Panel Discussion with Armen Avanessian
Join us at the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture at the University of Houston for a panel discussion on spaces both physical and digital occupied by right-wing political extremists.
The United States as well as Europe have seen a return of right-wing tendencies in the political landscape. And this rise of a (new) political right has in turn infected our physical and digital landscapes as well. Philosopher and Thomas Mann Fellow Armen Avanessian will moderate a discussion of comparative spatial and political investigation: how are buildings, structures and monuments sites for a political struggle for meaning, myth and hegemony? How did the ‘hinterland’ morph into an ideological fringe? Are new technologies neutral tools, equally wielded on both sides of the aisle, or they themselves a cause for populism and polarization?
Stephan Trüby (Institute for Principles of Modern Architecture, Stuttgart) will present his research from the European context. The results of the project have been collected in the Rechte Räume edition of the Berlin-based ARCH+ magazine and aim to fundamentally re-politicize architectural discourse: “right-wing spaces” aren't discussed with regard to “good” or “bad” architecture but with a view towards how politics claims spaces.
Following Trüby’s presentation, the conversation will move into a local context with panelists Ersela Kripa (TTU-El Paso), Fabiola López-Durán (Rice), Michael Kubo (UH) and Stephen Fox (Rice).
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