Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
Goldsmiths' College
Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency
Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency (DAAR) is a Beit-Sahour/Palestine based architectural studio. Its three principals are Sandi Hilal (Pal.), Alessandro Petti (Italy) and Eyal Weizman (UK/Israel). DAAR’s work combines architectural design, experimental pedagogy, public events, publishing and exhibiting. Its project engages with the architecture and the political realities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). DAAR’s work is a speculation about way of reusing the architecture of Israel’s occupation at the moment it is unplugged from the military/political power that charges it. Different Parts of the OPT (Gaza, Northern West Bank, Military installations throughout) have over the years been evacuated. These sites provide DAAR with a laboratory to imagine the multiple futures of Palestine. Recognizing that Israeli settlements and military bases are amongst the most excruciating instruments of domination, the project assumes that a viable approach to the issue of their appropriation is to be found not only in the professional language of architecture and planning but in an “arena of speculation” that incorporates varied cultural and political perspectives through the participation of a multiplicity of individuals and organizations.
The different aspects that make DAAR’s work – publishing, design projects, exhibitions, public events etc, are part of an integrated, entangled and multi dimensional practice that is best presented as a single submission. DAAR has developed its practice within and between different solo and group shows, biennale contributions among them the Venice, Istanbul and Rotterdam Biennales, solo shows at the Bozar in Brussels, the James Gellery (CUNY) in NYC, the Architekturforum in Innsbruk, 0047 in Oslo and Nottingham Contemporary, events/screenings took place at the Tate in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, amongst many other places. Our monograph: Architecture After Revolt (Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2013) forms part of the submission.
