“To this day, the Commune represents the only attempt at revolutionary urbanism,” wrote philosopher and spatial theorist Henri Lefebvre in his 1965 book on the Paris Commune. In his examination of the historical event of 1871, he discovers the subversive potential of urban societies: he is enthusiastic about early forms of civic self-organization and describes the significance of socio-spatial contradictions for the emergence of movements critical of the state and power.
Against the backdrop of current constrictions of the city, public space, and urban community by capital, technology, and the police, Lefebvre’s observations on urban and revolutionary theory prove to be extremely relevant. Baustelle Commune. Henri Lefebvre and the Urban Revolution of 1871 makes excerpts of this text accessible in German for the first time and relates them to contemporary issues. In a dialog with Hallo: Verein zur Förderung raumöffnender Kultur, the editors Moritz Hannemann and Laura Strack present the book at Hallo:Kiosk and invite you to discuss practices, challenges and perspectives of urban commons: The commune is a construction site that still needs to be worked on today.
With: Laura Strack, Moritz Hannemann, moderated by Kathrin Wildner and Franzi Dehm
[Supported by the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media]