by Lisa Delgado
Event: Art on Screen: Selections from Montreal International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA)
Location: Center for Architecture, 02.27.10
Speakers: Helene Klodawsky — Filmmaker; Murray Grigor — Filmmaker
Organizers: MUSE Film and Television; Center for Architecture
West Edmonton Mall, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (left); Mamba Parks, Osaka, Japan (Jerde Partnership).
Courtesy Instinct Films
Two documentaries shown back-to-back one afternoon at the Center, Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner and Malls R Us, complemented each other, exploring the power of architecture to shape people’s lives and their relationship to the environment, for good or ill. The event was part of the annual NYC film festival Art on Screen, which presents a selection of films from the Montreal International Festival of Films on Art each February.
Featuring footage of major malls around the world, Malls R Us makes the point that malls these days are replacing town centers and places of worship. As theologian and social critic Jon Pahl explains, mall design emulates that of churches, with soaring ceilings, skylights yielding intense light, and water features that symbolize purity and life. With many malls offering attractions beyond pure retail (the 119-acre West Edmonton Mall in Canada features a roller coaster, sea lion show, and swimming pool), shopping malls, for better or for worse, are replacing downtown streets as places people go to find a sense of community.
In one interview, prominent mall architect Jon Jerde, FAIA, confesses that he was drawn to designing malls because, after growing up as a lonely child, he wanted to create social spaces. “America, strangely, is a very lonely place,” he explains in the film. Football and shopping malls seemed like the main expressions of togetherness.
Malls may be a communal environment, but they only provide the illusion of being public spaces. Footage of security staff in Paris’s Forum des Halles drives home the point that while malls might seem welcoming, in fact, they are tightly controlled, and anyone whose goal isn’t to spend money runs the risk of being tossed out. Malls R Us also highlights the inherent problems of overzealous, ill-thought-out mall development, such an environmentally insensitive construction and disruption to older traditions and economies, as in India, where malls are driving out local shopkeepers in markets.