Racism, the woodworm in the beams of our system
2020 may be the year of the COVID pandemic but is also the year of the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. The killing of George Floyd by police at the end of May in the United States brought racial conflict once again to the fore of the world's media landscape. While less intense over here – the lockdown no doubt has something to do with that - the implications of racism require us to speak out directly, as they have been festering away within our system’s main beams. These therefore had to have repercussions on the Biennial too.
The mirror of racism, as can be seen from its title, is being presented on 14 October as the main event for tackling a few central assumptions in the current debate on race issues. A dialogue between five speakers on the channels for achieving what has been called, and resonates as a byword, “decolonising the future”. But there will be further occasions for dealing with similar considerations: at the meeting for observing horizons for The inclusive city, on Saturday, 17 October at noon, racial diversity needs to be one of the diversities that urban planning and architecture have to take on board with empathy.
That same day, in the evening, City, conflict and emancipation will be shedding light on the twofold approach that cities often show: the almost unlimited horizon of expectations, but also hostility, which some groups tend to suffer more than others. To round off the meeting, Yolanda Sey will be performing a monologue by the playwright Denise Duncan focusing on the experience of being a black woman in Catalonia.