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Artists and Extreme Events, New York City, March 14, 2005

Artists and Extreme Events:

March '92 Bombay / September '01 New York

New York City, March 14, 2005

A Roundtable Discussion on
How Acts of Unprecedented Violence Tear a City's Fabric


Monday, March 14, 6PM

The New School

66 West 12th Street, 5th floor

New York City

Admission free

"Progress and catastrophe are the opposite faces of the same coin."
— Hannah Arendt

Cities have been the focus of societal upheavals since the dawn of
human history, and the twentieth century was no exception. Urban
catastrophes in this bloodiest of centuries disrupted and destroyed
their conviviality, their security as places of dwelling and commerce.
Cities continue to be the object and subject of extreme events-bomb
blasts, forced mass movements of minorities and the poor, and
catastrophic accidents resulting from careless juxtaposition of
residential and industrial structures, such as petrochemical and nuclear
plants or waste management facilities. Chernobyl, Bhopal and Toulouse
are such cities. As these urban catastrophes get repeated in
ever-changing variations, how are we to understand these patterns?This roundtable discussion draws on the recent experiences of two
metropolises, Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and New York. In March of 1992,
Mumbai suffered bomb blasts after the demolition of a mosque by militant
Hindus in northern India. On September 11th, 2001, New York City
experienced the destruction of the World Trade Center Towers and the
death of thousands.

Mumbai- and New York-based artists reflect on these urban catastrophes
and the ways they impinge on their work.

Session I: 6:00 to 7:00 "Cracks in Mondrian"

Artist Atul Dodiya in conversation with anthropologist Vyjayanthi Rao

(New School University)

Session II: 7:00 - 7:15 "The Cities Blotted into Wilderness: Adrienne
Rich After Ghalib"

Presentation by artist Zarina Hashmi

Session III: 7:15 - 8:00

Artist Julian LaVerdiere, co-creator of the "Towers of Light" that
illuminated the WTC site post 9/11, in conversation with Tom
Finkelpearl, Director, Queens Museum of Art

The panel is co-sponsored by The South Asia Forum and The Vera List
Center for Art and Politics at The New School.