Demolition | MoMA R&D Salon 57 | MoMA LIVE

Why It Matters

Understanding demolition reveals how cities reshape identity, wealth distribution and environmental footprints, informing planners, policymakers and cultural institutions about the stakes of urban transformation.

Key Takeaways

• Salon 57 examines demolition's role in urban renewal and cultural memory
• Speakers include historian Francesca Russello Ammon and curator Jody Graf
• Discussion links demolition to gentrification, planned obsolescence, and rebirth
• MoMA frames demolition as both destructive act and creative catalyst
• Video includes short films highlighting demolition's aesthetic and ecological toll

Pulse Analysis

Demolition has long been a theatrical act, from the televised collapse of St. Louis’s Pruitt‑Igoe towers in 1972 to Elon Musk’s 2025 chainsaw stunt at a political rally. By positioning these moments within a broader cultural narrative, MoMA’s Salon 57 highlighted demolition’s power to signal both societal rupture and the promise of renewal. The salon’s interdisciplinary lineup—historian Francesca Russello Ammon, curator Jody Graf, artist Christopher López and anthropologist Vyjayanthi Rao—underscored how demolition operates at the intersection of architecture, politics and art, prompting audiences to question whether tearing down is an act of progress or a symptom of systemic failure.

Beyond spectacle, demolition carries profound implications for urban planning and equity. The speakers examined how large‑scale clearances have historically displaced marginalized communities, fueling gentrification cycles that replace affordable housing with high‑end development. López’s visual work on Hoboken’s arson‑driven gentrification illustrated how demolition can be weaponized to erase cultural memory, while Rao’s comparative research on Indian and American cities highlighted divergent regulatory approaches to waste management and material reuse. These insights stress the need for policies that balance redevelopment ambitions with social justice and environmental stewardship.

Looking forward, Salon 57 suggests that demolition need not be a zero‑sum game. By integrating artistic perspectives and rigorous historical analysis, institutions like MoMA can foster dialogues that reimagine demolition as a catalyst for sustainable regeneration—where reclaimed rubble becomes a resource for new construction, and community narratives are preserved rather than erased. Such interdisciplinary conversations are essential for shaping cities that are resilient, inclusive and culturally vibrant.

Original Description

From the televised implosion of the Pruitt-Igoe housing complex in St. Louis in 1972 to Elon Musk wielding a chainsaw on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2025, demolition is often a spectacle: loud, visually arresting, and violent. It may require heavy machinery like bulldozers and wrecking balls, or pyrotechnics like dynamite. It is the antithesis of care and preservation and is often undertaken with an eye toward speculation or financial gain. It is an act of aggression toward the status quo, a precursor to the tabula rasa and to rebirth, as in the obliteration of the immune system that precedes a bone marrow transplant.

This salon will explore the histories, politics, and aesthetics of demolition, ranging from Shiva the Destroyer to urban renewal and slum clearance, from the White House’s East Wing to the work of artists like Gordon Matta-Clark, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Kara Walker.

Some of the questions we will ask: When is demolition an act of destruction and when is it an act of creation? Is demolition a sign of society in progress or society in collapse? Of chaos or control? What are the social, historical, and ecological tolls of demolition? Who stands to lose and who stands to gain? Does demolition suggest a societal fetish for the new? Is it a feature or a bug of planned obsolescence? Can demolition and repair co-exist? How is demolition used as an act of historical amnesia and erasure? What can demolition tell us about renewal, revival, and rebirth? What do we do with the rubble and detritus of demolition?

Francesca Russello Ammon is a cultural historian of urban planning and the built environment and Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning and Historic Preservation at the University of Pennsylvania. Her teaching and research focus on the changing spaces of American cities, from World War II to the present.

Jody Graf is a curator and writer based in New York. She is an Associate Curator at MoMA PS1, where she recently organized the exhibitions “Inuuteq Storch: Soon Will Summer Be Over” (2025), “Jasmine Gregory: Who Wants to Die for Glamour” (2024), and “Hard Ground” (2024), among others.

Christopher López is a Puerto Rican lens-based artist, educator, and public historian, born in the Bronx and raised between New York and New Jersey. His recent body of work, The Fires, explores the history of gentrification and arson in the city of Hoboken, New Jersey.

Vyjayanthi Rao is an anthropologist, writer, artist and curator, currently teaching at the Yale School of Architecture. Her work focuses on the built environment and urbanism in India and the United States. She is the chief curator of the third edition of the Sharjah Architecture Triennial, opening in November 2026.

The presentations will be accompanied by the screening of a series of short videos cut specifically for Salon 57.

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The comments and opinions expressed in this video are those of the speakers alone, and do not represent the views of The Museum of Modern Art, its personnel, or any artist.

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