Airstrip – Decampment of Modernism at the Barbican

The Barbican is running a series of films, talks and debates exploring cinema’s relationship to the city, to accompany their exhibition on photography and architecture in the modern age. Sponsored by the Brazilian Embassy and partner with Guardian Cities, the wide-ranging programme offers international perspectives on the urban experience.
On the 8^th October, the Barbican will be screening a highlight of the season, Heinz Emigholz's important film-essay The Airstrip – Decampment of Modernism. Locating a crucial shift in the era of modernist architecture at the invention of the atom bomb, Emigholz's film tracks the impact that advanced nuclear weaponry has had in the architecture of Europe, the Americas and the Japanese cites that were the subjects of American nuclear bombing during the second world war. After the screening Emigholz will be discussing his film with Kadvo Eshun.
The city has flourished since the birth of industrialisation. From the satanic mills of Victorian Manchester to the unbounded favelas sprouting up around São Paulo, the story of the city has been an inexorable rise. With half of the world’s populace now living in urbanised communities, a figure predicted to increase to 75% within the next half century, there has never been a more apt time to look into the changing face of metropolitan life.