HCMC – “Encounter” presents lectures by urbanist Marco Kusumawijaya

Lecture “Community as an alternative way of life towards ecological sustainability”: Tue 23 Jun 2015, 6.30 pm
Lecture “Arts and community: What next?”: Thu 25 Jun 2015, 6.30 pm
Room Marie Curie (6F), Hoa Sen University

From the organizer:

‘Encounter’ presents Marco Kusumawijaya with two lectures on Tuesday, 23 June and Thursday, 25 June 2015. Marco Kusumawijaya is an architect and urbanist. He studied at Parahyangan University in Bandung (Indonesia), and at the University of Leuven, in Leuven (Belgium).

Lecture “Community as an alternative way of life towards ecological sustainability”

Can community be a viable alternative way of life, economy and desire?

A community is where certain commons are truly shared. Its advantage is in providing bounds that can be immediately and concretely felt by the individual and sensed by the state. But modern states and economies treat people as individual citizens and consumers: they call forth the modern idea of individual freedom, through a critique of the oppressive traditional communities.

Nowadays that ecological consciousness – of limited resources and other species – is rising, it brings about the awareness and necessity of bounds. Can it lead to real changes towards sustainability? This lecture will argue the emerging value of community in the context of urbanized environments, particularly in developing Southeast Asian countries.

Lecture “Arts and community: What next?”

Communities provide materials, inspirations, reasons and worthy audience. Over the last few decades, from rural to urban contexts, artistic experiments with communities have been intensifying and spreading. The artists’ engagement in a community can be as simple as serving the community members.

Environmental concerns are often important reasons for artists’ interaction in the community. How can we evaluate these concerns, and what lessons are to be learned for the future, aesthetically, ethically and politically? How are they related to the idea of community? This lecture will present various successful projects initiated by artists, collectors, art spaces and cultural workers to inspire and to get inspired with the living community.

Entrance is free. English-Vietnamese translation will be provided.