R3 | Trasformation of urban Landscape during and after War

R3 Workshop "Re-constructing Cities / Re-assembling Memories / Re-defining Identities - Transformation of urban Landscape during and after War"
School of Architecture, University of Catania (Siracusa, 16-17 November 2018)

Through the contribution of scholars from different disciplines - architecture, art history, history, semiotics, law and anthropology - the workshop proposes a reflection on the links between city, war and identity and on the longevity of the memory of war and its traces. Starting from the two world wars, urban destruction has become a distinctive feature of the new conflicts. Cities have become a strategic objective and then a cultural and political target.

The workshop develops a multidisciplinary confrontation aimed at understanding how the memories of war are preserved, erased or mobilized not only through the "intentional monuments" and the more usual practices of commemoration, but also - and perhaps even more effectively - through the transformation strategies of the material traces left on the cities. At the same time, we intend to reflect on the very meaning of urban identities and on the need to decline them in dynamic and multiple terms, in constant redefinition.