Rehearsing Decay
06 Jun—22 June (15 dates)
Edinburgh & The Lothians Exhibition Installation
Event Summary
Rehearsing Decay is an exhibition that explores architectural decay as a lens to examine human-environment reciprocity, proposing an alternative dialogue with architecture, not as the pursuit of durability, but as a living negotiation.
Time
11.00 - 18.00 (please note this exhibit is not open on 11 & 18 June)
Date(s)
06 Jun—22 June
Location
George Brown & Sons Engineering Works, Shore, Leith, Edinburgh EH6 6QS
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Supporters
Edinburgh College of ArtOrganiser
Ahmad Salah, Hayley Adam
Social
The evolution of architecture, and of dwelling itself, cannot be separated from the deeper question of how we inhabit the planet and live within its landscapes. Today, we find ourselves caught in a culture of excess, where consumption extends beyond material objects and into the very spaces we occupy. Architecture itself has become commodified, resulting in structures that are often static, disposable, and detached, and inhabitants which, as a result of this, have become disconnected from their environments. But what if we rehearse a different kind of reality?
Tracing the presence of decay in the landscapes of Syria and Scotland, Rehearsing decay reflects on how the built environment, once sustained by care and collective labour, has slowly been reclaimed by the earth. Through fieldwork-based photography, mapping, and an experimental installation, the exhibition invites visitors to view decay not as a form of failure, but as a means of revealing reciprocity, or the absence of it, between people and their environments.
From this vantage point, decay illuminates three forms of reciprocity: between people and each other through what is collectively built; between people and their built environment through what is maintained; and between the built environment and the land through what is reclaimed.
By attending to what fades, this exhibition proposes decay as a source of knowledge; a material archive of what we neglect, what we abandon, but also what we value. It calls for cultivating an attunement to the presence of decay, renewing the relationship between humans and the environment, and ultimately reimagining architecture not as a pursuit of permanence, but as an ongoing, living negotiation.
