London-based curator and writer Eszter Steierhoffer will give a talk on ZOO-TOPIA, a new publication that features 2010 ISCP alum Szabolcs KissPál. Amorous Architecture, a new work by Kisspál will be screened before the talk; it is a docu-fiction exploring the architecture of the Budapest Zoo in order to shed light on its wider ideological and cultural implications and the ways national and ethnic identities are constructed. ZOO-TOPIA’S starting point is display histories and architectural settings within zoos, and the spatial articulation of a cultural history of Modern times. A selection of essays and artists’ contributions survey the zoo as a showcase of modernist architecture and experimentation; as museum; as site of national representation; as prison; as animal society; as a city and world-image, or as a psycho-geographical space, and an escape in the city.

The ZOO-TOPIA publication was conceived as an exhibition in a book format, and includes works by Anca Benera, Yona Friedman, Bahbak Hashemi-Nezhad, Candida Höfer, Szabolcs KissPál, Wesley Meuris, Ahmet Ögüt and Société Réaliste (Ferenc Gróf & Jean-Baptiste Naudy), and texts by John Berger, Zoltan Kekesi and Andreas Spiegl. ZOO-TOPIA is conceived and edited by Eszter Steierhoffer, designed by STSQ and commissioned by the Balassi Institute in London in partnership with the Royal College of Art and the ZSL London Zoo.