INTRODUCTION
Taking Stock p69 a. Innovation p71 b. Ambivalence p79
INTRODUCTION Kent Kleinman
c. Universality p87 III. Face and Profile: On the Front Surface of the WP p95 IV. Space and Object: On the Edge of THE Wp p107 Excursus around the Corner p113 V. Art and Frame: On the Side of the WP p118 Conclusion p123
The reader of this small book is entitled to ask a few questions before starting. Who is the author? What is this ‘wall projection’ (or Mauervorsprung, as it was in the original German)? To what genre of architectural criticism does poetry belong? How can an author of a book on Wittgenstein’s Villa Stonborough write in his personal notes that ‘Wittgenstein doesn’t interest me’? Is architecture possible? In this introduction I will attempt to address each of these issues except the last, which is best answered by the book itself.
Jan TurnovskÝ On a Thursday evening in June 1991, Jan Turnovský presented a lecture at the Central Union of Austrian Architects in Vienna. He prepared the poster himself, a modest hand-typed graphic (above) which included a short biographical statement.1 It read: Jan Turnovský (brother of the poet and scientist Dr Evzen Turnovský) has worked as a double in Barrandov Film Studios in Prague, as a carpenter for concrete formwork Celakovice, as a graphic designer, mainly on album covers, and as a tenor-saxophonist for the International Zirkus Humberto, is currently assistant professor at the Institute for Housing at the Technical University in Vienna (and has been suspected of being a secret agent/spy).
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