Wodiczko + Bonder’s Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery noted in European and US awards, publications, lectures

Professor of Architecture Julian Bonder’s work continues to receive increasing international and US recognition, following the opening of Wodiczko + Bonder’s “Mémorial de l’abolition de l’esclavage” (Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery) in Nantes, France in Spring 2012.

This work was the focus of an August 2012 publication in the Boston Society of Architects (BSA) Journal, Memory Is A Verb: A conversation with Julian Bonder and Krzysztof Wodiczko, where Wodiczko and Bonder were interviewed extensively about the project. Wodiczko is an internationally renowned public artist who taught at MIT for many years, and now is at Harvard, who has worked collaboratively with Bonder on many projects.

The Memorial this year received Special Mention in the 7th European Prize for Urban Public Space, which “aims to foster and recognize the process of recovering the public dimension of urban spaces in Europe, as well as their capacity for social inclusion and democracy-building in our cities.”  The Prize is an initiative coordinated between Barcelona, London, Vienna, Paris, Helsinki, Rotterdam and Berlin, that the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) co-organizes with the Architecture Foundation of London (AF), the Architekturzentrum Wien (Az W), la Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine of Paris (la Cité), the Suomen Rakennustaiteen Museo of Helsinki (SRM), the Nederlands Architectuurinstituut of Rotterdam (NAi) and the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM). http://www.publicspace.org/en/prize/2012 http://www.publicspace.org/en/prize/results-for-pdf/2012

This year, 347 projects from 36 European countries presented for the Prize, 2 joint winners, 3 special mentions including Wodiczko + Bonder, and 1 special category prize. The jury included Josep Llinàs (Barcelona), Juulia Kauste (Finland), Ole Bouman (Rotterdam), Sarah Mineko Ichioka (London), Francis Rambert (Paris), Dietmar Steiner (Vienna) and Peter Cachola Schmal (Berlin).

Bonder lectured on the work in Barcelona at the Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona in June 2012 (see www.cccb.org )
 
The website for the memorial is at http://memorial.nantes.fr/, in English at http://memorial.nantes.fr/en/.