On correspondence

The program for the seminar consisted of lectures by Tony Chakar and Eyal Weizman followed by a lengthy conversation between the two and the participators of the seminar.

TONY CHAKAR Tony Chakar is an architect, artist and writer from Beirut in Lebanon. Texts of his have been published in various art magazines, and he teaches history of art and architecture at Académie Libanaise des Beaux Arts (ALBA). For Chakar, one main topic keeps returning; the disaster and the thinking around space and structure in the context of a time characterised by disaster. Chakar’s lecture deals with this and is based in the experiences of his region, Lebanon and Beirut. Chakar has, along with a number of other central artists and theorists from Lebanon, among them Akram Zaatari, Walid Raad, Nadine Touma, Rabih Mroue and Lina Saneh, worked on examining and processing what is left of the civil war, the split and bombed city, in narratives connected to personal and collective memories. This includes considering the society and what constitutes a society.

EYAL WEIZMAN «Spatial Forensics» Eyal Weizman is an architect, writer and artist originating from Tel Aviv, based in London. He is a director of Goldsmiths College’s Centre of Research Architecture and was formerly a professor in architecture by Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He is a member of roundtable.kein.org. Since 2007 he has been a member of the architect collective decolonizing architecture in Beit Sahour/Palestine (www.decolonizing.ps). Weisman has been teaching, held lectures, curated and organized a number of international conferences and conventions. He established his own architecture firm with Rafi Segal in 1999. Some exhibitions: "A Civilian Occupation, The Politics of Israeli Architecture" shown at Storefront gallery for Art and Architecture in New York, "Territories" by Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, and a new verision of the ongoing project by Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam and at galleries in Malmø, Tel Aviv, San Francisco and Ramallah. Published books: "The Lesser Evil" (Nottetempo, 2009), "Hollow land" (Verso Books, 2007), "A Civilian Occupation" (Verso Books, 2003), the series "Territories" 1, 2 and 3 "Yellow Rhythms". He has published texts in a series of magazines and is a member of the editorial board for Inflexions journal and is editor at large for Cabinet Magazine (New York). Eyal Weizman received the Stirling Memorial Lecture Prize for 2006-2007.

The seminar was arranged by The Norwegian Association of Performing Arts/NAPA in cooperation with BIT Teatergarasjen.

Source: BIT Teatergarasjen, Meteor 2009. 07.08.2010: http://www.bit-teatergarasjen.no