ABOUT PERENNIAL

PERENNIAL IS A TEMPORARY AUDITORIUM, THOUGHT OF AS A SALON, SHAPED AS AN EVENT. THE TERM “PERENNIAL” REFERS TO THE CYCLICAL BLOOMING OF PLANTS, AS WELL AS TO THE NOTION OF UNIVERSAL RECURRENCE OF PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAS, THROUGH TIMES AND CULTURES. ASSUMING THAT FUTURE VISIONS ARE PROJECTED MEMORIES, SUBLIME AND OUTER WORLDLY PERSPECTIVES CAN ALSO BE CONCEIVED AS PROJECTED INTERIORS. PERENNIAL AS SALON AND AUDITORIUM WILL FUNCTION AS A MODEL OF THIS HYPOTHESIS AND THE DEPARTURE POINT FOR A VAST EVENING PROGRAM INCLUDING CHRISTIAN WALDVÖGEL, ETTORE SOTTSASS, JOS DE GRUYTER & HARALD THYS, MARK VON SCHLEGELL, GIUSEPPE TERRAGNI, ERIK THYS A.O


PERENNIAL IS A PROJECT OF ARNAUD HENDRICKX, MICHAEL VAN DEN ABEELE AND RICHARD VENLET.


PROJECT SUPPORTED BY: OPAK, WIELS, FAK.

AGENDA

FRI 27 MAY 18:00 - 21:00 WIELS
OPENING.


WED 01 JUNE 20:00 WIELS
HARALD THYS & JOS DE GRUYTER - FILM PREMIERE.


FRI 10 JUNE 20:00 WIELS
CHRISTIAN WALDVÖGEL - GLOBUS CASSUS, LECTURE.


WED 15 JUNE 20:00 WIELS
MARK VON SHLEGELL - THE SECRET LIFE OF A SENTIENT PLANT, READING.


FRI 24 JUNE 20:00 WIELS
NANAMI KOHSHOU - BUTOH PERFORMANCE


FRI 01 JULY 20:00 WIELS

ERIK THYS - SPACE AND THE SOUL, LECTURE.


WED 6 JULY 20:00 WIELS

DIRK DE MEYER - TERRAGNI'S DANTEUM, LECTURE.

PERENNIAL #6 - 06 JULY 20H: DIRK DE MEYER - TERRAGNI'S DANTEUM, LECTURE


PERENNIAL # 6



DIRK DE MEYER
TERRAGNI'S DANTEUM - LECTURE
WEDNESDAY 06.07.2011 - 8PM




In 1938 the Italian architects Giuseppe Terragni and Pietro Lingeri presented to Mussolini the project for a Danteum, a temple and library dedicated to the great Italian poet. The real program of the building, however, was a symbolic one: a setting for the canto’sof Dante’s Divina Commedia, while putting emphasis on what Dante represented in the politics of the day: Italian unification and imperial pretentions.

Although some critics have desperately tried to bring Terragni’s work back within the reassuring fold of the Modern Movement, it has always disrupted the conventional norms of the relationship between the modern and the classical. The Danteum in particular remains a building outside of and beyond time.

Nevertheless, the lecture will try to anchor the project in its time, and discover its exceptional and intimate interactions between literature, architecture and politics.

Dirk De Meyer is a professor in History of Architecture and Architectural Design at Ghent University. With his students, he has built a large scale model of the Danteum that is currently on show at Perennial.
He has formerly been a Visiting Scholar and Chief Curator at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal. He is the author ofbooks on a.o.Johann Santini Aicheland on Piranesi, and contributed to books published by the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte (München), Electa (Milano) and the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (Paris). He published in journals such as the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, theJournal of Architecture, Casabella, Disegno d’Architettura and SanRocco. He has curated international exhibitions in Belgium, Prague and Montréal, on aspects of Baroque architecture in Italy and Central Europe, and on Piranesi.

The lecture will be given in English.

Reservations: welcome@wiels.org 
More info: http://www.wiels.org

FREE ENTRANCE


PERENNIAL is a project of Arnaud Hendrickx, Michael Van den Abeele and Richard Venlet.

WIELS
Avenue Van Volxemlaan 354
1190 Brussel
tel +32 (0)2 340 00 53
fax +32 (0)2 340 00 59
http://www.wiels.org

Wednesday through Sunday: 11:00 – 18:00
Nocturnes until 21.00 every 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of the month
Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays