De Facto at Beta 2022
De Facto was invited to participate at the Architectural Biennial of Timisoara in Romania: Beta 2022. One of the themes was the micronation.
In Timisoara, in the northwest of Romania, the 4th edition of the Architectural Biennial is on. The general theme of this year’s edition is ‘the city as a common good’. This topic is approached from different perspectives throughout the biennial – in a wide range of formats, some classic, others informal or experimental, like the main exhibition ‘Another Breach in the Wall’ curated by Daniel Tudor Munteanu and Davide Tommaso Ferrando.
The exhibition is dedicated to projects and actions that generate exceptional urban spaces by questioning the laws, rules and codes according to which cities are traditionally produced and inhabited. One of the topics of the show is the phenomenon of micronations: fictional spatial entities declared to claim autonomy from existing governments by exploiting loopholes and grey areas in their laws. The biennial hosts nineteen architects and artists groups who designed a micronation. These projects can be found on a 23 kilometers route that goes through the city.
Some of the projects were commissioned, some curated and others entered via a competition. All the nineteen installations are site-specific, although while the commissioned works are entirely new, the ones curated by Beta are previously existing projects that have been reframed so as to fit into the micronation narrative.
As De Facto, we were invited to give a presentation on our project and to design nineteen stamps for these micronations. The stamps are based on flags that were exclusively created for these fictional countries.
After our presentation in the Monkey House, central Timisoara, we were part of a panel talk together with Theo Deutinger, architect and founder of The Department, and Karsten Huneck & Bernd Trümpler of the Office for Subversive Architecture (OSA). The discussion was moderated by Francesco Degl’Innocenti, editor at Volume magazine and member of the advisory board of the Beta 2022 curatorial team.
Between September 23th and October 23th 2022, Beta organizes more than 40 events, in different formats: conferences, exhibitions, workshops, debates, film screenings, installations, and guided tours. For the full program see Betacity 2022.