Petr Vašát: Re-envisioning Macro-Murals: Reflections on Fieldwork in Colombia

Various schools, collectives, and governments use architecture, art, and design to help poor communities of the global South improving their material environment. In this, macro-murals represent one of the most ambitious and visible forms. The lecture attempts to introduce the macro-murals as a new research field and to show how they are assembled through the complex socio-material relations. Based on reflections on fieldwork in Colombian cities, the lecture will discuss several topics pertaining to macro-murals: various definitions that enable us to understand this socio-material practice, the role of mobility of ideas, and impact on local communities. Instead of providing final definitions or results, this talk seeks to re-envision the topic and to embrace my developments and changing ways of thinking about the macro-murals and the conditions that have led to it.

Petr Vašát is an anthropologist and senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences. In recent years, he was a Fulbright-Masaryk Fellow at the Department of Sociology, Columbia University, and Visiting Research Fellow at the Department of Sociology, Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá. The outcomes of his research have been published in a range of Czech and international journals, including Urban Geography, Cities, or International Journal of Social Research Methodology.

Registration: bendikag@ceu.edu