Modest Homes

On the occasion of the publication of Benjamin Hirte’s first monograph Modest Homes (Mousse, 2023), the Goethe-Institut New York is pleased to present a panel discussion exploring the complex relationship between artists, architecture, and public spaces.

The artist Benjamin Hirte will be in conversation with curator Jody Graf and art historian Pujan Karambeigi discussing key episodes such as modernist housing developments in the 1920s which sought to reimagine living spaces for the masses, urban interventions and guerrilla art actions in the 1960s-70s that challenged rules of public property, and the recent resurgence of iconoclasm that questions national symbols and histories displayed in municipal areas.

Through these examples the panelists examine the evolving and often contradictory roles artists have taken on as they engage with public spaces: as engineers and architects designing new models of habitation, reimagining the aesthetics of urban environments, as poets and writers articulating new visions for the city, as enlighteners seeking to educate and protest social issues through public art, and as activists directly intervening in spaces to claim them for communities.

The discussion will explore the scope and impact of these different artistic approaches, asking how and why one approach may be adopted over others for certain contexts and goals. It will also consider the challenges and opportunities artists currently face in utilizing or disrupting public spaces, and their capacity to meaningfully impact conflicts over how such spaces are defined and used.