I (Ben Weir *1991, Belfast) work within the discipline (as opposed to the profession) of architecture. I denounce the notion of the architect as a neutral service provider. I draw, write, research and build. I work to uncover hidden spatial and material potentials. I generate projects through the survey of existing conditions, a process that invents as much as records. I favor dynamism, the unfinished, the open-to-change. I reject demolition and tabula rasa. I dissect, re-present and interrogate existing urban artifacts, seeking to express their current condition, situation, or relationship to us. I insert new objects into this environment, always seeking a positive contribution to a diverse, equitable and complex environment.
Residency at RAVI
Residues of Eden
Guest critic KABK, studio INSIDE
Mondriaan Fonds Research residency at VierVaart
Valga Arhitektuuriresidentuur, VARES
A residency about making heated furniture with whatever comes to hand
Guest Critic RAvB
BORDERLANDS residency at Greylight Projects
Autumn residency as part of the Borderland Residencies programme, a unique network of art residencies in the Maas-Rhine Euregion. I was studying the work of Heerlen architect Frits Peutz and its relationship to the post-mining city.
Core is Concrete
Permanent furniture installation, alongside interventions by Niamh Seana-Meehan and Tanad Aaron
Charged Space
Solo show
Casa Vilaró: A Caress and a Blow
Exhibition of residency outcome, launch of publication, public talk.
3 bis F
A contemporary arts center of national interest (CACIN) set within the Montperrin Psychiatric Hospital. The residency included workshops with patients and staff about measuring space and objects, and concluded with a solo show in the exhibition hall which explored the notion of buildings-inside-buildings.
Not Quite Nearly Fine
Presentation of recorded reading of short story, published in a book of the same name. Group show featuring Anne Huijnen, Artun Alaska Arasli, Ben Weir, Daniel de Paula, Giulio Squillacciotti, Marie Claire Krell, Marwan Moujaes, Nour Mobarak.
Irish Modernisms: Legacies of Modernism in the North
Group show featuring James Ashe, Phillip McCrilly, Grace McMurry, Rachael Campbell-Palmer, Ben Weir
Artists in Architecture: Re-Activating Modern European Heritage
Studio Tutor
Development and co-running of Master's in Architecture postgraduate program, including field trips, lecture series, design of student project briefs and studio methodology
Artists in Architecture: Re-Activating Modern European Houses
A Creative Europe program of the European Union in the framework of the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018 (EYCH), which sought to unlock various issues related to the preservation, adaptation and (re)activation of European architectural heritage. I was placed in the 1930 villa Casa Vilaro, the 'first rationalist house in Spain.'
GET LOST art route 2019
Temporary architectural installation in public space, collaboration with artist Andrea Canepa
Van Eyck Open Studios
Built intervention alongside 46 participating artists, designers, architects, curators and writers
DU 2017
8 person show resulting from 2 month residency occupying 3 empty anti-squat houses prior to their demolition
Jan van Eyck Academie
Participant at post-academic institute
Imagine! Belfast Festival of Politics and Ideas
Temporary architectural installation in public space, alongside curated program of performances, talks, sound installations from invited guests
EVERYTHINGGETSTREATEDTHESAME/
Exhibition alongside book launch
DU2017
Nomadic residency program. Eight emerging artists selected to occupy three anti-squat houses on Henri Jonasslaan in Caberg.