Art as a Method of Experimental Preservation

This talk discusses Jorge Otero-Pailos’ approach to art as a method of experimental preservation and argues for its relevance in imagining a future for the existing built environment centred on mutual care. Jorge Otero-Pailos draws from a series of recent works in which he employs material residues of buildings and sites – including airborne atmospheric dust, waterways, traces of sweat, and body sounds – to render their invisible meanings visible. In particular, he focuses on his Ethics of Dust series, explaining how he uses art as a method for the experimental preservation of dust, the kind the atmosphere deposits on buildings. This important historical and environmental record usually goes unrecognized. The artworks in The Ethics of Dust series isolate dust and make it tangible by transferring it from the surface of buildings onto translucent casts. Jorge Otero-Pailos also presents a selection of dust casts taken from the Doge’s Palace, Westminster Hall, and other buildings around the world, and discusses the unexpected histories that each of them unveils. He connects the dots between these punctual histories to outline a larger concept they all contribute to, namely that of atmospheric heritage.
The talk is also a presentation of Jorge Otero-Pailos’ book Historic Preservation Theory: An Anthology, Readings from the 18th to the 21st Century.