Around the world in fifty-two weeks

Nomadic by nature, Iwan Baan narrates the existence of a world apart in our globalized condition: architecture endowed with uncommon qualities, a discipline that impresses a unique view of the urban landscape. The venue hosting Baan's photo-diary of his 2010 trip, which lasted over fifty-two weeks, is also uncommon. Villa Noailles was built in 1923 by Robert Mallet-Stevens for Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles in Hyères, France. Perched above the hills surrounding Provence, the villa is one of the most significant episodes in the Modern Movement. The cubist garden, designed by Gabriel Guevrekian, served as a reference for Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx.

Curated by Florence Sarano and Jean-Pierre Blanc, "2010 around the world: the diary of a year of architecture" is an overview of the world in fifty-two photographs. The show looks at architecture from two diametrically opposing points of view. On the one hand is the urban scale that Baan photographs at dawn flying over the city in a helicopter. From the air, barely noticeable ground-level elements become obvious, such as Zaha Hadid's MAXXI in Rome which aligns with the buildings of a nearby former army barracks, creating a sort of short circuit in the regularity of the blocks of the surrounding neighborhood. In the undifferentiated banality of downtown Los Angeles, Michael Maltzan has been able to carve out a kind of architectural oasis with Inner-City Arts, a white complex that contrasts the darker tones of the adjacent neighborhood.

On the other hand is the human scale. People pass by these buildings everyday as unwitting witnesses. Often, they are the builders and craftsmen who participated in their construction, like the welder, suspended in the air, working on the curved beams of the Beijing Olympic stadium by Herzog & de Meuron.

Or the curious passers-by who oversee the progress of the construction work: minute figures that help us understand the building's dimensions but who also help us reflect upon architecture's true social and political role. In fact, Baan approaches architecture and the existence that surrounds it in a non-neutral way, with a reporter's attitude. But when you touch the lives of others, it can also be dangerous; in Medellín and Caracas, he had a gun pointed at his face.

This interpretation of architectural photography is far from a traditional one. The constructions are enthroned, devoid of the richness that can be conferred by people's movements, actions and "color." In this respect, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron write in one of the catalogue texts, "His buildings are never alone. They come with people. The people tell us about the building they use. How they use them, why they use them, how it is to use them. That is how all his buildings become our buildings: yours and mine."

In the end, it could only be this way, because Iwan Baan's career began with an experience that helped shape his worldview. Baan studied photography at the Royal Academy in The Hague, where his 1998 thesis reported on the activities of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, established by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, economist and founder of the microloan system that is currently transforming the way that people around the world are seeing an end to poverty.
Laura Bossi

Iwan Baan: 2010 around the world
the diary of a year of architecture
Until 27 March
Villa Noailles
Montée Noailles,
Hyères, France