2020-03-23 Bloomberg Businessweek

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DAVID

HERALD/SOLOMON

R.GUGGENHEIM

FOUNDATION

Peoplehaveromanticizedthecountrysideaslongasthere

havebeencities.FromtheancientRomanpoetHoraceto

GermanexpressioniststotheAmericancommunesofthe

1970s,there’sanongoingperceptionthatthecountrysiderep-

resentsaninnocentagrarianpast,whereascities,builton

sophisticatedcommerce,representthetechnocentricfuture.

It’snotjusta questionofsentimentality.Metropolitan

livingdoesseemlikethewayforward,especiallyamongpro-

ponentsofenvironmentalsustainability.Thecarbonfootprint

of ahouseholdinthecenterofa large,densecityisabout

halfthenationalaverage,accordingtoa 2014studybythe

UniversityofCaliforniaatBerkeley,andhouseholdsinsub-

urbsareasmuchastwicetheaverage.

Butthetheorythatbigcitiesareourmanifestdestiny

is beingchallengedbythestarchitectRemKoolhaasinthe

exhibition“Countryside,theFuture,”attheSolomonR.

GuggenheimMuseuminNewYorkthroughAug.14.“Theinev-

itabilityofTotalUrbanizationmustbequestioned,”Koolhaas

writesinanaccompanyingcatalog,“andthecountryside

mustberediscoveredasa placetoresettle,tostayalive.”This

notionwillhaveparticularresonanceintheageofthenew

coronavirus,asurbancrowdshavebecomesynonymouswith

contagion.TheGuggenheimis closeduntilfurthernoticefor

thisveryreason,makingKoolhaas’smessagestrikinglyurgent.

Thesixlevelsoftherotundaarebrokenintosections,includ-

ingonecalled“PoliticalRedesign”thatlooksatcasestudies

CRITIC BloombergPursuits March 23, 2020

aroundtheglobeinwhichthecountrysidewasmodified

throughsociopoliticalmachinations.Init,thereareanecdotes

aboutNaziGermany,plusa storyaboutMoammarQaddafi’s

successfulprojecttocreatethelargestirrigationsysteminthe

worldbytransportingwaterthrough1,750milesofpipeline.

Anothersection,“(Re-)Population,”findspeoplewho

left thecityforthe country.Onesuchnarrativerelates

howManheim,a towninGermanythatabutsanopencoal

mine,wasevacuatedasthemineexpanded.Thevillage

becamea ghosttownuntilGermanymovedSyrianrefu-

geesintoitsancient,emptyhouses.Therefugees,thetext

tellsus,“madethevillagelooklikeanoptimistic,hetero-

geneous,globalizedversionoftheGermancountryside.”

Mostoftheexhibitionis textaccompaniedbypropsboth

illustrativeanddecorative.Ona pillardedicatedtotoysand

books,Playmobiltractorsetsaremountedonthewall.“The

smallesttoyfarmorpolicesquadorchildren’sbookreveals

moreaboutthefearsandhopesofa societythanmanysocio-

logicalstudies,”readsthetext.

TheshowwascuratedbytheGuggenheim’sTroyConrad

TherrienandorganizedincollaborationwithAMO,a research

studiospunoutofKoolhaas’sfirm,OfficeforMetropolitan

Architecture(OMA).It’snotprescriptive:Visitorsaren’tlikely

tofindnewideasaboutsociology,letalonemassdeforestation

orspeciescollapse.Instead,theshowaimstocapturethecur-

rentstateoflifeoutsidecities.“Given[the]countryside’senor-

mity,thisportraitcanonlybepointillist,” Koolhaas writes.

There’s a recurring theme of compare and contrast: A pic-

ture of women in traditional peasant clothes from 1909 is set

against another image of a pink-lit mega-greenhouse from 2017.

“THEN,” reads text overset on the first image. “NOW,” reads

the next. We’re supposed to be dazzled by the change, but

mostly you’ll be struck by how the labeling, font, and depth of

insight conjures HSBC’s decade-old “Different Values” adver-

tising campaign.

Anyone looking for profundity, or anything they can’t find

on Wikipedia, will likely come away disappointed. The show

often takes a bemused, wide-eyed approach to rural life that

presupposes its audience is as ignorant as the urbane Koolhaas,

whose interest in the countryside came about when he decided

his Swiss vacation town had become too gentrified. “When I

first went there 20 years ago, the village was small. Since then,

the inhabitants left, but the village grew. It’s now three times

bigger,” he says in a statement at the base of the Guggenheim

ramp. “How can a village empty and grow at the same time?”

Sentiments like these make the show feel oddly dated, a

jumble of insights that don’t stand up to scrutiny (for exam-

ple: “The sea is the new countryside”). The format might work

in a management consultant’s strategy deck, but a museum,

particularly one with such global stature, should aim higher.

And yet it’s notable that “Countryside, the Future” exists

at the Guggenheim at all. It’s a testament to the institution’s

commitment to nontraditional art and ideas but also a devas-

tating internal contradiction: If the countryside is our future,

what’s it doing in a museum? <BW>

A show at the Guggenheim

discovers the joys of rural life

By James Tarmy

In Defense of

The Country

Satellite imagery of farmland in North Dakota