Coastlines: Marseille to Genoa

Coastlines: Marseille to Genoa

Where are the borderlines of Europe, and what happens at its gates? Marseille and Genoa are both cities of the past and the future. They tell us about the linearity of trade, the exchange of people, wealth, and ideas, about utopian dreams and reckless exploitation, freedom and slavery. They bear the traces of a glorious history and unheard of accumulation of riches, but they are also sites of misery and violence, exposed to the raw forces of globalization. We cannot “compare” Marseille and Genoa. But we can move from one place to the other, circling around their suburbs, their ports and their streets, following the coastline that separates and connects them. What is the meaning of the Mediterranean for contemporary architecture and urbanism? What will our movement teach us? Will it change our perspective on space, will it alter our ideas about center and periphery, will it reconfirm clichés about the south, the sea, harbors and ships or help us to see our own situation -- and isolation -- in Switzerland clearer?

In cooperation with Dr. Hannah Baader (Research Scholar, Kunsthistorisches Institut Florenz) and Dr. Stefan Neuner (Eikones, University of Basel).


MONDAY, 17 MARCH, 2014 TO FRIDAY 21 MARCH, 2014
PARTICIPANTS: MAX. 21 STUDENTS
COSTES: CATEGORY C, MAX. CHF 750 (BUS, HOTEL, ENTRANCE FEES)
INTRODUCTORY MEETING: 16. March 16:00h / HIL E 71