Discussion Group: Sensing Spaces
- 9 October-6 November 2020
- Online
Can curatorial practice open possibilities of experience, rather than create spaces that specify what will be seen?
Absorbing and relocating the ideas set out by Svetlana Boym in the 2008 essay ‘Architecture of the Off-Modern’, this discussion explored its own relationships to history, heritage, architecture and human experience when situated in present-day Bangladesh. The discussions took place via six online video conferences in October and November of 2020, connecting participants in the cities of Rajshahi, Dhaka and Brussels over a sequence of readings, (and re-readings), short films and recorded lectures that were organised under broad themes - ‘Maintenance, Preservation and Decay’, ‘Time and Change’, ‘The Act of Exhibiting - What is it?’
Organised in parallel to our preparations to inaugurate the first exhibition generated by artist Omar Chowdhury’s (AU/BD) long-duration response to and conceptual engagement with Rouf’s Villa in Faydabad, Dhaka. This unique site is a privately commissioned modernist villa on the outskirts of Dhaka, designed by award-winning architect Marina Tabassum. When built, the striking building was set at a distance from the megacity that is Dhaka, Bangladesh. Over the years, the fringes of the city have pushed relentlessly outwards and now, this grand villa is hemmed in by a bustling urban surround of multi-storey apartments and small-industry, recent arrivals to the nation's voracious capital city.
Convened by Sadia Rahman.
Commissioned and produced by Ke ba kahara.
This discussion group was partially supported by Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia through the 2020 Now On grant.
Readings/Viewings:
- Boym, Svetlana. The Architecture of the Off-Modern. New York: Princeton Architectural Press (FORuM Project). 2008.
- Stewart Brand’s ‘How Buildings Learn Episode 1 - Flow’ [29m video]
- Adam Richards 'Nithurst Farm’ [5m video]
- Stewart Brand’s ‘How Buildings Learn Episode 3 - How Buildings Change’ [29m video]
- Selections from a conversation ‘Frida Escobedo and Pedro Reyes look to the future to save Mexico’s lost past’ Document Magazine
- “The Romance of Maintenance” Episode 5 of the BBC series “How Buildings Learn” by Stewart Brand
- “Demolitions and the Urgency of Architectural History in Egypt” by Mohamed Elshahed (Sep 7, 2020, Platform Magazine)
- “Shearing Layers” Episode 6 of the BBC series “How Buildings Learn” by Stewart Brand
- Bordeleau, Anne. An Indexical Approach to Architecture. FOOTPRINT, [S.l.], p. 79-96, June 2008
- Ashraf, Kazi Khaleed, and James Belluardo (eds.) 1998. An Architecture of Independence : The Making of Modern South Asia. Di 1 ban. New York: The Architectural League of New York.
- Lecture by Dorothea von Hantelmann, “Transforming Exhibition Formats in Transforming Societies”, 25 November 2015 at ECAL
- Film, “Villa Empain” (Katharina Kastner, 2019)
- Panel Discussion “Tropical Modernisms: Brazil, Sri Lanka, and Beyond”, hosted online by Para Site, Hong Kong on 30 October 2020. Moderator: Cosmin Costinas, Discussants: Ana Maria Tavares & Fabiola López-Durán, Sean Anderson.