Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency

Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency / Alessandro Petti (b. 1973, Pescara) and Sandi Hilal (b. 1973, Beit Sahour) combine their critical theoretical research with an architectural, artistic and pedagogical practice in service of justice and equality. They bridge architecture and art, examine the social, economic and political consequences of exile and displacement, delving into public and private impermanent spaces. In 2007, Hilal, Petti and Wiseman established DAAR (Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency) which is an architectural studio and art residency programme based in Beit Sahour, Palestine. DAAR’s work combines conceptual speculations and pragmatic spatial interventions, discourse and collective learning. DAAR explores possibilities for the reuse, subversion and profanation of actual structures of domination: from evacuated military bases to the transformation of refugee camps, from uncompleted governmental structures to the remains of destroyed villages. Beyond this, in 2012, Hilal and Petti founded Campus in Camps as an experimental educational programme hosted in Dheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem using collective discussions and courses to transform the notions of “space” and “agency” into practical, community-driven interventions. Recently they have been working on the research of refugee heritage and tracing the connections between people in the camp and the towns and villages from which they’ve been displaced since 1948.