Fragments Meeting Architecture III, Italy, The British School at Rome, via Gramsci 61

Fragments Meeting Architecture III

A Programme of Lectures and Exhibitions in The British School at Rome, Italy

25 Nov 2015

Fragments Meeting Architecture III Talk in Rome

6pm: The Destruction of Memory: Lecture by Robert Bevan introduced by Pippo Ciorra
6.30: Special Preview of the fine cut of the documentary The Destruction of Memory.
The British School at Rome
via Gramsci 61, Rome

The events of human life, whether public or private, are so intimately linked to architecture that most observers can reconstruct nations or individuals in all the truth of their habits from the remains of their monuments or from their domestic relics. Honoré de Balzac

FRAGMENTS: Meeting Architecture III, curated by Marina Engel, will consider how memories, emotions and ideologies are constantly tied to ruins, buildings and their contents. To this end the programme shall focus on the concept of the fragment, defined as an urban ruin, a house and its remaining contents, personal vestiges, images, photographs and documents. From December 2015 to June 2017, architects, visual artists and historians will examine and revaluate the fragment in an attempt to reconstruct personal or collective identities in zones of conflict or former conflict, demonstrating how the meanings and memories we attach to our experiences are to a greater or lesser degree tied to their physical manifestation. FRAGMENTS will also discuss the destruction of monuments and heritage sites brought about by war and in particular the attempt to erase or fragment the memories of differing cultural identities and ideologies.

The programme Meeting Architecture, shall continue to explore the relationship between architecture and other creative processes and consider how architecture works together with the other visual arts as well as with history, modern studies and archaeology, some of the principal research disciplines at the BSR.

Thursday 10th December 2015, Robert Bevan will open FRAGMENTS with a special preview at the BSR of the fine cut of the documentary The Destruction of Memory directed by Tim Slade, produced by Vast Productions USA and due for release in early 2016.

The documentary is an adaptation of Robert Bevan’s book: The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at War (Reaktion Books 2006) in which the author argues that the destruction of the built artefacts of a people or nation is a means of cultural cleansing or division in order to annihilate the identity of a people. Among other events, The Destruction of Memory discusses the Nazi attacks on Jewish architecture, the erasure and subsequent reconstructions of much of Warsaw, the bombing of Dresden and the war in Bosnia. The film continues the discussion to the present day and describes the current war against material culture in the Middle East. In his lecture, Bevan will talk about both the book and the film and will also examine contemporary events.

Robert Bevan (Britain) is an architectural critic for the Evening Standard and writer who also works on heritage and regeneration.

The programme is in partnership with the Royal Academy of Arts who will host an annual summer forum in London inviting participants in the programme together with RA Academicians to debate some of the main issues discussed in Rome.

Agenda 2016

12th February – 4th March, 2016 | Lecture and exhibition | Akram Zaatari (Lebanon) Visual artist and co-founder of the Arab Image Foundation, a, artist-driven organisation devoted to the research and study of photography in the region.

Zaatari often refers to the way his architectural training influences how he looks at the world, and the attention he gives to objects and documents in writing his histories. Archaeology is frequently used as a metaphor for connecting to the past and to the collection of fragments: stories, personal recollections, images and testimonies from areas of conflict, in particular the Lebanon.

April, 2016 (date to be confirmed) | Lecture | Francesco Bandarin (Italy)
Architect and Assistant-Director General at UNESCO
Bandarin has worked extensively on heritage sites in conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East. He often lectures on the consequences of the destruction of monuments and heritage sites in these areas and why these ‘crimes against culture’ are now pursued as war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

3rd May, 2016 – 24th May, 2016 | Lecture and exhibition | Dor Guez (Israel) Visual artist and head of the Photography Department at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem

Guez’s installations combine diverse modes of video and photographic practices and raise questions about contemporary art’s role in narrating unwritten histories, referring to his own cultural heritage, Christian Palestinian and JewishTunisian. In 2009, Guez founded the Christian-Palestinian Archive (CPA), the first archive devoted to the Christian-Palestinian minority of the Middle East.

30th May, 2016 | Lecture | Eyal Weizman (Israel) Architect and Professor of Spatial and Visual Culture and Director of the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London.
An authority on the architecture of Israel’s occupation, Weizman recently established Forensic Architecture, a multidisciplinary research project based at Goldsmiths University. Forensic Architecture ‘s investigations provide evidence for international prosecution teams, political organisations, NGOs and the United Nations.

In 2016-2017, FRAGMENTS will concentrate on Eastern and Central Europe and invite: Miroslaw Balka, Joseph Rykwert, Grzegorz Piątek, Helen Walasek and Dragana Zarevac.

Fragments Meeting Architecture III Talk in Rome images / information received 251115

Location:The British School at Rome, via Gramsci 61, Rome, Italy

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New Generations Festival in Rome – Architects VS Rest of the World

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Rome Buildings – Contemporary + 20th Century Architecture

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photo : Nicolas Borel

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Fragments Meeting Architecture III Talk in Rome

Website: The British School at Rome