Falling Monuments, Reluctant Ruins

In traversing the stubborn landscapes of colonialism and apartheid, we are confronted with the ambivalent ruins and seemingly innocuous buildings of this forgotten urban infrastructure. What we observe is the lingering presence of colonial history and architecture’s largely hidden yet pervasive everyday structures. Such conflicting spatial claims continue to raise a number of haunting questions. In this colloquium, we are seeking to understand in what ways history and architecture could ameliorate, contest or subvert these protracted conditions in terms of social justice, land reclamation and urban rehabilitation. The postcolonial decades following the dismantling of oppressive regimes across the globe are to be examined in the light of contemporary communal and memorial projects, in which building ruins are being fought over and renegotiated as sites of remembrance.

To RSVP and for further information please contact Antonette Gouws: antonette.gouws@wits.ac.za, 011 717 4291