Agonistic Assemblies
On the Spatial Politics of Horizontality, edited by Marcus Miessen
Contributions by ZAHRA ALI BABA, OLE BOUMAN, FRANCELLE CANE, GIANCARLO DE CARLO, CLAUDIA CHWALISZ, KENNY CUPERS, ANNE DAVIDIAN, DIANE E. DAVIS, ERHARD EPPLER, JESKO FEZER, JOSEPH GRIMA, AMELIE KLEIN, CHARLOTTE MALTERRE-BARTHES, FLORIAN MALZACHER, MARKUS MIESSEN, CHANTAL MOUFFE, GUSTAV KJÆR VAD NIELSEN, CÉSAR REYES NÁJERA, DENNIS POHL, PATRICIA REED, VERA SACCHETTI, NIKOLAJ SCHULTZ, RAHEL SÜSS, PELIN TAN, ROEMER VAN TOORN, DAVID MULDER VAN DER VEGT, SARAH M. WHITING, MIRJAM ZADOF.
This anthology presents work on cultures of assembly. It stresses the relevance of small-scale and decentralized spatial formats of local knowledge production to community building and embedded political decision-making in the context of the socio-ecological transition. It reinforces the role of both individual and collective action while proposing distributed assembly and proximity as core attributes in the production of the contemporary and future city. It calls for a revised form of spatial politics. Agonistic Assemblies asks: how can spaces—both physical and virtual—be envisaged to create publics? How is collectivity and society being generated spatially and in terms of policy? How do we “practice” society as a bodily, spatial form, and how does this practice contribute to spatial justice? Are there specific spatial settings that can intensify these practices? What kind of spatial design can we imagine as platforms for change?
This project articulates a curatorial impetus towards urban policy making in conjunction with spatial proximity as a tool to mediate between the individual, the collective, the neighborhood, the city, state politics, and society at large. If we understand assembly as a form of spatial gathering, and the bonfire as the prehistoric space of assembly, what constitutes its contemporary equivalent?
Roemer van Toorn and Ole Bouman contribution to the book consists of an interview with Italian architect Giancarlo De Carlo opening the conversation with De Carlo's quote: "Architecture is Too Important to Leave to the Architects."
Sternberg Press, Published February 2024, Berlin.
