Dario Gamboni and Florian Göttke

Asymmetrical conflicts and symmetrical iconoclasm

Thursday 29 April 2010, 8 pm
Location: Hogewal 1-9
Language: English
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The release of Florian Göttke's book 'Toppled' inspired Stroom Den Haag to invite the renowned Swiss art historian, author and curator Dario Gamboni to give a lecture on ‘asymmetrical conflict', a term which has gained greater currency since the intentional destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The phrase is used to define a situation opposing two parties widely differing in terms of power, legitimacy, means and organisation. Can a correlation be established between the degree of asymmetry of a conflict and the tendency of its 'weaker' party (in conventional terms) to resort to iconoclasm?

What architectural features of the WTC may have played a role in its choice as target, and in what connection do they stand to the specific 'asymmetry' involved? Gamboni compares 9/11 with cases of destruction of art and draws comparisons with other cases of intentional destruction both near (the Bamiyan Buddhas) and far (events during the Paris Commune and the Suffrage Movement).

Dario Gamboni (1954) has published numerous books, mainly on nineteenth- and twentieth-century art, with an emphasis on the social history of art, reception studies, art and literature, art criticism, symbolism, religious art and iconoclasm. He currently is a professor at the University of Geneva (since 2004). One of his most famous books is 'The Destruction of Art. Iconoclasm and Vandalism since the French Revolution' (London, Reaktion Books Ltd, 1997).

Florian Göttke (1965) browsed the internet to collect hundreds of photographs (both professional and amateur ones) depicting what happened to the statues of Saddam Hussein. This led to his iconographic project 'Toppled'. The book with the same title is published by post editions, Rotterdam.
www.toppledsaddam.org

This lecture and book presentation are part of 'nu monument', a thematic program investigating the (im)possibility of a contemporary monument.