The United States as well as Europe have seen a return of right-wing tendencies in the political landscape. And this rise of a (new) political right has in turn infected our physical and digital landscapes as well. Philosopher and Thomas Mann Fellow Armen Avanessian invites to an evening of comparative spatial and political investigation: how are buildings, structures and monuments sites for a political struggle for meaning, myth and hegemony? How did the ‘hinterland’ morph into an ideological fringe? Are new technologies neutral tools, equally wielded on both sides of the aisle, or they themselves a cause for populism and polarization? Join Avanessian and his guests at NAVEL on December 6, when they will be hot on the heels of political extremists in Europe, the US, and online.

Stephan Trüby (Institute for Principles of Modern Architecture, Stuttgart) will present his research from the European context. The results of the project have been collected in the Rechte Räume edition of the Berlin-based ARCH+ magazine and aim to fundamentally re-politicize architectural discourse: “right-wing spaces” aren't discussed with regard to “good” or “bad” architecture but with a view towards how politics claims spaces.

After his presentation, Armen Avanessian’s American guests are invited to take the conversation into the local context. Safiya Noble (UCLA) will discuss right-wing space creation and infrastructure online, as well as the inherent prejudices, injustices and racism of algorithmic architecture. Jason Luger (UC Berkeley) will take a look at the American urban and regional fringe and the suburbanization of the right.