A Conversation about Dust

The Dust Pavilion research group, comprising the architect Olga Subirós and researchers and editors Joana Teixidor and Llorenç Bonet, is interested in the circularity that connects the extraction of Algerian onyx used by Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich when they constructed the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion, as well as the constant presence of Saharan dust in the air, which slowly and silently settles on the pavilion and the city. This circle connects Barcelona with the Sahara, suggesting a kind of ghostly return that sometimes awakens fears of radioactivity. 

Dust Pavilion's research is based on the work of Samia Henni, a historian and curator whose projects address issues such as colonisation, war, resource extraction, deserts, forced displacement and gender dynamics. Dust Pavilion particularly connects with Colonial Toxicity: Rehearsing French Radioactive Architecture in the Sahara, which examines the nuclear programme that brought France to the Algerian Sahara, connecting spatial, social and environmental justice.

Henni will engage in a dialogue with an atmospheric science researcher specialized in Saharan intrusions from the Barcelona Dust Regional Centre, an organisation that collects and distributes data to assess and reduce the adverse impacts of dust and sand storms.

The programme will continue with artist Lydia Ourahmane, who will present Tassili, a work created in the Algerian Sahara, foregrounding the tensions surrounding access, history, and the economic and social conditions that shape the place in relation to its inhabitants. The artist will be in conversation with Khaled Bouzidi, director of the Rhizome Contemporary Art Gallery in Algiers, who took part in the production of the work.

Programme:

5pm-5.15pm: Introduction to the day by Dust Pavillion
5.15pm-6.30pm: Presentations and conversation with Samia Henni and the Barcelona Dust Regional Centre
6.30pm-7pm: Walk to the Mies van der Rohe Foundation
7.30pm: Screening of Tassili by Lydia Ourahmane and conversation between the artist and Khaled Bouzidi.