Taking more than what's there to give

Taking more than what's there to give
Mar — Apr 2025

VI PER Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic

We are organizing a group exhibition, which will include LINA Fellows.


About the exhibition:

Associations between architecture and energy have come to the fore in recent years. New theories have explored the spatialized forms of energy systems, the history of energy consumption in construction, and the invisible bodies in talks of embodied energy. 


Looking at how energy moves, transforms and dissipates, in the body as well as in other parts of the material world, also reveals a throughline of overexertion due to the maximum extraction of potential energy in different instances along the architecture production chain. These different instances will be the focus of this exhibition.


At the point of raw material extraction, some of these instances are the collapse of a dam or the total consumption of a mountain or forest; as that material is transported, they are the burning of fuel and generation of emissions beyond planetary systems’ abilities to repair themselves; at the construction site, they are injury due to the excessive stress of the body as a way to extract maximum surplus value; at the architecture office, they are mental health problems and carpal tunnel syndromes.


The throughline in this exhibition ties in energy, work as energy deployment, the body and its physical limits, the worker groups in the architecture industry, and the technologies involved in architecture production. The overarching goal is to contribute to the understanding of indelible relationships of response-ability at play in the architect’s practice, as she is always designing not only a space but (more or less violent) forms in which energy itself will transduce and be appropriated.


Curator: Alina Paias is a spatial designer, an architecture worker and an independent researcher investigating the production of architecture by engaging with feminist philosophy, new materialism, the environmental humanities, and the philosophy of technology. Currently, she is one of the curators for the 2024 International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR) and a member of the Editorial Team for Footprint, the Delft Architecture Theory Journal. More info https://alinapaias.com


The exhibition will be shown at VI PER, Prague (March–April 2025) and in Lisbon (May–June 2025).


Colaboration profiles


We look for individuals or groups interested in exhibiting their work and collaborating in the accompanying programme.


We look for fellows that respond with their projects to the concept of the exhibition. The fellows should have a strong ability in research focused on intersections of architecture, energy, and extraction in their own research-based (theoretical or practical) projects or design practice. We especially welcome new, unpublished material. Selected fellow will be part of the exhibition – either directly involved with the project in the exhibition or part of the related events (lectures, workshops, etc.).