Events, Lecture

Panel 1 NIRBHAYA —TWO SISTER MONUMENTS

Image: Monika Weiss, Nirbhaya (2021) Limited edition C-print. Courtesy the artist.

Nirbhaya: Two Sister Monuments

Link to Recording of Panel 1: https://www.monikaweiss.net/monumentantimonument

Panel 1 is moderated by Rick Bell and includes the artist as well as speakers: Griselda Pollock, David Lelyveld, Gwen Moore,  and Tyler Meyr.

Monument | Anti-Monument

Creative Exchange Lab | Center for Architecture & Design STL (CEL), proudly announces a program of six virtual, international panel discussions collectively titled Monument | Anti-Monument. Moderated by Rick Bell, the program takes place in conjunction  with two concurrent solo exhibitions: Monika Weiss – Monument | Anti-Monument (March 31st – April 22nd, 2021) at CEL, and Monika Weiss: Nirbhaya (March 27th – May 22nd, 2021) at the Centre for Polish Sculpture in Orońsko, a National Heritage Institution of Poland. Inspired by the work of the internationally celebrated Polish-American artist Monika Weiss and her paradigm-shifting monument/anti-monument project Nirbhaya the panels bring together artists, architects, activists, and historians to debate the role of monuments and commemorative design in shaping cultural identity.

The work of Monika Weiss is predicated on the act of unforgetting past traumas. It has particular resonance at this time when we rethink our histories and ways of  remembering. In Nirbhaya, a memorial dedicated to victims of everyday violence that occurs globally, and named after Jyoti Singh, who was tortured, raped and killed at the age of 23 (posthumously named Nirbhaya, “Fearless” in Hindi) the artist transforms the traditional vertical form of a triumphal arch into a horizontal sarcophagus filled with water and moving image. This forthcoming permanent outdoor memorial by Monika Weiss will be built as two sister monuments, in Poland and in the US. Polish location is in the public park of the Centre for Polish Sculpture in Orońsko. US location is co-organized in collaboration with Streaming Museum. The six panel discussions are scheduled bi-weekly on  Fridays: March 12, March 26, April 9, April 23, May 7 and May 21. All panels take place at 12 Noon (CST), 1PM (EST), 20:00 (GMT), 21:00 (GMT+1).


Nirbhaya: Two Sister Monuments

Panel 1 discusses the Nirbhaya memorial in the context of the art of Monika Weiss which, as described by Griselda Pollock “speaks against violence at levels that reach back to the most archaic origins of ritual confrontations with life and death, terror and pathos.” The panel looks at Nirbhaya in the context of the ancient traditions of Lament understood as a musical and political gesture within the public sphere. Through the artist’s use of slow time, horizontality, and shared lamentation, her art addresses forgotten or erased histories of violence – especially violence committed against women. Panel 1 offers a look into the background history of Nirbhaya, which the artist began in 2015 with a series of short experimental films and sound works, including Two Laments (19 Cantos) and Canto 4, created in collaboration with the late Indian poet, Meena Alexander. The monument is devoted to forgotten victims of everyday violence, which the artist named after Jyoti Singh. The panel on March 12th, Nirbhaya : Two Sister Monuments,also responds to traditions of allegorical monumentality and the physical indicators of colonialism as represented by triumphal arches. A prime example is India Gate, which Monika Weiss symbolically places horizontally on the ground.

Panel 1 is moderated by Rick Bell and includes the artist as well as speakers: Griselda Pollock, David Lelyveld, Gwen Moore,  and Tyler Meyr.

To register and RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nirbhaya-two-sister-monuments-panel-discussion-1-tickets-142610462733

Speaker Bios:

Jasmin Aber

Jasmin Aber is the Director of the Creative Exchange Lab, and a licensed architect, trained in the United Kingdom. She is an urbanist with over twenty-five years of experience as a design practitioner. Jasmin is an academic, educator, mentor, and curator, as well as the co-founder and executive director of the CEL Center for Architecture and Design (CEL) in St. Louis. Her research work and design practice involve culture-led planning, utilizing music, art, and cultural heritage for placemaking and equitable sustainable community and economic development. She is the co-curator of the 2019 exhibition Public Art, Public Memory: Who is Missing which engaged with contemporary discussion around expanding representation in our public monuments.

Rick Bell

Rick Bell (Moderator) teaches at Columbia University where he is helps direct the Center for Buildings, Infrastructure and Public Space.  A registered architect in New York, Rick previously served as Executive Director of Design and Construction Excellence at the NYC Department of Design and Construction. While Executive Director of AIA New York, he was instrumental in establishing and animating the Center for Architecture. He was also a member of the LMDC Committee that wrote the program for the National 9/11 Memorial at the World Trade Center. After architectural studies at Yale and Columbia, he worked in offices in New York, France, and Switzerland. He was on the advisory board of the inaugural NYC Architecture Biennial in 2020 and currently serves on the Board of the Creative Exchange Lab.

Griselda Pollock

Griselda Pollock is an art historian and cultural analyst of feminist, international, postcolonial, queer studies in the visual arts and visual cultures. Known for her theoretical and methodological innovations and interpretations of historical and contemporary art, film and cultural theory, Pollock has challenged her own discipline. Her book Old Mistresses: Women, Art and Ideology, co-authored with Rozsika Parker (1981), just republished in 2020, is a still relevant and radical critique of art history and its gender-selective canon. It has become a classic text in feminist art history, as has her book, Vision and Difference: Femininity, Feminism and Histories of Art. (1988) Developing transdisciplinary approaches to contemporary art and its new forms and media, she is recognized as a major influence in feminist theory, feminist art history and gender studies. In March 2020, Pollock was named as the 2020 Holberg Prize Laureate for her ground-breaking contributions to feminist art history and cultural studies.  Griselda Pollock is now professor emerita at the University of Leeds where she taught for 43 years. She has published 22 monographs, with four more forthcoming. Her most recent monograph is Charlotte Salomon in the Theatre of Memory (Yale University Press, 2018).

David Lelyveld

David Lelyveld is a historian of modern India, especially the social and cultural history of north Indian Muslims and the Urdu language community during the period of British rule leading up to and beyond the partition of India in 1947 and the birth of Pakistan. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and held faculty and administrative positions at the University of Minnesota, Columbia, Cornell, and retired as professor at William Paterson University.  His frequent sojourns in South Asia go back nearly sixty years, shared over a period of forty years with his late partner, the poet Meena Alexander, who collaborated with Monika Weiss in the early stages of this project dedicated to the tragedy of Nirbhaya. 

Gwen Moore

Gwen Moore is the Curator of Urban Landscape and Community Identity at the Missouri Historical Society focusing on race, ethnicity, and race relations in St. Louis.  Gwen has been associated with the Society since 1998 working as a researcher, community programmer and oral historian.  Her current area of research is concerned with social movements with a particular interest in civil rights activism. An important part of her work has been documenting local protests surrounding the unprovoked killings of African Americans which includes a collecting initiative and an oral history project. In addition, Gwen is currently at work on an exhibition focusing on Black life during the Jim Crow era.  

Tyler Meyr

Tyler Meyr AIA, LEED AP. Managing Director, Principal Lamar Johnson Collaborative. Tyler Meyr is a leading conceptual thinker with a strong national and international portfolio of projects including built work in Los Angeles, London, Antwerp, St. Louis, and Istanbul. Tyler utilizes his experience in urban design, planning, and architecture to address the complex challenges of today’s urban environment. Tyler’s unique blend of urban design and architecture talent allow him to serve as a link between the two disciplines, synthesizing context and program, along with the input of vital stakeholders into a cohesive vision.