Rosa Lowinger and Uta Pottgiesser, internationally recognized experts in the realm of Modern preservation, will present the opening and closing keynote addresses at the 2024 Docomomo US National Symposium. Entitled Streams of Modernity: Postwar to Postmodern, the Symposium will take place in Miami and Coral Gables, Florida, from May 29 through June 1, and is a collaboration of Docomomo US, the Docomomo US/Florida chapter and the University of Miami School of Architecture.

Cuban-born American art conservator and founder of RLA Conservation of Art + Architecture, LLC, Rosa Lowinger will kick off the Symposium the evening of May 29th with her opening address, “Modern Materials, Tropical Identities: Preservation as a Tool for Personal and Communal Repair.” Lowinger will discuss the links between historic preservation and healing of intergenerational trauma using examples from her family’s story of double exile from Eastern Europe to Cuba and then the United States. Based on her 2023 memoir Dwell Time: A Memoir of Art, Exile, and Repair, this presentation will highlight the specific challenges of conserving twentieth century materials in tropical and marine climates, and the metaphors for and dealing with coastal conservation in the period of climate change. The Opening Keynote will be held in the midcentury Cosford Cinema on the University of Miami campus and will be followed by a reception at the Lowe Art Museum.

Flying in from Delft, Netherlands, the location of Docomomo’s original founding, current Docomomo International Chair Uta Pottgiesser will present the closing keynote, “Challenges of Modernity and their Impact on Modern Movement” on May 31st. For more than 30 years, Docomomo International has been working to foster interest in the ideas and heritage of the Modern Movement and to serve as a platform to exchange knowledge relating to history, conservation technology, education & training. Docomomo International has grown from 13 founding members to 79 National Working Parties today, acting locally, regionally, and internationally through its six Specialist Committees (ISCs) and the biannual conferences (IDCs), held since 1990. As it has grown into a worldwide organization, Docomomo International increasingly deals with global challenges and transformations such as climate change, conflicts, and digitalization. When moving the headquarters to TU Delft in 2022, these were crucial elements of the working program proposed by the International Secretariat for 2022-2025. Pottgiesser’s talk will showcase current projects, publications, and cooperation related to documentation and conservation efforts internationally, with examples from different continents, typologies and scales.

Registration for the National Symposium will open in late February. More information is available at www.docomomo-us.org/nationalsymposium. Sign up for our emails to receive the latest information.