The video discusses Denise Scott-Brown’s »African Perspective«: Born in Northern Rhodesia (now Sambia) and grown up in Johannesburg, she entered the London and US-American scene of urban research, architecture and social engagement with a different view. Parts of her family have been Baltic jews, other parts have been strong followers of British colonial rules and the South African Apartheid-state. The interview, taken at her Philadelphia home which she shares with her professional partner and husband Robert Venturi (who died 2018), was part of a research on their methods of artistic driven urban cultural research on Las Vegas, by us applied on the »Religious Strip« of Prayer Camps along a highway north of Lagos/Nigeria. More on that you will find in the contributions by Jochen Becker as well as the artists Sabine Bitter/Helmut Weber in the publication »Global Prayers - Contemporary Manifestations of the Religious in the City«, edited by Jochen Becker, Katrin Klingan, Stephan Lanz and Kathrin Wildner. The original conversation took almost a day until dawn when the video storage was finally exhausted. We want to thank Denise Scott Brown as well as Robert Venturi for that wonderful day.
The interview with Denise Scott-Brown was conducted as part of the metroZones project "Global Prayers". Jochen Becker, who conducted it in 2013, kindly made it available to us. A review of the exhibition "Downtown Denise Scott-Brown" by Jochen Becker was published in dérive 74.
Interview: Jochen Becker / metroZones Camera and editing: Amir Husak Production: metroZones / Haus der Kulturen der Welt for Global Prayers 76’
Jochen Becker (Berlin) works as an author, curator and lecturer and is co-founder of metroZones, Center for Urban Affairs and of station urbaner kulturen/nGbK.