An illustration of loneliness, togetherness, sameness, selflessness, laziness, asceticism, libertinism, domestication, inhabitation, socialization, incarceration, liberation, oppression, separation, individuation, cellularization, isolation, contemplation, collectivization, equality proximity, anonymity, poverty, luxury, interiority, enclosure, seclusion, exclusion, inclusion, life and prison.
A genealogy of the cell from cubicula to monastic cells, from workers’ lodgings to prison cells, from residential hotels, to micro apartments.
1. OSA, Cell for One Person in High-rise communal house, Avtostroj, USSR, 1929.
2. Monastery of St. Macarius, Nitria, Egypt, 300–400 CE.
3. Great Lavra Monastery, Mount Athos, 350–400 CE.
4. Charterhouse of Clermont, France, 14th century, adapted from Viollet-le-Duc.
5. Pandavleni Caves, Nasik, India, 150 CE.
6. Lazzaro Palazzi, Lazzaretto, Milan, Italy, 15th century.
7. Ajanta Cave, Nasik, India, 2nd century BCE.
8. House of the Faun, Pompeii, Italy, 80–90 BCE.
9. Monastery of St. Macarius, Nitria, Egypt, 300–400 CE.
10. Monastery of Skellig Michael, Ireland, 800–900 CE.
11. Hermitage of Camaldoli, Arezzo, Italy, 1012.
12. Master of the Osservanza (Sassetta), The Meeting of Saint Anthony and Saint Paul, 1430–1435.
13. Florence Charterhouse, Italy, 14th century.
14. Jakob Fugger the Younger, Fuggerei, Augsburg, Germany, 1516.
15. Carlo Fontana, Carcere di San Michele a Ripa, Rome, Italy, 1686.
16. Cornelis Meijer, One-Person Apartment, 1689.
17. Gustave Courbet, The Stone Breakers, 1849.
18. Ferdinando Fuga, Albergo dei Poveri, Naples, Italy, 1751.
19. John Wood the Younger, Cottage for one or two workers, 1806.
20. Jeremy Bentham, Panopticon, 1791.
21. Henry Roberts, House for Unmarried Labourers, 1851.
22. Working womens’ home, 1869.
23. Edward Hopper, Western Motel, 1957.
24. Bob Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone, 1965.
25. Martin Scorsese, Taxi Driver, 1976.
26. Edward Hopper, New York Movie, 1938-39.
27. Trowbridge & Livingston, Palace Hotel, San Francisco, USA, 1875.
28. National Hotel, San Francisco, 1906.
29. SRO Florence Hotel, Los Angeles, USA, renovated 1985.
30. Moisei Ginzburg and Ignaty F. Milinis, Narkomfin Building, or Second House of Sovnarkom, Moscow, USSR, 1928–1930.
31. Kisho Kurokawa, Nakagin Capsule Tower, Tokyo, Japan, 1972.
32. Hermann Nitsch, Die Architektur des Orgien Mysterien Theaters, 1984–1990.
33. LACK Ikea side table.
34. Robert Longo, Men in The Cities, 1980.
35. nArchitects, Carmel Place Microapartments, New York City, USA, 2013–2016.
36. Peter Halley, Cells and Conduits, 2018.
Confinement is a collaborative exhibition curated by gta exhibitions and e-flux Architecture, supported by the Adrian Weiss Stiftung and the ETH Zürich Foundation.
