Monuments and the Restitution of African Cultural Heritage
12 March 2020 19:00 - 20:30
David Adjaye will engage in a conversation with Nikolaus Hirsch about the restitution of African cultural heritage in the context of his own architectural work. This event is the second edition of Monument, a series organised in collaboration with e-flux Architecture to investigate how monuments have come to play an increasingly significant and contested role in the constitution of identities, be they national, ethnic, communal, or other.
From urban reconstructions in Berlin and Beirut to new structures being built in Accra and Utøya, the relationship between identity and built form has invested architecture with a renewed sense of urgency and agency. Architecture is not just a pragmatic spatial product, but an object capable of mobilising and rearticulating struggles for recognition. It cannot help but inscribe one set of ideas, beliefs, events, and/or figures into the built environment and suture them into the daily experience of history. The series, accompanied by online published essays, will include contributions by David Adjaye, Vasyl Cherepanyn, Philipp Oswalt, Jorge Otero-Pailos, Valentina Rozas-Krause, Mabel O. Wilson, amongst others.
David Adjaye
Sir David Adjaye OBE is an internationally acclaimed Ghanaian-British architect. In 2000, he founded Adjaye Associates, which today operates globally, with studios in Accra, London, and New York and projects spanning across the globe. His largest project to date, The National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, DC opened on the National Mall in Washington DC in 2016.
e-flux Architecture
e-flux Architecture is a sister publishing platform of e-flux, archive, and editorial project founded in 2016. Edited by Nikolaus Hirsch, Anton Vidokle, and deputy editor Nick Axel, the news, events, exhibitions, programs, journals, books, and architecture projects disseminated by e-flux Architecture describe strains of critical discourse surrounding contemporary architecture, culture, and theory internationally. Since its inception, e-flux Architecture has maintained a dynamic international program of projects and events in collaboration with leading institutions and practitioners.
Memory and Oblivion
Monument is part of Memory and Oblivion, a long-term research project on ideology, memory and monuments, launched in 2018 by Het Nieuwe Instituut, and directed by its Research department. The project will look at different case studies around the world that epitomise the demand of a renewed relation between remembering and forgetting.
Thursday Bite
Before the Thursday Night event, you can grab a bite to eat with the speakers and staff of Het Nieuwe Instituut. At 18:00, Het Nieuwe Café serves a light vegetarian meal. Dinner vouchers are available for ¬ 7.70 up to a day before the particular Thursday Night event via the Tickets link.
Become a Member
Become a Member of Het Nieuwe Instituut and you'll be supporting our mission to navigate the vast and evolving field of design. You'll also be inspired by our special programme of Members' events, meeting up with other like-minded people as we invite you to reflect with us on design's changing role in technology, economics, culture and society.
Tags:
Thursday Night Live