social justice
Nerea Calvillo
Mabel O. WIlson
In this podcast, we start by asking architect, curator and researcher Mabel O. Wilson to talk about her personal, educational, and professional development, in response to a lack or silencing of critical thought. We then discuss ideas of land, property, and possession, and also—based on the context of her recent trip to the West Bank—colonial encounters, spatial aspects of enclosures, and degrees of containment. Mabel reminds younger generations of the importance of using architecture not just as a means to build and design, but also to gather, observe, and build relations, to understand history from a different perspective, and to survive within the current socio-political climate, without giving in to despair.
Imani Jacqueline Brown
In this podcast, Imani Jacqueline Brown tells us about her formative experience as an activist in New Orleans and in the crucible of Zuccotti Park during the Occupy Wall Street movement. We also talk about eugenics and about how Carl Linnaeus’s philosophy during the Enlightement divided existence into parcels of private property, about oil infrastructure networks and environmental racism in Death Alley, and about apocalypse as repeated events. Along the way, Imani imagines paths to ecological reparation, ways to steward and attend to the world. She finds that it is precisely the uncultivated land at the back of the plantation that is rich with life and possibility: the seed banks of new growth.
Eleonora Belfiore
Yaiza Hernández. Deleted scenes
We dig up some unreleased fragments of our conversation with researcher and transdisciplinary curator Yaiza Hernández. We unpack the relationship between militarism and tourism by looking at zonified border territories that also model touristification. Through this lens, we also see that the tourist resort replicates the architectural layout of the colony, offering safe spaces for privilege, wealth, and whiteness. Then, we take a look at the current form of the museum model, warning of certain symptoms suggesting it is reaching a terminal stage. We wrap up with a digression into Yaiza’s understanding of cultural appropriation.