18th Neelan Tiruchelvam Memorial Lecture on Sunday

• Professor Eyal Weizman of Goldsmiths, University of London, UK to speak ‘Forensic Architecture: Space and Violence in Palestine and Beyond’

The 18th Neelan Tiruchelvam Memorial Lecture titled ‘Forensic Architecture: Space and Violence in Palestine and Beyond’, will be delivered by Professor Eyal Weizman, Professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK on Sunday 30 July at 6 p.m. at the BMICH, Committee Room A (Jasmine). 

Weizman’s talk will use the groundbreaking work of forensic architecture in places of conflict, such as Palestine, Pakistan and elsewhere to critically evaluate the politics and aesthetics of contemporary forms of spatial investigation.

Prof. Weizman is the Director of the Centre for Research Architecture which he established within the Department of Visual Cultures, Goldsmiths, University of London in 2005 and a Global Scholar at Princeton University since 2014. He is the founding member of Decolonising Architecture Art Residency – an architectural collective based in Beit Sahour, Palestine. He has lectured in a number of institutions including the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, The Bartlett (UCL) in London, the Stadelschule in Frankfurt, and is also visiting professor at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris. 

Prof. Weizman is the recipient of the James Stirling Memorial Lecture Prize for 2006-2007, a co-recipient of the 2010 Prince Claus Prize for Architecture and was invited to deliver the Rusty Bernstein, Paul Hirst, Nelson Mandela, Mansour Armaly and the Edward Said Memorial Lectures amongst others. 

He has worked with a variety of NGOs worldwide and was member of B’Tselem board of directors. He is currently on the advisory boards of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, the Human Rights Project at Bard in New York, and of other academic and cultural institutions. He has lectured, curated and organised conferences in many institutions worldwide.

Prof. Weizman has emerged as a key voice in the field of forensic architecture and published a number of books including Hollow Lands: Israel’s Architecture of Occupation (2007) and Forensic Architecture: Violence at the Threshold of Detectability (2017). 

The memorial lecture is organised each year by the Neelan Tiruchelvam Trust, an indigenous philanthropic organisation supporting community efforts to promote peace building, social justice and reconciliation.  The annual lecture marks the death anniversary of Dr. Neelan Tiruchelvam which falls on 29 July and celebrates his life and work by inviting scholars, writers, policy makers and activists to reflect on and engage with critical concepts of our time.

Dr. Tiruchelvam, scholar, politician, activist and peacebuilder, built bridges and sought common ground in a deeply divided society through scholarship, institution-building, and politics. His thoughts and actions were animated by a personal philosophy of humanism, peace and non-violence. Firmly committed to transformation and reform to resolve the deep-rooted problems of Sri Lankan society, he sought to spearhead social change through dialogue and deliberation.

The talk is open to the general public.

Eyal Weizman and family are graciously hosted by Cinnamon Hotels during their stay in Colombo.