Since March 2020, the world has become slower, more quiet and deliberate, prompting a reevaluation of our priorities, rhythms, and ways of living. This Design Dialogue features a talk by architect, curator, and a current Het Nieuwe Instituut fellow (as part of O grupo inteiro) Ligia Nobre, linked to her essay-contribution to a new Valiz publication Slow Spatial Reader.

Nobre’s focus is on artist Camila Sposati’s Earth Anatomical Theater (2014), a specific underground construction in Bahia, Brazil. She explores how, in a territory steeped in stubborn continuous histories of European extraction and Tropical resistance, Sposati’s one year art piece functioned as an ‘amplifier of knowledge’ and a portal to the unknown—that is to say, to the Earth itself.

This program officially launches the new Valiz book, a timely and compelling collection of essays chronicling diverse ‘Slow’ approaches from spatial creative fields like architecture, sculpture, installation, dramaturgy, and performance, among other branches of research into dynamics and politics of space. The book’s editor Carolyn F. Strauss gives a short introduction, and she and researcher and landscape architect Daphne Bakker will engage in a dialogue with Nobre immediately following her talk. The program includes a short film curated by Bronwyn Lace of The Centre for the Less Good Idea. The evening is moderated by Sarah van Binsbergen.

Ligia Nobre

Ligia Nobre is a curator, researcher, and teacher who seeks out multiple and heterogeneous approaches and alliances with/in cultural-environmental platforms and artistic-political practices. She holds a Master in Histories and Theories of Architecture from the Architectural Association School of Architecture (1999) and a doctorate in Aesthetics and Art History from the University of São Paulo (2019). She is currently community curator at Spore Initiative in Berlin, and part of the artistic group O grupo inteiro.

Carolyn F. Strauss

Carolyn F. Strauss is a curator and creative facilitator across the fields of contemporary art, design, and emerging technologies, and is the founding director of Slow Research Lab, based in Amsterdam.

Daphne Bakker

Daphne Bakker is from Paramaribo, Surinam and studied landscape architecture at TU Delft. After a fellowship at Het Nieuwe Instituut, she is now an editor at Failed Architecture.

Bronwyn Lace

Bronwyn Lace is director for The Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg. Lace’s focus is on the collaborative relationships between art and other fields, including physics, museum practice, philosophy, literature, and education.

Sarah van Binsbergen

Sarah van Binsbergen is a freelance journalist (de Volkskrant), critic and editor. She studied Anthropology and Cultural Politics at the University of London (MA).

Valiz

This event is organized in collaboration with Valiz and Slow Research Lab on the occasion of the release of Slow Spatial Reader, Valiz, 2021.