(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)
Abstract
The history of postwar modern Cuban architecture has received special attention in Cuba, Latin America, and increasingly in the United States. Our recently published book, Cuban Modernism: Mid-Century Architecture 1940-1970 (Birkhäuser, 2021), focused on the modernist generation of architects active from 1940-1970, extolling the national and international importance of their architecture and urban works. The book explored the challenges that the architectural avant-garde faced to combine Cuban identity and traditions with the tenets of international modernism, in a country that was late to embrace modernity, increasingly under American influence, and on the verge of revolutionary changes. The book also considered the most important works Cuban architects produced in exile abroad, bringing to light the transnational and transcultural impact of mid-twentieth century Cuban architecture around the world. Since then, Prof. Lejeune and I have been building an ArcGIS/Storybook digital humanities project to complete the story of Cuban Modernism by bringing to light extant material that was not included in the book and presenting new and ongoing research on the topic. In addition, I am currently organizing a digital ArtLab exhibition at the University of Miami Lowe Art Museum with art history and architecture students on the topic of Cuban Modernism (opens April 21, 2022). The exhibition not only includes works of art and archival material from the Lowe Art Museum and the University’s Cuban Heritage Collection but includes new analytical drawings and 3-dimensional interpretations of Cuban architecture. The exhibition will live in perpetuity on the Museum’s website, and to that end, we have created a digital model of the Museum’s temporary galleries to showcase the student curated work. Seen together, the two digital platforms showcase Cuban Modernism from a historical perspective that is experienced in the present, and projected into the future, available to everyone around the world virtually.
Victor Deupi, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer in architectural history and theory, design, and representation at the University of Miami School of Architecture. He received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Virginia, a Master of Architecture from Yale University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He has taught previously at Fairfield University, the New York Institute of Technology, the University of Notre Dame, and has been a “Visiting Critic” at the College of Architecture at Georgia Tech. His books include Architectural Temperance: Spain and Rome, 1700-1759 (Routledge, 2015), Transformations in Classical Architecture: New Directions in Research and Practice (Oscar Riera Ojeda Publishers, 2018), Emilio Sanchez in New York and Latin America (Routledge, 2020), Cuban Modernism: Mid-Century Architecture 1940-1970, with Jean-Francois Lejeune (Birkhäuser Verlag, 2021), Emilio Sanchez Revisited: A Centenary Celebration of the Artist’s Life and Work, with LnS Gallery (Oscar Riera Ojeda Publishers, 2021), and Stables: High Design for Horse and Home and Wineries of the World: Architecture and Viticulture, both with Oscar Riera Ojeda (Rizzoli, 2021). His current research focuses on mid-20th-century Cuban art and architecture. Dr. Deupi was also the President of the CINTAS Foundation dedicated to promoting Cuban art and culture from 2016-2018.
Jean-François Lejeune, Ph.D., is a Professor of architecture, urban design, and history at the University of Miami School of Architecture. His research ranges from Latin American architecture and urbanism to 20th-century vernacular modernism in Spain and Italy. His publications include The Making of Miami Beach 1933-1942: The Architecture of Lawrence Murray Dixon, with Allan Shulman (Rizzoli, 2001), Cruelty and Utopia: Cities and Landscapes of Latin America (Princeton Architectural Press, 2005), Sitte, Hegemann, and the Metropolis (Routledge, 2009), Modern Architecture and the Mediterranean: Vernacular Dialogues and Contested Identities, with Michelangelo Sabatino (Routledge, 2010), Cuban Modernism: Mid-Century Architecture 1940-1970, with Victor Deupi (Birkhäuser, 2021) and Rural Architecture and Water Urbanism: The Modern Village in Franco’s Spain (DOM-Publishers, 2021). He curated various exhibitions in Brussels and Miami, including with Victor Deupi Cuban Architects at Home and in Exile: The Modernist Generation. He is a diploma from the University of Liège in Belgium and the Ph.D. from the TU Delft. He was founder of DoCOMOMO-US/Florida and is the current treasurer. He was an Affiliated Fellow at the American Academy in Rome in 2007.
9:00 pm - 10:30 pm
Friday 17th June, 2022