About

ZUPI–ZUPPA–SOUP is a one-day event that looks to create an open dialogue around the issues of public housing for Roma within the EU. The event offers a platform from which Romani women can define and make-public their experiences, desires, and knowledge surrounding this critical topic.

The evolution and transformation of cities and housing with respect to Roma housing and settlements is often a one-sided conversation in which the needs, histories, and experiences of the inhabitants are marginalized. With these needs unaddressed, rights are ignored, and patterns of discrimination are reinforced. These patterns further an already present challenge surrounding communication—an elemental feature of not only planning and design, but constructive reflection and positive transformation.

August 28, 2012
12:30: Transformation, communality, and imagining alternatives
15:00: Discriminatory practices and the impact of forced evictions

Moderated conversations will take place during the course of a meal. ZUPI–ZUPPA–SOUP is an exercise in listening, with the conversations translated into both Italian and English. Headsets at every place setting provide guests an opportunity for personal and contemplative engagement with the perspectives of the invited Romani women, facilitating exchange through the act of listening.

All are welcome!

ZUPI–ZUPPA–SOUP is an independent event organized by Leah Whitman-Salkin, an editor and practitioner active in the fields of contemporary art, architecture, and public discourse. Based in Berlin, Leah Whitman-Salkin is an editor at Sternberg Press and has contributed to diverse international magazines, artist monographs and books, and critical theory publications.

RSVP

To reserve a seat at the table, please e-mail rsvp@z-z-s.org.

Moderators

Ethel Brooks is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Women’s and Gender Studies and Sociology at Rutgers University. Her fields of interest include gender and labor, critical political economy, globalization, social movements, postcolonialism, and critical race theory. Brooks is the author of Unraveling the Garment Industry: Transnational Organizing and Women's Work (University of Minnesota Press, 2007). Brooks, who is Romani-American, was awarded a prestigious Fulbright-University of the Arts London Distinguished Chair Award and she spent the academic year 2011/2012 at TrAIN, the Research Centre for Transnational Art, Identity and Nation. Part of the award supported Prof. Brooks's delivery of a lecture series in conjunction with the Tate Gallery, London.

Irina Bancescu is an architect and assistant professor in the Department of History and Theory of Architecture and Heritage Conservation at Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism in Bucharest. Her research interests include contemporary architecture and urban planning, communist legacy, vernacular architecture, and extreme poverty. She just finalized her PhD, Waterfront Issues: Aspects of the Evolution of the Romanian Seaside during the Communist Period, a theme investigated also during a Vasile Pârvan scholarship at the Romanian Academy in Rome (2004–06). Bancescu worked as an activist, studying Roma communities for the EU-ROMA project (2007–09) and taking part in the Roma Preview Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennial in 2008. She has also collaborated with ADNBA for various architectural competitions finalized with prizes.

Soup

The meals will be created by the Naples-based La Kumpania, an intercultural catering project that engages jobless Roma and Italian women through cooking and skills-training in the kitchen.

Location

Università Iuav di Venezia
Terese
Dorsoduro 2206
30123 Venice

Vaporetto stop: San Basilio (lines 2, 6, 8)

– From the San Basilio stop, walk north on Fondamenta San Basilio
– Take the third bridge on your left
– Walk around the church and take the bridge next to the church entrance (onto Salita Chiesa)
– Cross the bridge and take a left (onto Fondamenta Barbarigo)
– Take the first right (onto Corte Maggiore) and then the first bridge on the left
– The entrance to the campus is 100 m on your right