Videogram 131: Lýdia Grešáková [online/english]

Join us for the first talk in this semester’s Videogram lecture series on contemporary curatorial and artistic practice and theory.

Feminist urban design from the periphery 

kRaj is a civic association based in the Gemer region. In thinking about the future of this place, it includes the needs of pollinating insects and environmental heterogeneity, the needs of the long-term unemployed (especially) women and people with mental and physical disabilities, and the perspectives of Gemer as a long-neglected region in Slovakia. Like kRaj, other organisations in Slovakia and the Czech Republic bring the perspectives of pollinating insects to the planning process, as well as “unwanted” buildings and spaces, bats or other more-than-humans. They are representatives of what Lýdia Grešáková calls feminist urban designers. They promote reflexive, post-anthropocentric and collaborative modes of practice, which are increasingly important. As such, they open new alternative responses and reflexive practices towards more responsive, resilient and context-specific solutions. In her talk, she will present examples that bring perspectives ‘from the periphery’ of the planning context into planning, and share ideas on how they might better help us to address local and global challenges, such as the adaptation of urban space to the climate crisis.

Lydia Grešáková, sociologist, researcher, publicist and amateur photographer, focuses on feminist values in everyday life, housing estate transformation, and pro-climate urban design. Her interest in marginalized voices in Central East Europe offers a holistic view of urban planning, revealing global connections within local narratives. She is a member of Slovak feminist collective Spolka, which practices inclusive design and its communication and was a research fellow at K LAB at TU Berlin, supporting two research projects that look at the intersection of critical mapping, socio-environmental transformation, and municipalist movements.

The lecture in English will take place online. Meeting ID: 951 7730 9112.