Countryside, The Future

  • NEW NATURE, Highly artificial and sterile environments are employed to create the ideal organic specimen. Image Courtesy of Pieternel van Velden.
  • AMO’s selection of unique and highly specific conditions distributed over the globe, serves as a framework for their research. Image: Courtesy of OMA.
  • RIGIDITY ENABLES FRIVOLITY, The frivolity of urban life has necessitated the organization, abstraction, and automation of the countryside at a vast and unprecedented scale. Left: Mishka Henner, Feedlots, 2013. Right: Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London, 2018. Photo: Luca Locatelli.
  • Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Photo: David Heald.

Countryside, The Future, launched in February 2020, is an exhibition that addresses urgent environmental, political, and socioeconomic issues through the lens of architect and urbanist Rem Koolhaas and AMO, the think tank of the Office  for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). A unique exhibition for the Guggenheim rotunda,”Countryside, The Future” explores radical changes in the vast non-urban areas of Earth with an immersive installation premised on original research. The project extends investigative work already underway by AMO, Koolhaas, and students at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design; the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing; Wageningen University, Netherlands; and the University of Nairobi.

Countryside, The Future, launched in February 2020, is an exhibition that addresses urgent environmental, political, and socioeconomic issues through the lens of architect and urbanist Rem Koolhaas and AMO, the think tank of the Office
 for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). A unique exhibition for the Guggenheim rotunda,”Countryside, The Future” explores radical changes in the vast non-urban areas of Earth with an immersive installation premised on original research. The project extends investigative work already underway by AMO, Koolhaas, and students at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design; the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing; Wageningen University, Netherlands; and the University of Nairobi.

The exhibition explores artificial intelligence and automation, the effects of genetic experimentation, political radicalization, global warming, mass and micro migration, large-scale territorial management, human-animal ecosystems, subsidies and tax
incentives, the impact of the digital on the physical world, and other developments that are altering landscapes across the globe.

Milestone

2019.Q4
Project awarded Design Trust Feature Grant

2020.02-08
“Countryside, the Future” exhibition is presented at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, US. The exhibition garnered acclaim with coverage in The New York Times, The Guardian, Architectural Digest and Wallpaper*

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2019
Grantee: AMO and Guggenheim Foundation

About AMO

Cofounded by Rem Koolhaas in 1999 and now directed by Samir Bantal, AMO is the think tank of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). AMO applies architectural thinking to domains beyond building, often working in parallel with OMA’s architectural projects to fertilize building with intelligence from an array of disciplines. AMO has worked with Prada, the European Union, Universal Studios, Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, Condé Nast, Harvard University, the Hermitage, and Virgil Abloh’s Off-White. It has produced exhibitions including Expansion and Neglect (2005), The Gulf (2006), Cronocaos (2010), Public Works (2012), and Elements of Architecture (2014) at the Venice Architecture Biennale; When Attitudes Become Form: Bern 1969/Venice 2013 (2013), Serial Classics, and Portable Classics (both 2015) at Fondazione Prada, Milan and Venice; Virgil Abloh: “Figures of Speech” (2019); and Making Doha (2019). AMO published The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping (2001) and Great Leap Forward (2001) with the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and Content (2004), Al Manakh (2007), Al Manakh: Gulf Continued (2007), Project Japan: Metabolism Talks (2011), and Elements of Architecture (2014 and 2018).

About Guggenheim Foundation

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation was established in 1937 as an innovative, risk-taking institution committed to the most advanced art of our time. Driven by the mission of the larger Foundation, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opened in 1939 and, in 1959, moved to the landmark Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building that has become its enduring symbol. The Museum serves as a vital cultural and educational center welcoming visitors from around the world who come to experience cutting-edge special exhibitions, the Museum’s iconic architecture, and works in the collection, including a selection of Modernist masterpieces as well as significant holdings of Minimalist, Post-Minimalist, Conceptual, and international contemporary art.

Project Result: “Countryside, The Future” exhibition

Date: 20 February – 14 August 2020

Open daily: 10:00am – 5:30pm; Tuesdays and Saturdays until 8:00pm

Venue: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10128-0173

A unique exhibition for the Guggenheim Museum, “Countryside, The Future“ explores radical changes transforming the surface of the world beyond cities. Conceived by architect and urbanist Rem Koolhaas and Samir Bantal, Director of AMO, the think tank of Koolhaas’s Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), the rotunda installation presents original research that addresses urgent environmental, political, and socioeconomic issues.