Construction Sites of the Social

My contribution is a printed zine designed for the audience to take away and keep. It's based on my master’s thesis submitted at TU Graz. Titled Construction Site of the Social, the thesis argued that architecture is not merely a passive backdrop but an active participant in shaping societal structures. Expanding on this, I examined two spatial con gurations metaphorically called the White Cube and the Black Box, referring to the contemporary art exhibition space and the prison, respectively.

The zine will be produced in A2 format and will o er a critical reading of the intersection between the histories of incarceration (Michel Foucault / Kent Schull) and exhibition-making (Tony Bennett) from a spatial perspective. In this context, architecture is understood as an instrument of political power used to impose discipline, regulate societies, and reinforce class distinctions.

Employing juxtaposition as a methodology, the project examines the architectural manifestations of power across di erent temporal and geographical contexts. It investigates how spatial strategies of governance coexist and operate simultaneously to shape the modern subject.

Structurally, the zine investigates two primary frameworks, seeking to unveil the ideologies that bind them. These frameworks are “Spaces of Incarceration” and “The Exhibitionary Complex.” Throughout the zine, the investigation extends beyond the physical dimension, examining how space and architecture function as tools for maintaining ideological violence within the realm of abstraction.

Ultimately, the zine invites readers to recognize prisons and exhibition spaces as products of the same overarching systems: modernity and colonialism. It also introduces two models through which power is spatialized and displayed—the White Cube and the Black Box—enabling a deeper understanding of the mechanisms through which power operates in space and architecture.