One day colloquium exploring the tensions arising out of the ephemeral and eternal aspects of the ‘modernist city’ through spaces, works, events, artefacts and people

The modernist city emphatically encapsulates the dialectic of the ephemeral and the eternal. Its dynamic flows of goods, people and commerce at once determine the city’s transitory nature while at the same time reinforce its status as an immutable seat of power and culture attested to by the very materiality built up within and around such dynamic flows.

Amid the fleeting and transient experience of the city, what is it that constitutes an abiding culture? Where is ‘culture’ and in what form does it appear or exist? What are the spaces, moments, events and cultural artefacts that make up the ephemera that in turn (re)constitute the modernist city?

Prompted by such questions, this colloquium invites proposals that will explore the myriad city-borne arts, objects, practices and movements that typify the ephemeral and eternal dialectic.