Feral Federation reveals emerging geographies of a growing constellation of contested urban enclaves governed by non-state actors, operating beyond the control of nation-states. Military doctrine is shifting to target such cities as prime loci of impending geostrategic conflicts, recognizing the new forms of soft power that autonomous agents exploit in urban constellations outside the rule of law. The database highlights and questions the pervasiveness of this increasingly common ‘securocratic’, managerial distinction, which casts a shared sense of immediate threat in a growing list of otherwise diverse and geographically distant cities. The exhibition offers a collection of urban landscapes, and the attendant technologies of occupation, protest, and agonistic conflict within the feral designees, as a counterpoint to the flattening gaze of the security state.

Feral Federation has been organized by AGENCY.

AGENCY is an active thought leader in social practice, developing award-winning architectural projects and urban strategies at a variety of scales. Seeking productive anomalies in the overlooked, the under-represented, and the everyday, the practice identifies, synthesizes, and transforms emerging urban paradigms.  The practice draws on the partners’ extensive experience in architectural construction, fabrication, education, and independently directed research.

The unprecedented challenges of rapid urbanization, ecological instability, and widespread resource depletion are matched only by an exponentially increasing capacity for innovation in architectural thought and production. Emerging technologies, communications, and models of practice offer a new generation the ability to identify and transform the most pressing urban and ecological issues through design. AGENCY positions architectural design as a systemic instrumentation of material ecologies, social constituencies, political policies, and ethical thought, embracing a transformative role, and enabling new paradigms of cultural production.

Partners Ersela Kripa and Stephen Mueller are the recipients of the 2010-2011 Rome Prize in Architecture from the American Academy in Rome, and MacDowell Colony residency fellowships in 2009 and 2013. AGENCY is the winner of the 2010 ONE PRIZE, an international design competition for creating productive green space in cities hosted by Terreform 1. AGENCY’s work has been exhibited internationally, most recently through invited participation at the 12th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale, Sofia Architecture Week, Eme3 International Architectural Market in Barcelona, and SUPERFRONT Gallery in Los Angeles.

For more information please visit:

rubin.utep.edu

http://agencyarchitecture.com/

www.feralfederation.org

The Texas Trost Society presents Urban Transformations: Visions of the Past and Future of Downtown El Paso, an exhibition which promotes history and culture by providing photographs, tours, contemporary artwork, and educational materials to remind El Pasoans of a time when the city enjoyed a booming economy and subsequently underwent an architectural transformation that rivaled some of the biggest cities in the country, and show them what they can look forward to after our historic core is revitalized. This exhibition will educate El Pasoans of our historic building's irreplaceable value and why they deserve to be saved for their beauty, what they contribute to the region's history, and their economic potential. Exhibits will be completely free to the public, hosted in the windows of three historic buildings located within a short distance of San Jacinto Plaza - the Roberts-Banner Building, Kress Building, and Plaza Motor Inn. They will showcase the transformation of El Paso from a small cattle ranch into a booming metropolis in exhibits curated by Dr. Max Grossman, architectural historian, as well as host artistic works envisioning the future of downtown El Paso in a juried exhibition. Participating artists include Daniel Rios-Lopera, Peter Svarzbein, Matthew Villarreal, Los Dos, Arturo and Valerie Enriquez, Candy Mayer, Jessica Tolbert, Marc Stone, and Anne Giangiulio. The exhibition will run from October 1 to 31, 2016, and will start with opening celebrations on October 1, 2016 from 10am to 2pm with free tours, family-friendly activities provided by the El Paso Museum of History, and free coloring books of downtown provided by El Paso Electric.