Transgressive Materialities: The Afterlife of the World Trade Center

Webconference by Lazlo Muntean, Radbout University, Nijmegen, Fellow at the IAS CEU, Budapest, Hungary, as part of the European NetIAS Lecture Series on the theme “Borders”.

The destruction of the World Trade Center towers resulted in a radically heterogeneous matter in which the borders between architectural debris and human bodies, as well as the remains of the victims and those of the terrorists, were destabilized. These material entanglements rendered the ruins’ treatment as relics, poisonous material, and scrap metal to be sold equally problematic. Taking its cue from the disintegration of material borders in the ruins, this presentation examines the conflicting political, economic, mnemonic, and reverential factors that have played key roles in the biography of the towers.

No registration needed.
Zoom link: https://unibo.zoom.us/j/97956190113

Complete program : https://ias.ceu.edu/article/2020-05-28/european-netias-lecture-series-borders