Recent E-Flux and Monocle Minute newsletters from May 1-3, 2025, present a vibrant snapshot of contemporary cultural production, architectural discourse, and global currents. Across diverse geographical contexts – from the Venice Biennale and burgeoning Gulf cities to established European museums and Asian art centers – several interconnected themes emerge, prompting reflections on how societies grapple with the past, navigate the present, and imagine the future.
Key threads include the imperative of reinvention and adaptation in the face of multifaceted crises, the complex relationship between nature, technology, and the built environment, the crucial role of memory and historical reinterpretation, the dynamics of global interconnectedness and cultural exchange, and the evolving social function of art and architecture. This is a kaleidoscope of contemporary cultural production—exhibitions, symposia, market reports, and diplomatic dispatches—that together reflect the complex entanglement of art, architecture, politics, and economics in our era.
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A dominant theme is the necessity of “reinvention” and learning to “live with” instability, reflecting a broader societal recognition of pervasive environmental and geopolitical precarity. The Brazilian Pavilion’s “(RE)INVENTION” and the French Pavilion’s “VIVRE AVEC / LIVING WITH” at the Venice Architecture Biennale explicitly frame architecture not just as form-making, but as a practice deeply engaged with adaptation, resilience, and resourcefulness. This resonates with ecological concepts of resilience – the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change (Holling, 1973) – applied here to the built environment. The French Pavilion’s focus on “living with… the existing,” “the immediate,” “the broken,” vulnerabilities, nature, and combined intelligences speaks to a shift away from tabula rasa development towards adaptive reuse and circularity, a field gaining prominence as essential architectural practice (Plevoets & Van Cleempoel, 2019). This emphasis on working with existing conditions, constraints, and even damage, rather than against them, echoes philosophical notions of “becoming,” where identity is not fixed but emerges through continuous transformation and relation (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987).
The Brazilian Pavilion’s two-act narrative—honouring 10 000-year-old Indigenous infrastructures, then shifting to contemporary re-significations of urban space—epitomizes what Homi Bhabha (1994) terms the “Third Space,” where hybridity creates new cultural meanings (p. 37). Its Garden-Platform, replacing imported ornament with native savanna species that “bloom and dry according to the seasonality of the Central Plateau biome” (Newsletter, 2025), recalls Gaston Bachelard’s celebration of elemental cycles: “the image of water determines the image of the imagination” (Bachelard, 1994, p. 12), here extended to flora and built form. This approach challenges colonial legacies of extraction, advancing Bruno Latour’s call to recognize “non-human actants” (Latour, 2004, p. 54) in the making of socio-natural worlds.
This theme extends beyond architecture. Kenjiro Okazaki’s artistic resurgence after a period of personal dissociation is framed as a reconnection and restoration of plasticity, mirroring his conviction that “the world is in a perpetual state of rebirth and reinvention”. Similarly, the rapid, almost disorienting, urban transformation of Dubai, where streets are literally renamed “Future Street” and preservation efforts like “Goodbye Old Jumeirah” emerge to chronicle what is lost, exemplifies a society grappling with constant, high-speed reinvention, perhaps hinting at the anxieties underlying relentless progress narratives. […]
The relationship between humanity, nature, and technology is another critical nexus. Several projects foreground environmental urgency and ecological consciousness. The Brazilian Pavilion highlights sophisticated indigenous infrastructure adapted to the environment and employs native species in its garden design, advocating for recognizing inherited wisdom. Jung Youngsun’s landscape architecture in Korea emphasizes native species, ecosystem restoration (like the Han River parks), and creating spaces where “nature and humans coexist”, reflecting an ethos akin to the “honorable harvest” described by Kimmerer (2013) in Braiding Sweetgrass, where indigenous knowledge offers pathways for reciprocal relationships with the living world.
The exhibition “Amid the Elements” explicitly engages architecture as an “environmental medium”, examining its historical encounters with earth, water, air, and fire and using Venice as a case study where environmental systems shaped even the materials of cultural production, like the carta azzurra paper. This focus on the elemental forces that shape and erode infrastructure serves as a counterpoint to technologically mediated environments, recalling Heidegger’s (1977) caution that viewing technology merely as a neutral instrument blinds us to its essence – a way of revealing or “enframing” the world that can obscure other modes of being. The inclusion of AI responses by Raqs Media Collective and Hsu Che-Yu’s use of forensic scanning and digital reconstruction further complicate this, suggesting a future where the boundaries between natural, artificial, and collective intelligence (the Biennale’s overarching theme) become increasingly porous, echoing posthumanist inquiries into the breakdown of human/nonhuman distinctions (Haraway, 1991). This entanglement is central to Morton’s (2010) concept of “the ecological thought,” recognizing the interconnected “mesh” of all life forms, challenging notions of a separate, pristine “Nature” (Cronon, 1996). […]
History and memory are not presented as static records but as active sites of contestation, reinterpretation, and recovery. The “Rediscovery of Korean Modern Artists” series, focusing on overlooked surrealist figures, aims to restore a “richer art history” by bringing marginalized narratives from the periphery to the center. This act of recovery challenges dominant canons and echoes post-colonial critiques of how history is written and whose stories are told (Said, 1978). Similarly, “City of Others: Asian Artists in Paris, 1920s–1940s” reframes Parisian art history by centering the experiences of migrant artists, exploring themes of identity, belonging, and cultural exchange in the face of potential exploitation.
Charles Jencks’ “Evolutionary Tree” drawings and the subsequent “Chronograms of Architecture” exhibition represent attempts to map and categorize architectural history and its ideologies, acknowledging the constructed nature of historical discourse. This impulse to grasp history contrasts with Walter Benjamin’s (1968) view of history not as a linear progression but as fragmented moments flashing up in times of danger, requiring constant retrieval from conformism. Hsu Che-Yu’s “Catastrophism” directly engages with trauma and memory – personal, familial, and collective – using digital means to re-enact and rewrite past events, creating spectral figures from data of child victims. This haunting work resonates with trauma theory’s exploration of how overwhelming events disrupt linear time and narrative, leading to repetitive, “unclaimed experience” (Caruth, 1996). The act of making art becomes a way to process and perhaps transform these fractured memories. […]
The newsletter vividly illustrates the interconnectedness of the contemporary art and architecture worlds through numerous international collaborations, biennales, triennales, and residencies. These platforms facilitate the flow of ideas, aesthetics, and capital across borders, reflecting Appadurai’s (1996) concept of global “scapes” – flows of people, media, technology, finance, and ideas that shape modernity. The Sharjah Architecture Triennial’s focus on West Asia, South Asia, and the African continent specifically aims to amplify voices from the “Global South”.
At Centre Pompidou-Metz, Maurizio Cattelan’s “Endless Sunday” conjures Camus’s absurd hero: “A vertiginous time loop” where absolute freedom collides with repetition (Newsletter, 2025). Albert Camus (1955) writes that “the struggle itself… is enough to fill a man’s heart” (p. 123); Cattelan’s looping Sunday becomes both promise and prison. Here, Gilles Deleuze’s concept of “difference and repetition” (1968) illuminates how each recurrence is never quite the same, generating new meaning through rupture.
Notably, Cattelan’s inclusion of Giudecca prison inmates as guides, and the Pompidou’s training of Metz detainees, enact Jürgen Habermas’s (1989) vision of an inclusive public sphere where previously marginalized voices co-create cultural meaning (p. 176). This participatory turn also resonates with Paulo Freire’s (1970) pedagogy of the oppressed, in which dialogic exchange transforms both “teacher” and “student” into co-learners.
This interconnectedness raises questions about cosmopolitanism – the idea of being a “citizen of the world.” Martha Nussbaum (1996) argues for cultivating cosmopolitan identity over narrow patriotism, a debate implicitly present in the Raqs Media Collective’s exhibition “Cavalcade,” linked to a research project on “Reimagining Cosmopolitanism”. Their work extends solidarity beyond the human to include animals, mythical figures, ghosts, and even sentient machines, pushing the boundaries of who belongs to the global community. […]
Finally, the snippets underscore the diverse social roles ascribed to cultural production. Art and architecture are presented as means of social critique (Adorno, 1997), challenging established narratives and prompting reflection on urgent issues like environmental justice or historical trauma. Exhibitions like Maurizio Cattelan’s “Endless Sunday” involve community engagement through inmate guides, while Jung Youngsun’s parks provide spaces for socialization and contemplation. This aligns with the idea that aesthetics is inherently political, involved in the “distribution of the sensible” – determining what is seen, heard, and considered possible within a community (Rancière, 2004).
The newsletter’s sponsorship notices—from Itaú and Petrobras to Monocle’s coverage of the Arabian Travel Market—underscore the neoliberal commodification of culture and tourism. The ATM’s “55 000 visitors” and “retinues of basket weavers” (Newsletter, 2025) align with Dean MacCannell’s thesis that tourism seeks “staged authenticity” (MacCannell, 1976, p. 94). Meanwhile, Eric Trump inaugurating Dubai towers gestures to soft-power branding, blending luxury real estate with geopolitical theater.
The curation of experiences extends to retail environments. Department stores like Liberty are positioned not just as commercial venues but as “tastemakers” championing smaller brands, relying on knowledgeable staff and careful curation – reflecting Bourdieu’s (1984) analysis of how taste functions as a form of social distinction. Similarly, the critique of the lack of independent bookstores in Dubai points to the perceived cultural value of such spaces beyond mere commerce. Architecture itself, as discussed by Lefebvre (1991), is fundamental to the “production of space,” shaping social relations and everyday life, whether through the design of museums, public pavilions, or residential villas.
In conclusion, these newsletter fragments offer a rich tapestry of contemporary concerns. They reveal a world grappling with instability through adaptation and reinvention, increasingly aware of its entanglement with nature and technology, constantly negotiating its relationship with history and memory, navigating complex global flows, and continually redefining the purpose and potential of art, architecture, and cultural expression in shaping social life. The endeavors showcased – from critical reinterpretations of the past to speculative engagements with the future – highlight the ongoing, vital role of cultural practice in making sense of, and intervening in, our complex present. […]
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Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization. University of Minnesota Press.
Bachelard, G. (1994). The Poetics of Space. Beacon Press.
Benjamin, W. (1940). On the concept of history. In H. Arendt (Ed.), Illuminations (pp. 253–264). Schocken Books.
Benjamin, W. (1968). Theses on the philosophy of history. In H. Arendt (Ed.), Illuminations: Essays and reflections (H. Zohn, Trans., pp. 253–264). Schocken Books. (Original work written 1940)
Bhabha, H. K. (1994). The Location of Culture. Routledge.
Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste (R. Nice, Trans.). Harvard University Press. (Original work published 1979)
Camus, A. (1955). The Myth of Sisyphus. Vintage International.
Caruth, C. (1996). Unclaimed experience: Trauma, narrative, and history. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Cronon, W. (Ed.). (1996). Uncommon ground: Rethinking the human place in nature. W. W. Norton & Company.
Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia (B. Massumi, Trans.). University of Minnesota Press. (Original work published 1980)
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Continuum.
Habermas, J. (1989). The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. MIT Press.
Hall, S. (1990). Cultural identity and diaspora. In J. Rutherford (Ed.), Identity: Community, culture, difference (pp. 222–237). Lawrence & Wishart.
Haraway, D. J. (1991). Simians, cyborgs, and women: The reinvention of nature. Routledge.
Heidegger, M. (1971). Building dwelling thinking. In A. Hofstadter (Ed.), Poetry, Language, Thought (pp. 145–162). Harper & Row.
Heidegger, M. (1977). The question concerning technology. In The question concerning technology and other essays (W. Lovitt, Trans., pp. 3–35). Garland Publishing. (Original work published 1954)
Holling, C. S. (1973). Resilience and stability of ecological systems. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 4, 1–23.
Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). Braiding sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants. Milkweed Editions.
Latour, B. (2004). Politics of Nature: How to Bring the Sciences into Democracy. Harvard University Press. […]
[Written, Researched, and Edited by Pablo Markin. Some parts of the text have been produced with the aid of ChatGPT, OpenAI, and Gemini, Google, Alphabet, tools (May 4, 2025). The featured image has been generated in Canva (May 8, 2025).]
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