Exploring Interior Architecture and Spatial Violence at HEAD-Genève
The Department of Interior Architecture at HEAD-Genève investigates the significant impact of interior spaces on contemporary society. In pursuit of this goal, the department launches a series of engaging reflections and interventions that aim to understand and illuminate how interior environments contribute to the formation of violence against both human bodies and subjective experiences.
Call for Proposals: Addressing Interior Violences Symposium
Event Details:
- Location: HEAD-Genève campus
- Dates: February 23 & 24, 2026
- Deadline for Proposals: October 20, 2025
Contributors are invited to submit proposals in a variety of formats, including lectures, papers, films, installations, and performances. Proposals should be compiled into a single PDF document that includes:
- An abstract (max 500 words)
- A brief biography (max 300 words)
- A relevant visual reference image
Selected contributors will be responsible for their own travel costs and honorarium.
Contact Information:
Please send your proposals to:
- Javier F. Contreras: javier.fernandez-contreras@hesge.ch
- Paule Perron: paule.perron@hesge.ch
- Valentina De Luigi: valentina.deluigi@hesge.ch
Thematic Focus: Understanding Spatial Violence
The theme of this symposium, "Addressing Interior Violences," emphasizes the notion that interior spaces are not merely neutral backdrops but actively engaged in shaping social and political dynamics. This perspective resonates with Michel Foucault’s influential work, Discipline and Punish (1975), which highlights how interior architecture often functions as a tool for biopolitical control over bodies.
Exploring Normativity and Exclusion
The symposium invites discussions surrounding how contemporary interior conditions perpetuate power dynamics related to the modern conception of normalcy, which often marginalizes certain bodies. Inspired by Lennard J. Davis’s writings, this open call articulates three collective aims:
- Historical Contextualization: Investigate how interior architecture has historically contributed to the exclusion of marginalized bodies, both human and non-human.
- Contemporary Relevances: Examine how current interior environments uphold or challenge these power structures while also serving as potential tools for negotiation and resistance.
- Visibility of Emancipatory Practices: Highlight projects that employ innovative methodologies aimed at mitigating these violent dynamics.
Panels and Perspectives
The symposium is structured around three key perspectives:
1. Learning Histories of Violence
This segment investigates contested histories of spatial norms and how they reflect specific temporal, territorial, and political contexts. Proposals are encouraged that critique dominant narratives of interior architecture and reveal the violence inherent in conventional notions of normalcy.
2. Questioning Weaponized Interiors
This perspective explores interior architecture as a means of boundary-making that can disenfranchise certain bodies. Engaging with the work of thinkers like Elsa Dorlin, proposals should delve into spatial conditions as regulatory technologies that sustain existing power frameworks.
3. Visibilizing Dissident Practices
Building on insights from Starhawk, this segment invites proposals that showcase transformative practices and methodologies that challenge the normative boundaries of Western interiors. Submissions that present projects promoting diverse interpretive frameworks and renegotiated space usage are particularly welcomed.
Toward a Just Future in Interior Architecture
Given the urgent call for social reform in today’s geopolitical climate, Addressing Interior Violences serves as a platform for the interior architecture discipline to confront its complicities. Engaging with various frameworks—postcolonial, feminist, queer, and ecological—will be essential to reorienting the field toward equitable and liberatory futures.
Proposals from historically marginalized voices will be particularly valued in this discourse. The symposium aims to foster dialogue about the ways interior architecture can contribute to justice and inclusion within the built environment.
For more information and a detailed outline of submission guidelines, explore the full announcement.
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