KEYNOTE: Beatriz Colomina

Kunstinstituut Melly in collaboration with the Design Academy Eindhoven is proud to present a KEYNOTE lecture by architecture theorist and historian Beatriz Colomina.

Colomina will present a lecture examining the paradigms of 20th Century health and architecture, challenges the normal understanding of modern architecture by proposing that it was shaped by the dominant medical obsession of its time: tuberculosis and its primary diagnostic tool, the X-ray.

The lecture draws upon Colomina’s 2019 monograph ‘X-ray Architecture (Lars Müller Publishers). In this book Colomina traces the psychopathologies of twentieth-century architecture—from the trauma of tuberculosis to more recent disorders such as burn-out syndrome and ADHD—and the huge transformations of privacy and publicity instigated by diagnostic tools from X-Rays to MRIs and beyond.

The lecture takes place on the occasion of 84 STEPS which transforms an entire floor of Kunstinstituut Melly into a dynamic space for socializing art — giving special attention to issues surrounding mental health. 84 STEPS takes place at the interface of art and education, and includes weekend training sessions conducted by health experts as well as forums and talks programs.

Colomina will be introduced by Kunstinstituut Melly Director Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, and will be joined for a moderated conversation by Marina Otero, Director of Research at the Het Nieuwe Instituut and head of social design at the Design Academy Eindhoven.

This program takes place in-person, and will also be available online some days later.