Territorialization and Biopolitics

Australian philosopher and professor Andrew Benjamin, who plays a significant role in shaping architectural theory with his concepts and reflections on current changes of the practice, will visit Ljubljana in October with his colleague, architect Gerard Reinmuth. 

You are cordially invited to two seminars and one lecture, which will all be held in English. Admission is open, no reservation required.

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On the Garden and its Border 

Seminar by Andrew Benjamin

Biotechnical Faculty, Department of Landscape Architecture, Lecture Hall on the 2nd Floor

October 7, 2024, from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM

Philosopher and professor Andrew Benjamin will lead a seminar on the garden and its borders. These are also themes he wrote about in the essay The Complex Instrumentality of the Garden, published in the collection Garden and Metaphor. The seminar will take the form of an open discussion on the shift in the operation logic of the garden.

Architecture in Three Concepts: Instrument, Third Space, Territory

Lecture by Gerard Reinmuth 

Faculty of Architecture, Plečnik Lecture Hall

October 7, 2024, at 6:00 PM

Founding director of TERROIR, professor and architect Gerard Reinmuth, will present a cut through 25 years of work by the practice organised by three concepts – the instrument, the third space and re-territorialisation. Gerard will explain how he completely understood these concepts only through his later collaborative work with Andrew Benjamin.

Biopolitics and Reterritorialization 

Seminar led by Andrew Benjamin

Faculty of Architecture, Fabiani Lecture Hall,

October 8, 2024, from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM

Building on the lecture by Gerard Reinmuth, this seminar will focus on two areas: biopolitics and reterritorialization. The seminar will take the form of an open discussion on these concepts, also laid out in numerous texts by Andrew Benjamin on these subjects. Some of those texts are available here. 

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Andrew Benjamin is currently an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the School of Communication and Cultural Studies in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne. He has held posts in a number of UK and Australian universities. In addition he started his career at the University of Warwick rising to the position of Professor of Philosophy and until 2022 taught for one semester each year at Kingston University in London where he was associated with the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy. He holds degrees from the Australian National University, the University of Paris 7 and the University of Warwick. While working predominantly in philosophy throughout his career he has published extensively on architecture and taught in a range of schools including the Architectural Association in London, the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University, the University of Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney.

Gerard Reinmuth founded TERROIR in 1999. The practice rapidly established itself as a critical force in Australian architecture through its writings, exhibitions, publications, and built projects. As the initial conversations that shaped the practice—focused on re-examining the concept of place in the context of contemporary cultural and environmental issues—have grown more pressing, the relevance of the work completed over time has increased. Gerard’s research and teaching, as a Professor of Practice at UTS, specifically investigate the role of the architect in these contexts. The intersection of these two areas of work forms the foundation of “Towards a Relational Architecture,” his research project with Andrew Benjamin, where rethinking the understanding of the discipline aims to provide a more pertinent conception of the profession in the current historical moment.