Para-Platforms - On the Spatial Politics of Right-Wing Populism

An investigation of the social, spatial, and material reality of right-wing populism.

Para-Platforms investigates the social, spatial, and material reality of right-wing populism. Three case studies—presented in a symposium organized by Markus Miessen at the Gothenburg Design Festival in November 2017—form the core from which this collection of essays has grown: journalist Hannes Grassegger on Trump and Brexit; architectural theorist Stephan Trüby on spaces of right-wing extremism in Germany; and Christina Varvia on Forensic Architecture's investigation of the murder of Halit Yozgat, a young German man of Turkish descent, at the hands of a far-right group in 2006. The presentations are reproduced along with the ensuing conversations with Miessen and the audience members.

An essay by anthropologist Mahmoud Keshavarz opens the book by discussing the capacity of design to create the conditions for certain politics. Among the other theoretical, artistic, and historical contributions, editor Zoë Ritts interviews artist Wolfgang Tillmans regarding his pro-EU poster series, the ongoing project truth study centre, and guest-edited volume What Is Different? The volume concludes with a comic by artist Liam Gillick animating a block of granite—culled from the Swedish quarry responsible for extracting the red granite intended for the Third Reich's architectural ambitions—as the messiah of spatial and material politics.

O investigatie a realitatii sociale, spatiale si materiale a populismului de dreapta. Para-Platformele investigheaza realitatea sociala, spatiala si materiala a populismului de dreapta. Trei studii de caz - prezentate intr-un simpozion organizat de Markus Miessen la Gothenburg Design Festival in noiembrie 2017 - formeaza nucleul din care a crescut aceasta colectie de eseuri: jurnalistul Hannes Grassegger despre Trump si Brexit; teoreticianul arhitectural Stephan Trüby asupra spatiilor extremismului de dreapta din Germania; si Christina Varvia despre investigatia Arhitecturii Legale a uciderii lui Halit Yozgat, un tanar german de origine turca, din mana unui grup de extrema dreapta in 2006.