Call for Papers: On Monumentality. Athens, 4-6 April 2019
International conference, organised by the Hellenic Open University
A century separates us from the “rupture of history” and the historical ambiguities that the early heroic modernism introduced in the urban space, and eighty years from the destruction of the European monumental deposit from the bombings of WWII, a defining moment for the introduction of new kinds of monumentality alongside the old ones. Yet, monumentality still emerges as a major spatial, aesthetic, symbolic, architectural and archaeological phenomenon. In a climate of pessimism in present day western cities, which are dealing with an increasingly precarious present, due to economic and other forms of instability, the durability of monumentality as “urban permanence” (the famous Aldo Rossi concept), appears to be among the few remaining symbolic and spatial rocks and as such is needed, maintained, enhanced, landscaped and even invented.
The international conference On Monumentality, organised by the Module Art-Architecture-Urban Planning, Hellenic Open University, to be held in the Acropolis Museum, Athens, 4-6 April 2019, will explore the following relevant dimensions of monumentality and the monumental both in the European urban and peripheral space and also of cities/countries globally:
- Old, new and emergent kinds of monumentality
- Struggles around monumentality formation: Social, symbolic and political aspects
- Aesthetics of monumentality’s protection
- The economic and developmental aspects of monumentality
- Monumentality in the urban space and the “natural”/regional landscape
- Scales of the monumental
In the above context, proposals for papers from architects, archaeologists, architectural historians, urban planners, urban and cultural geographers, art theorists and historians, social anthropologists and other relevant theorists are invited, until 15 June 2018. Acceptance of papers will be decided until late July 2018. Participation will be free of charge. Languages translated: English, Greek.
Proposals, including name plus title and abstract of paper of up to 300 words, can be sent to one or all of the following members of the organizing committee:
Prof. Argyro Loukaki, argyro-loukaki@hotmail.com
Assoc. Prof. Dimitris Plantzos, dkplantzos@gmail.com
Dr. Jenny Albani, jennyalbani@gmail.com
Dr. Dionysis Mourelatos, dmourela@arch.uoa.gr
Dr. Konstantinos Soueref, ksoueref@culture.gr
Dr. Stavros Alifragkis, sa346@otenet.gr