Book launch - Delphine Bedel: All that is solid melts into air – Notes on Tourism

with a lecture by John Urry: Revisiting the Tourist Gaze

Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam is pleased to invite you to the launch of the publication All that is solid melts into air ? Notes on Tourism by visual artist and independent curator Delphine Bedel. Within the framework of this book presentation British sociologist John Urry will give a lecture entitled ?Revisiting the Tourist Gaze?, followed by a short introduction to the publication and a round table discussion with some of the contributing authors.

Notes on Tourism is an ongoing artistic project that aims to produce a discursive platform through lectures and writings, to bring into question the visual representation of leisure, architecture, and cultural artefacts. As one of the largest world industries today, tourism influences our way of life and reflects upon changing economic and social realities.

All that is solid melts into air explores controversial tourist destinations and cultural heritages. One of those is the Nazi holiday resort of Prora on the Baltic island of Rügen. Its identity, use and meaning have shifted radically over time, which was subject of a photographic project by Bedel. Using her photographic research as a starting point, writers from diverse disciplines were invited to contribute to the book, resulting in unexpected historical and critical perspectives on the relation between visual culture, leisure, and memory politics. The book is published by episode publishers in Rotterdam.

After a short introduction by Jelle Bouwhuis, curator of the Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, British sociologist John Urry will give a lecture on the tourist gaze, a topic he researched for his book of the same name which was published in 1990 and republished in 2002. After that, Rachel Esner, one of the contributing authors of All that is solid melts into air will briefly introduce the publication, followed by a round table discussion with Urry, Bedel, Esner, Francesco Bernardelli and Marco Pasi.