Architecture of Shame
Seventy years have passed since De Gasperi, visiting Matera, called the place that is now a UNESCO heritage site a national disgrace, and ordered the eviction of its residents.
This contradiction of the Sassi districts of Matera is taken as a starting point to reflect on architecture as a mirror of the cultural values of the whole of Europe. Through three phases of study, dialogue, and action, this project encourages European citizens to ask themselves how they would classify their surrounding architecture: a disgrace with potential that is waiting to be discovered or, on the contrary, places that are now considered a distressing part of normality.
This is how architecture becomes a measure of the values of contemporary Europe, an instrument for a collective psychoanalytic investigation of European architecture in regard to current issues such as social housing, rural ghettos, unfinished public works, suburbs, walls between nations and all those structures that pass every day before our eyes without really making any kind of impression. The project will celebrate with the HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAME party the critical potential of shame for architecture. From 23 July, same date as De Gasperi’s visit to Matera, there will be seven days of activities including an exhibition, dedicated workshops, dialogues and speeches in the public space. The materials will be collected in the publication L'Atlante della Vergogna (The Atlas of Shame), and on a dedicated online platform.
Coproduced by
Associazione Culturale Architecture of Shame
Archive of the State of Matera, Italy
ATER Azienda territoriale per l’Edilizia Residenziale Matera, Italy
ATER Azienda territoriale per l’Edilizia Residenziale Venezia, Italy
Calia, Italy
Chalmers University di Göteborg, Sweden
Dipartimento delle Culture Europee del Mediterraneo of University of Basilicata, Italy
FARM CULTURAL PARK, Italy
Federcasa, Italy
LabSo, Laboratorio di Sociologia Urbana, University of Florence, Italy
Malmo University - School of Arts and Communication (K3) Faculty of Culture and Society, Sweden
New Art Exchange, United Kingdom
Migrant Observatory Basilicata, Italy
University of Zurich, Switzerland
Domus Academy, Italy
Un-war Space Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Amina Pilav and Damir Ugljen (Mostar, BiH) Un- war space, Bosnia-Herzegovina / Holland
Collettivo MIC/C, Italy
Failed Architecture, Netherlands
FARM CULTURAL PARK, Italy
Incompiuto Siciliano and URBZ, Italy
Winners of the competition “Indagine sui Non Abitanti”: Francesca Borrelli, Giulia D’Antonio, Roberto Dell’Orco, Joshua Florquin, Scuola del terzo luogo
