Dear all,
After its first two years of existence, Mansion now wants to extend its raison d’être by launching an « urban club ».
The Inquisitive Citizens Urban Club would like to be a context where we can collectively redefine and activate our rights to the city and our needs to develop spaces where the notion of “public” can thrive: a club where we can build up a common say and practice on matters of urbanism and politics of space.
As an initiation to the club, Mansion has devised an introductive «course» of three months that will focus on the area of and around Zoqaq el Blat, the neighbourhood in which Mansion is located and which presents a particularly interesting case study of urban complexity through its proximity to Downtown’s new developments, the gentrification of Khandaq el Ghamiq, as well as its long bourgeois history and current sociological diversity and contestation. The course plan is inspired by the rhythmanalysis approach developed by Henri Lefebvre, as well as in using urban anthropology and alternative forms of cartography, used by the Situationists. It will be divided into workshops, seminar sessions, presentations by guest speakers/participants, public actions and individual/group sessions for producing own work.
While the initial course will last three months, it is our hope that the spirit of the course will develop into a dynamic, self-organised club (ICUC) continuing to meet at Mansion to debate and act on current urban issues.
Both the introductive course and the club are meant for the urban curious professional and non-professional: architects, urbanists, artists, designers, concerned citizens, activists, film makers, students and locals etc. The only condition for the time is that participants are actually Beirut city users.
How to apply / get more information: Please send us an email with your name, outlining a bit about your background and why you are interested in joining this course, via email to mansionblatt@gmail.com before 15 December 2014.