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Book Talk: Counter Institution by Nandini Bagchee
November 28, 2018 @ 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
Book Talk: Counter Institution by Nandini Bagchee
Wednesday, November 28, 6:30pm
Loisaida Center, 710 E 9th St
Counterinstitution: Activist Estates of the Lower East Side, examines the open-ended histories of activism in the Lower East Side by looking at the spaces used by activists- storefronts, gardens and offices to bring forth the hidden dimensions of these organizational spaces through a collaging together of architectural drawings techniques with archival research, photography and writing. This book examines three re-purposed buildings on the Lower East Side that have been used by activists to launch actions over the past forty years. The Peace Pentagon was the headquarters of the anti-war movement, El Bohio was a metaphoric “hut” that envisioned the Puerto Rican Community as a steward of the environment, and ABC No Rio, a name appropriated from a storefront sign with missing letters, was a catchy punk name that appealed to the anarchistic sensibility of the artists that ran a storefront gallery in a run-down tenement. The “activist estates” explored in this book represents both a conceptual and a literal struggle to create a space for civic action in a city that is built upon real estate speculation.
A book talk by author Nandini Bagchee will be followed by a discussion with Dr. Gregory Sholette. Nandini Bagchee is an Associate Professor of Architecture and History at City College New York and a Principal at Bagchee Architects. Greg Sholette is an artist, activist and author of Delirium and Resistance: Art, Activism & the Crisis of Capitalism (Pluto Press 2017) and Dark Matter: Art and Politics in an Age of Enterprise Culture (Pluto Press, 2011). At this event we will also launch a call for participation for an exhibition planned at the Loisaida Center titled, “Activist Estates: An Alternate History of Real Estate in Loisaida”.
This exhibition designed and curated by Nandini Bagchee in collaboration with Loisaida Center will be mounted in May 2019 to celebrate the history of space-based activism in the Lower East Side. Through timelines, photographs, artifacts, film and architectural models- the exhibit will invite visitors to share their own stories and images to fill in the blanks or simply re-interpret the material within the show. Community workshops and envisioning sessions will open new discussions of the future of community-
controlled space.
Co-Sponsored by the Loisaida Center and GVSHP
This event is fully accessible.