1044 - March 2020
In October 2017, on the Otay Mesa, a barren patch of land near San Diego, President Donald Trump unveiled eight prototype sections of free-standing wall. These were designed to be tested along the US-Mexican border, the fortification of which was a pillar of Trump’s election campaign. While a border wall is widely seen as an ineffective, symbolic solution to what conservatives consider to be the United States’ immigration problem, these prototypes represented Trump’s determination to follow through on the promises that got him elected. Built at a cost of 3.3 million dollars in federal funds, the competing prototypes [later dismantled, see photo], if commissioned, would constitute a monumental contract for the winning company. The prototype chosen for this issue’s cover by Thomas Demand was produced by Elta North America, a defence manufacturer based in Maryland and owned by Israel Aerospace Industries. The flow of capital and military resources between the US and Israel lends this prototype a further layer of symbolism – urging a loaded comparison with the defence of Israel’s borders against states which threaten its very existence. Trump – a real estate developer and a social climber – has built a fortune on the design and sale of aspirational structures. In October 2018, he described his intended wall as “artistically designed steel slats”; Demand observes that Elta’s design mirrors the Renaissance convention of the piano nobile sitting above the humbler ground floor. All the prototypes turned out to be far from impregnable, so, as with many of Demand’s subjects, these models were impossible fantasies.
258 - May 1951
Soggiorno, arch.tti Belgiojoso, Peressutti, Rogers; camino in piastrelle ceramiche di Melotti; scultura di Marini
98 - February 1936
Vetrata di Luigi Fontana su cartone di Gio Ponti nella biblioteca del palazzo della scuola di matematica alla città universitaria di Roma
12 - December 1928
Puntale di pennone in ferro, forgiato alla Scuola Industriale d'Arte Pietro Selvatico, Padova
528 - November 1973
Interno della boutique "You Tarzan Me Jane" di "dressing" spontaneo allestita dal gruppo UFO a Firenze
594 - May 1979
Thomas Alva Edison accanto al modello della "Concrete House" da lui realizzata nel 1907
537 - August 1974
Complesso scolastico "Les Maradas" a Cergy-Pontoise, arch.tti Pencreac'h, Lenclos, Mourgue
2 - February 1928
Composizione decorativa di Bruno Innocenti e Francesco Prosperi, Scuola d'Arte Industriale di Firenze
122 - February 1938
Sala del consiglio d'amministrazione della s.a.m.r. di Livorno, arch. G. Palanti
303 - February 1955
Divano trasformabile in letto in metallo e gommapiuma della Tecno, disegno di Osvaldo Borsani
695 - June 1988
L'isola nuova nel Verbindingskanaal a Groningen (Olanda), arch.tti Grassi e Kalfsbeek