Namely, words

‘Namely, words’, the Betts Project’s first new show since lockdown eased, brings together and celebrates the work of architects and artists who have exhibited at the gallery since it opened in March 2013.

This exhibition will launch in two parts in two locations; the first in the gallery’s London space at 100 Central Street on Thursday 27th May 2021, and the second in Betts Project’s new space in Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation in Marseille, France, at the beginning of next year.

‘Namely, words’ is dedicated to the common and at times intricate ground between architecture and writing. Questioning the notion of drawing and building as being the primary medium of the architect, this exhibition turns to literature for alternative reflections towards architecture and to enrich the way we think and talk about architectural practice.

Writing and making often utilise a shared conceptual vocabulary — structure, narrative, texture, style — and have each played key roles in the cultural experience of modernity. Through a series of 21 paired dialogues of drawing and text, ‘Namely, words’ seeks to explore writing’s capacity to engage with the lived experience of place and reveal the dialogue between architecture and writing as complex and inseparable social practices.

For this exhibition, Betts Project invited architects to present either a new or existing drawn or sculpted work and to accompany it with a piece of writing they admire. The exhibition reads in the same way as an annotated book; the literary choices act as postscripts to the works in the exhibition, becoming a way of re-reading the works, while assigning new definitions through the use of text.

In the exhibition, multiple copies of the texts are hung on the wall for visitors to tear off and take home. An exhibition catalogue will accompany the project following its second part in 2022.

Part 2 of 'Namely, words' will include: Pier Vittorio Aureli, Caruso St John, Nigel Coates, Shin Egashira, Richard Goodwin, Jacques Hondelatte, Manthey Kula, Office Kersten Geers David van Severen, Fred Scott.