(Untitled). In: Opening week 2007. (8 – 12 January). Organized by Jan van Eyck Academie. Louvain, BE: Stuk.
N6: The stone road. An urban countryside (notes from the first voyage to Mons). With Orla Barry, Els Dietvorst & Johanna Kirsch. In: Making sense in the city. (17 – 20 December). Ghent, BE: Aula Ghent University.
Traces of autism. (27 September). With Maartje Dros, Jacqueline Schoemaker & Jozua Zaagman. Maastricht, NL: Jan van Eyck Academie.
Brakin. Brazzaville-Kinshasa. Visualizing the visible. (2 July). Launch. With Agency, Sven Augustijnen, Guy Bomanyama, Kristien Van den Brande, Bambi Ceuppens, Tina Clausmeyer, Raf Custers, Vincent Kenis, Jean Michel Kibushi, Antoine-Dover Osongo-Lukadi, Dirk Pauwels, SMAQ, Florence de la Tullaye & Sarah Vanagt. Organized by Jan van Eyck Academie. Tervuren, BE: Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika.
Traces of autism. (23 March). With Brice De Ruyver. Organized by Jan van Eyck Academie. Genk, BE: FLACC.
Traces of autism. (22 March). With Cobi van Beek. Organized by Jan van Eyck Academie. Rotterdam, NL: Tent.
(Untitled). In: Opening week 2006. (9 – 13 January). Maastricht, NL: Jan van Eyck Academie.
Visualizing the visual. Reading, writing and mapping the environment of the river Congo at Brazzaville-Kinshasa. (16 June). In: Authoring the city. Organized by Jan van Eyck Academie. Maastricht, NL: Academie Beeldende Kunsten.
Presentation. In: Cities: is what you see what you are? (24 – 25 March). Maastricht, NL: Jan van Eyck Academie.
Congo-Brazaville team. With Kristien Van den Brande, Tina Clausmeyer, Kobe Matthys, Sabine Müller, Dirk Pauwels & Andreas Quednau. In: Opening week 2005. (10 – 14 January). Maastricht, NL: Jan van Eyck Academie.
Paris, public space, dead end streets. (16 September). In: Authoring the city. Presentations of research projects. Maastricht, NL: Jan van Eyck Academie.
Reading the city, constructing the novel. (7 June). Maastricht, NL: Jan van Eyck Academie.
The impossibility of planning. (29 September). With Dominique Callewaert & Filiep Tacq. Maastricht, NL: Jan van Eyck Academie.
Cultureel ondernemerschap. Architectuur en engagement. [Cultural Enterprise]. (14 October). In: Lend me your dream / lend me your fantasy. With Gideon Boie, Jasper Jägers, Matthias Pauwels & Roemer van Toorn. Organized by Academie Beeldende Kunsten & Jan van Eyck Academie. Maastricht, NL: Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten.
Curating the library. (26 April). With Orla Barry, Tara Casey, Miles Champion, Els Dietvorst, Will Holder, Suchan Kinoshita & Willem Oorebeek. Antwerp, BE: DeSingel.
Bucuresti workshop. Private initiative of 16 designers. With Maartje Dros, Anna Heinsbroek & Jozua Zaagman. Bucharest, RO. Published on: http://bukresh.blogspot.com/2006/04/workshopping-bucharest.html.
Faculty of invisibility. The speech. (6 – 8 December). With Selina Bütler, Roé Cherpac, Paul Gangloff, David Goldenberg, Sönke Hallmann, Ingela Johannson, Mykyta Kadan, Olesya Khomenko, Matthias Kreutzer, Volodymyr Kuznetsov, Nebojsa Milikic & Inga Zimprich. Maastricht, NL: Jan van Eyck Academie.
The vicissitudes of the public space in the Euregion Meuse-Rhine. In: Euregional Forum Liège. (23 – 25 November). With BAVO, Koen Brams, Pierre-Etienne Fourré, Thomas Moor & Florian de Visser. Lectures, debates, interviews, visual presentation. Liège, BE: Brasserie Haecht.
Wim Cuyvers. Van België naar nergens. (16 January – 23 April). The Hague, NL: Stroom. (Exh. Cat).
Transformerhouses. Urban renewal in the Indische buurt. (3 November – 16 December). Amsterdam, NL: 66 East – Centre for Urban Culture.
Heilige geest. (27 May – 8 July). With Marc De Blieck. Lier, BE: Voorkamer.
land’schap, o.-pen. [landscape, pl. -s]. (21 January – 12 March). Ghent, BE: De Witte Zaal.
Chapelle des morts pour l’espace public. (26 April). Antwerp, BE: DeSingel.
Quelques tombes, quelques tentes, Kunst & Zwalm, Zwalm, BE
2008
Abris sous noms, installation on the Koninklijk Atheneum, Antwerp, BE.
Caught in the building. (26 April). Antwerp, BE: DeSingel.
Common places. (8 December). In: Transformerhouses. Urban renewal in the Indische buurt. Performance on top of a transformerhouse in the Celebesstraat in the Indische buurt. Amsterdam, NL: 66 East – Centre for Urban Culture.