Course 5: Post-traumatic Space and Society: Radical observations and transformation of violence
by Renata Salecl and Armina Pilav
5 – 10 August, 2019
Course Description
Destruction. Trauma. Survival body. Destructive Metamorphosis. Fear. Representation. Power. Visible and invisible materials. Transformative practices and media. Collective forms of organization. This workshop will explore designed or accidental entanglements of war and un-war spaces through examples of wartime and the post-war conditions in Bosnian cities, Sarajevo and Mostar, in relation to Prishtina and other war/post-war spatial contexts. In the transitional space between military destruction and inhabitants’ non-violent reactions to it, this course attempts to look at non-violent human practices and spatial processes that were and are still engaging in the transformation of violence. Crossing disciplines of architecture, art and psychoanalysis, we will explore transformations of violence also in the context of trauma and the forms of spatial and social reproductions of it. We will look at how trauma passes from generation to generation, how it often turns into self-violence and feelings of guilt and how it manifests through denial. Violence has an important link with ignorance, which is why one session will specifically address the difference between ignorance and hate. During the workshop, we will look at different existing art and architecture examples that discuss transformations of violence, as well as archives of war and post-war cities containing videos, photos, individual stories and experiences.
Biographies
Renata Salecl is a philosopher and sociologist. She is Professor of Psychology and Psychoanalysis of Law at the School of Law, Birkbeck College, University of London and Senior Researcher at the Institute of Criminology at the faculty of Law in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She is also Recurring Visiting Professor at Cardozo School of Law in New York. Her last book, “Tyranny of Choice” (Profile Books 2011) has been translated into 15 languages and was featured at TED Global. Her previous books include: The Spoils of Freedom: Psychoanalysis and Feminism After the Fall of Socialism (Routledge 1994), (Per)versions of Love and Hate (Verso, 1998) and On Anxiety (Routledge 2004). Her forthcoming book is called Passion for Ignorance (Princeton UP, 2020). Renata has also published numerous articles on contemporary art, among them catalogue essays on Jenny Holzer, Anthony Gormley and Sarah Sze.
Armina Pilav is a feminist, architect, guest researcher and lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture and Built Environment - TU Delft. She received the Marie Curie Individual Fellowship for her Un-war Space research (2016-2018). Armina’s research, practice and teaching interests focus on the topics of space, body and politics in extreme conditions of war destruction. She analyzes ecologies of transformations of nature, space and society during and after wartime through archiving practices, transitional architectures and post-traumatic landscape systems. Armina uses cross-media, collaborative methods and tools in teaching, researching processes and exhibitions. She publishes in magazines and academic journals, exhibits regularly and her recent research on the destruction of Sarajevo and its inhabitants’ transformation of violence has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale of Architecture (2018). Armina is a member of the Association for Culture and Art Crvena in Sarajevo.
Participation
10 participants will be selected to participate in this course. Eligible participants must read the Terms, fill out the application form, upload the required documents and submit the application form. Incomplete applications will not be considered.
Scholarships are available for participants from Kosovo.
A limited number of scholarships, that cover the participation fee, are available for international participants.