Lecture by Mechtild Widrich [School of the Art Institute of Chicago], #5 of the Lecture Series Organizing Architectures: Coloniality
In the polarized context of Trump’s second presidency—with renewed attempts to enshrine a singular national past through hero gardens and restored Confederate monuments—debates over how historical space is shaped and contested have intensified. This talk examines artists, curators, and activists who challenge such state-backed monumentalism and the colonial narratives sustaining it, moving beyond the “take down/leave up” (and now “bring back”) frame toward more distributed spatial forms of commemoration.
A brief comparison with spatial commemorative traditions in Europe during and after the Fascist era highlights the contrast between authoritarian monumentality—rooted in permanence, scale, and narrative closure—and practices that resist it.
Placed in dialogue with these histories, contemporary U.S. practices prompt renewed questions about what architectural and spatial forms commemoration might take when permanence is no longer the organizing principle. Artists and communities are experimenting with site-specific interventions, reshaping how bodies move, gather, and remember in public space, cultivating more plural and situated modes of reception.
The event will be in English. Free admission, no registration required.
Members of the Architektenkammer Hessen (AKH) can earn 2 credit points for participating.
17 June 2026
7 – 8:30 p.m.
Goethe-University Frankfurt,
Room: SH 2.105