Contested Modernities. Postcolonial Architecture in Southeast Asia aimed to contribute to (re)illuminating modernism in Southeast Asia and relating it to the architecture and planning of European cities and the urban challenges of the future through an exhibition, a publication, and four symposia. The project was based on a longstanding exchange between the Berlin curatorial team and academics, architects, artists and curators from Southeast Asia. Research, exhibitions and events in Phnom Penh, Jakarta, Yangon and Singapore in 2019 enabled an intensive examination of postcolonial modern architecture in the respective cities. The extensive findings from the joint work on Encounters with Southeast Asian Modernism and the knowledge developed in the transdisciplinary exchange formed the starting point for the 2021 programme in Berlin and online.

Four symposia where part of the programme of Contested Modernities. Postcolonial Architecture in Southeast Asia:

– The Decolonization of Education
– The Future of Modernity
– The Present of Modernity
– Building Modernities