Roundtable Discussion: Modern Otherwise with F.A.T. (Forum for Architecture Theory) & Elli Mosayebi
6 PM
In the context of the exhibition ‘Napoli Super Modern’ curated by LAN at the S AM Swiss Architecture Museum, Fabio Don and Marco Zelli of the Zurich-based collective Forum for Architecture Theory (F.A.T.) are hosting a roundtable discussion entitled ‘Modern Otherwise’.
The event takes the particular notion of modernity found in Naples, around which the exhibition is centred, as a departure point to explore alternative notions of the term ‘modern’. While the latter is often understood in architecture as a linear narrative, retrieving the teleological structure of pre-modern and religion-based cultures, the discussion will focus instead on interpretations that challenge the orthodox reading of the term, opening the frame toward more dialectic and dynamic structures.
To this purpose the special guest, Elli Mosayebi, co-founder of the studio EMI and professor of the chair ‘Zweite Moderne’ at the ETH Zurich, has proposed some excerpts corresponding to two distinct modes of interpretation: On one side, the essays by Ernesto Nathan Rogers render an idea of modernity as a dialectic device rooted in tradition. On the other side, the text by Zygmunt Bauman explores a dimension in which the looseness of the modern structure results in the evaporation of its contents, a state of liquidity legible and unpredictable at once.
The discussion will explore the space between these two readings of modernity, trying to connect the specificity of the Italian modern tradition to the contemporary hypothesis proposed by Zygmunt Bauman, while occasionally finding links to the ongoing ‘Napoli Super Modern’ exhibition in which the event will take place.
The texts will be distributed among participants upon registration in order to allow a broad participation in the discussion.
Place: S AM Schweizerisches Architekturmuseum, Steinenberg 7, Basel
Language: English
Admission: Free
Registration is mandatory (event limited to 25 participants); please write to event@sam-basel.org with full name and phone number
Photo: Photography by Cyrille Weiner, out of the series Assimilation douce, Napoli, 2020
