Press Release

December 26, 2007

Urban Design and Civil Protest: A Contemporary Meditation

February 28, through June 9, 2008
Compton Gallery
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA

CAMBRIDGE, MA — Urban Design and Civil Protest, an exhibition created by MIT visiting architect and urban designer Tali Hatuka, creates a laboratory for examining the socio-spatial dynamic of protest as a public dialogue between citizen and regime.

On view are examinations of models, plans, sections and photographs displaying circular, grid and concentric forms of protest throughout the world. A sound installation of voices from various events emphasizes the way individual and crowd voices are formed and performed in public space. A video screen projects textual messages, slogans, and banners illuminating the relationships between symbolic text of protest and the symbols of the place.

The exhibition also identifies key moments during protest when violence or contention unfold as the outcome, underlining the complexities of urban form, architecture and human reaction in a place and time of protest.

Tali Hatuka is a postdoctoral fellow in MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning who works primarily on social and architectural issues, and on the relationships between urban form, violence, everyday life and modern society.

The Compton Gallery is free, and open daily 10:00 a.m. – 5:00p.m.