'From Utopia to Politics: Brutalist Architecture in France’s Working-Class Neighbourhoods'
Please join us for the joint book presentation of Brutalist Paris' (Nigel Green & Robin Wilson) & 'Streetologie' (Ulysse Rabaté).
The event is free and open to everyone, but please note that registration is required.
From utopian visions to lived political realities, and from ideal object to political project, this joint book presentation will explore the pivotal place of Brutalist architecture in collective imaginaries and in the everyday spaces people inhabit.
This talk is organised as part of the exhibition 'Brutalist Imaginaries: Radical Architectures of Oxford and Paris' by Photolanguage (Nigel Green & Robin Wilson), presented from 19 January to 14 March 20226 at the Maison Française d'Oxford.
Brutalist Paris is the first thoroughly researched, English language study of Parisian Brutalist architecture. It constructs a unique photographic record of over 50 buildings across Paris and brings a new interpretation of Brutalism in the French context. The book is the result of many journeys, from the Parisian centre to its outer peripheries, and situates Brutalism within the broader social, political and cultural context of Paris, including its appearance in film and television. It describes Brutalism’s successes and failures in Paris, from an architecture of monumental urban form to intricately crafted living spaces; from valued, historic monuments to abandoned ruins.
The book includes seven essays by Robin Wilson, details for more than 50 individual buildings, maps and more than 150 black and white photographs by Dr Nigel Green.
Robin Wilson is a critic, curator and associate professor of history and theory at the Bartlett School of Architecture. He has published many reviews on art, architecture and landscape in the architectural press, and written extensively on representation and architecture in academic journals and books.
Nigel Green is a photographer, artist and lecturer. He has exhibited and published many photographic projects that document genres of modernist architecture across the UK, Europe and the former Eastern Bloc.
‘I don't do politics, I do things that people can see from their windows.’ The Streetology project analyses this shift: that of lifestyles, commitments, representations and power structures, deployed in everyday neighbourhood life, making their way into the ‘sacred’ realm of politics. The link between the street and politics is not obvious, and yet these two seemingly distinct worlds maintain a dialogue that this book seeks to explain. The humanities can analyse such an encounter if they question the negative definition of what happens on the street, far from the established frameworks of engagement. An ‘alternative’ aesthetic of politics is taking shape, and it is a matter of outlining its contours and connections.
Ulysse Rabaté is a political science researcher at Paris 8 University Vincennes Saint-Denis. He has been an elected representative and activist in the Paris suburbs.
