Paulo Tavares, “Earth Works (Toward a Reparation Architecture)”

e-flux Architecture presents  “Earth Works (Toward a Reparation Architecture),” a lecture by Paulo Tavares at e-flux on Tuesday, February 6 at 7pm.

Drawing from past and recent visual, spatial, and curatorial projects that deal with the earth, in this lecture I want to explore the tentative concept of “reparation architecture.” Reparation Architecture is not a theme, it is a form of engagement. It is not a qualifier as in “social architecture,” but a position in relation to architecture as knowledge and practice. As such, it can take many forms across the trans-disciplinary fields where architectural thought and action manifest, from design to curating, from planning to publishing, from advocacy to building. Imagining a future in which healing and rebounding society means recovering land and restoring the climate, we may prompt ideas for the repair of human and nonhuman communities through the means and medias of architecture, drawing new material and imaginary bounds between us and earth. If our most urgent political task today is re-building the world otherwise, reparations constitute a central question to architecture practice across its trans-scalar, trans-disciplinary, and trans-media manifestations.

“Earth Works (Toward a Reparation Architecture)” is presented as part of e-flux Architecture Lectures, a monthly series inviting researchers and practitioners to discuss timely issues in contemporary architecture, theory, culture, and technology.

Paulo Tavares is an architect, author, and educator. His practice dwells at the frontiers between architecture, visual cultures, and advocacy. Operating through multiple media, Tavares’s projects have been featured in various exhibitions and publications worldwide, including Oslo Architecture Triennale, Istanbul Design Biennale, São Paulo Art Biennial, and most recently the Venice Biennale 2023. He is the author of several books questioning the colonial legacies of modernity, including Des-Habitat (2019), Lucio Costa era Racista? (2022), and Derechos No-Humanos (2022). The curatorial project Terra, in collaboration with Gabriela de Matos, was awarded the Golden Lion for best national participation at La Biennale di Venezia 2023. He was co-curator of the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial and is part of the advisory curatorial board of Sharjah Biennial 2023. Tavares teaches at Columbia GSAPP and at the University of Brasília, and leads the spatial advocacy agency autonoma.

For more information, contact program [at] e-flux.com.

Accessibility                    
–Two flights of stairs lead up to the building’s front entrance at 172 Classon Avenue.         
–For elevator access, please RSVP to [email protected]. The building has a freight elevator which leads into the e-flux office space. Entrance to the elevator is nearest to 180 Classon Ave (a garage door). We have a ramp for the steps within the space.                  
–e-flux has an ADA-compliant bathroom. There are no steps between the event space and this bathroom.