When Kenneth Frampton formulated his concept of "Critical Regionalism" in the mid-1980s, he did so in polemical opposition to the two most influential architectural movements of his time: the high-tech wave and post-modernism. The latter considered Frampton as deeply "scenographic". Against the background of a "bad" scenographic backdrop, Frampton articulated a desire for a "good, non-scenographic" architecture that assures itself of "critical" regional building traditions.

Frampton's juxtaposition obscures the view of an advanced understanding of scenography beyond lying and deception - a scenography understanding that ties in with those decisive cultural developments since the end of late modernity, which have recently been summarized as "performative turn" - and in relation to this research project, should be systematically related to architecture.

Preliminary work: Stephan Trüby (guest curator): Archithese 4/2010: "Szenografie"; Stephan Trüby, Verena Hartbaum (ed.): Germania, Venezia. The German Entries to the Venice Architecture Biennale since 1991 (Fink, 2016)

Contact Person: Zsuzsanna Stánitz