DISPOSITIFS POST- #1 OPEN CALL AND SELECTED PROJECTS
Urban Spaces – Social Fabric - Voids / Transformations - Transfers - Creativities.
Creative interventions in public space in a post-crisis context.
If we consider the assumption that culture is a social and territorial construction, that society is a cultural and territorial construction, and that territory is a spatial, temporal, social and cultural construct; the relationship between culture and society and territory acquires a powerful meaning within a construct which combines creativity and social space.
The current crisis scenario has left voids in cities, half-built buildings, delayed infrastructures, concrete ghosts which contribute in the staging of a post-conflict scenario, the remains of a war built on speculation and financial engineering developments. The proven inability of governments to restrain the current crisis causes the implementation of specific policies, based on cutbacks and experimentation, which tends to redefine society as a regional technology business. If this business is based on an extremely high degree of competitiveness and solely virtual connectivity, the relationship between culture, society and regionality ends up crippled. We are therefore at a time of transformation in the relationship between open spaces and the social fabric, between locations and networks. Of transformation also in the way in which the creativity resulting from collaborative processes may influence the form of building cities around people. At a time when cooperative methodologies may be put to the test, methodologies which transfer knowledge or skills while sharing different ways of considering the “locus”.
DISPOSITIFS POST- is a project by IDENSITAT, a proposal for several phases of site-specific, imaginative interventions for the use of public space in the future beyond a post-crisis scenario, realised in collaboration with the collective Recreant Cruïlles (Recreating Crossroads), and with Germanetes, situated on the Left Eixample of Barcelona.
DISPOSITIFS POST- Is part of the project ECLECTIS. European Citizens’ Laboratory for Empowerment CiTIes Shared. Project co-funded by European Union – Culture programme- cooperation projects
#1. Call for ideas and projects for interventions in public space near the site of Germanetes. From an open call, projects will be selected to participate in the exhibition, debates and online publication.
#2. On-site exhibition of projects and interventions. The exhibition / intervention will take place in public and private spaces around the site of Germanetes, with selected projects, and with invited projects on related topics, already shown in other contexts. [January 2014]
#3. Seminar and debates with participants in the open call, invited guests and other professionals and theorists. The theme of the discussion will focus upon creative intervention, new uses for public spaces affected by political and economic crisis, and building networks of citizen action. [Fundació Tàpies, January 2014]
#4. Digital publication which will bring together the results of the activities carried out in the various phases.
#5. Educational project (formal and informal education), working on the concepts of public space and the district within a city context . With the participation of teachers, and the advice of professionals involved with Idensitat and Recreant Cruïlles. [Course 2013-2014]
SELECTED PROJECTS
Projects selected from the open call for ideas and projects. This projects will be part of DISPOSITIFS POST- in some of its planned phases between 2013 and 2014.
- Mil y una noches, o en el hogar. Catie de Balmann
- Public dancefloor. Maria Anwander
- Video Graffiti. Álvaro Muñoz Ledo
- Pequeñas Superficies. Olaia Sendón
- Proyecto ATLAS. Constanza Jarpa, Juan Pablo Martínez, Miquel García, Juan Arturo Piedrahita e Isadora Willson.
- Carrito 3.0. Colectivo Raons Públiques
- FloorDrawings. Gian Luca Cresciani
- Chromakeying. Laia Solé
- Juega & Recupera. Grupo DIX-POSITIVOS
DISPOSITIFS POST- OPEN CALL FOR PROJECTS
Call for ideas and projects for interventions in the public space adjacent to the Germanetes site which promote its temporary use, while also promoting interdisciplinary proposals, and a future projection based upon the idea of a post-crisis urban landscape.
Germanetes site is located on the junction between the streets Consell de Cent and Compte Borrell in Barcelona. Interventions should be proposed for the section of the Consell de Cent Street between Joan Miró Park and Urgell Street in Barcelona.
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- A selection of projects and ideas from the open call will be displayed in an exhibition / intervention organised around the Germanetes site, using public and private (authorised for public use) spaces.
Selection committee
Joan Subirats, political scientist
Francesc Magrinyà, engineer
Ramon Parramon, artist
Laurence Rassel, director, Fundació Tàpies
Committee members, invited projects, and the selected projects, will participate in the debate sessions around subjects related with the topics of the call.
Objectives
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- To connect with spaces in the city, and to promote practices of information, appropriation and display among civic networks working to improve public space.
- To enable the development of creative projects linked to local actions.
- To promote temporary actions which bring creative strategies of activism and transformation in the use and experience of cities.
- To promote artistic interventions connected to citizen networks
- To encourage reflection upon the new urban landscapes emerging from a post-crisis scenario
- To promote proposals to raise awareness of the actions undertaken in relation to the specific site of the Germanetes .
- To become a tool for activism within the district, and to connect with people outside interested in active participation in the construction of urban space.
This call is aimed at
Artists, architects, designers, students in these disciplines, or groups interested in art projects related to social contexts, as well as transdisciplinary teams incorporating sociologists, anthropologists/social workers, social educators, residents of a district or collectives working on social issues in district contexts, and any individuals or collectives with an interest in arts projects related to the concept of the urban making.
Submission of proposals
Individuals or collectives wishing to participate in the call for projects should complete and submit the Application Form [FORM ACCESS]
All information relevant to the project must be included in a pdf document (max. 6MB).
- Proposal document: a written description of the basic lines the project would follow (max. 3/4 pages).
- Up to 10 images, illustrating the project.
- Previous work reference.
- Resume (of each participant in the case of a collective, specifying one representative).
- Contact details (name, telephone, e-mail and postal address).
The final date for submission of proposals is the 21th of June 2013
Terms and conditions
The selected works will be property of the creator/s. IDENSITAT is the creator of DISPOSITIUS POST-, a platform which will include the selected projects. IDENSITAT and Recreant Cruïlles may reproduce and disseminate through online and paper publications all or part of the programme, always citing the respective authorship. IDENSITAT will incorporate in its archive all documentation generated by this open call.
FAQ
- Must project ideas find a way to activate the Germanetes site ?
The call for proposals is addressed to the outer space of Germanetes, not the site itself. These interventions imagine ideas and uses for public space in a future beyond a crisis scenario. Interventions should be proposed for the stretch of the Consell de Cent street, between Joan Miró Park and Urgell Street.
-Will proposals be exhibited?
The selected proposals will be presented in an exhibition at the site of Germanetes, using public and private spaces (in public use) within the area. The exhibition will take place in late January 2014. IDENSITAT will design and produce the exhibition.
- Why should I participate?
The project will advance by several phases, the first of which is the open call. Selected projects, along with other invited projects, depending upon their characteristics, will form part of any or all phases of DISPOSITIFS POST, such as the international seminar IDENSITAT co-organises with the Fundació Tàpies, the exhibition in public spaces, the digital publishing or the educational project. In each case production agreements of specific remuneration will be agreed for projects selected and invited to participate in DISPOSITIFS POST. At least one of the selected projects will be chosen for production between 2013 and 2014.
DISPOSITIUS POST- Context
The Germanetes site
The location of the former convent of the Germanetes dels pobres [Little Sisters of the Poor], located at the junction of the streets Comte Borrell and Consell de Cent, is now an empty site belonging to the Barcelona City Council. This has been the situation since 2006, when the land was purchased by the city with the intention, later reflected in the District Action Plan 2007-2011, of housing a whole range of public facilities necessary for the district, facilities which residents had demanded for a long time. Due to a combination of factors, these facilities were not built, and the site remains empty, apart from a few new builds of private housing.
Moreover, this space is located at the confluence of two streets which for years have been a subject of demands by a number of AMPAs [Parents' Associations from local schools] and other local groups, gathered together by a project named CAMI AMIC (Friendly path). The focus of these demands has been the pedestrianisation of Comte Borrell I Consell de Cent, since most of the district's public schools are located on these streets.
In response to the residents' discontent with this wasteland in l'Eixample, an initiative was created with the objective of staging various activities on the site, in order to reclaim the space. From this arose the platform Recreant Cruïlles, a group-project for investigation and activity at the site. While urbanisation is not possible, the platform proposes a temporary use for the space, through activities resulting from dialogue and community participation.
Within this context, Idensitat has established a process of collaboration with the group Recreant Cruïlles to work together on reclamation, giving support and planning workshops and other activities for the temporary use of this space.
- On the 11th and the 12th of May 2012 several proposals for using the site were presented publicly and using the Prototype CODE 7 (a device built in the iD Barri Import / Export workshop).
- From 16 to 20.07.2012 a collective workshop DISPOSITFS IN/OUT took place, organised in collaboration with students and teachers of the Master's degree in Design, Art and Public Space ELISAVA, taught by MAKEA and with a wide participation (*). During the workshop a mobile device was built in order to raise awareness of the demands of the collective Recreant Cruïlles in their attempt to reappropriate the site of Germanetes on the Left Eixample district of Barcelona. The device, called OBNI (Ocupació Barrial No Invasiva)( Non Invasive district occupation NIDO), has been used in numerous actions in the district.
(*) Participants included: Juan Aizpitarte, Roger Pujol, Sílvia Torrus Utesà, Ana Martinez, Miquel dels Sants Fort i Bufill, Varvara Guljajeva, Noèlia Asensi Hernández. Fernanda Calderon, Marina Cohelo, Catarina Saldhana, Sara Julian Hijazo, Sery Lee, Mª Elena Muñoz, Anali Rivas Goris, Anna Sau Domingo, Thiemy Shinzato, Diego Chiriboga, Alba F. Castro, Tatiana García Posada, Consuelo Nuñez Álvarez and Alejandro Rocha.
iD Barrio is a project which became a territorial observatory and a laboratory for the development of creative processes connected with social and local action. Activities connected to microcontexts which form part of contemporary urban concentrations. ID District was created with the intention of stimulating collective creativity and cultural exchange, as well as to develop and transform the landscape of a district through creative processes fuelled by the relationship between artistic practice and local social space . To analyse in order to understand the dynamics of space, to visualise in order to interpret the various connections operating within specific places, to project in order to design new productive dynamics, to collaborate in order to enhance and multiply creative abilities.
iD Barri is a project to integrate artistic processes within other social processes, to bring closer together transdisciplinarity, social participation, and those cracks which allow us to create, by means of collective methodologies, new references in those environs in which IDBarri performs.
IDENSITAT is an arts project investigating ways of impacting upon the public sphere through creative proposals related to place and territory in their spatial, temporal and social dimensions.
Since its beginning in 1999, IDENSITAT has been in continuous transformation to become a complex system, incorporating other projects, actions or interventions, promoting processes, organising exhibitions, publishing..., altogether deploying a variety of creative strategies to realise an activity or set of activities. A system based on collaborative dynamics in order to build a relationship between contemporary artistic practices and social space, through research, production, education in a particular context, and distribution throughout a wider context. Under the rubric of, "to experiment with a location to transform artistic practices, and to experiment with artistic practices to transform the location", IDENSITAT highlights the active role which art plays in social context.
Recreant Cruïlles is a group project working for the release of the Germanetes site, while council plans for the land remain under deliberation. The collective bases its actions upon the idea that empty spaces in the district represent a waste of resources, and that the district's residents should own and manage them. To realise these claims the group calls for the participation of all residents and district associations, to draft a self managed project for the site. (www.recreantcruilles.wordpress.com )
DISPOSITIFS POST- Is part of the project ECLECTIS. European Citizens’ Laboratory for Empowerment CiTIes Shared. Project co-funded by European Union – Culture programme- cooperation projects
ECLECTIS European cooperation project aims at implementing an innovative structuring European process to favour citizens’ integration in the urban making, valuing European diversity, intercultural dialogue and new technologies as sources to stimulate creativity and new practices.
Co-organizadores:
Waag Society [Amsterdam|NL] www.waag.org | Prostoroz [Ljubljana|SL] www.prostoroz.org | Expeditio [Kotor|ME] www.expeditio.org | Transforma [Torres Vedras|PT] www.transforma.org.pt | Idensitat [Barcelona |ES] www.idensitat.net | European Forum for Architectural Policies [Brussels|BE] www.efap-fepa.eu | Dédale [Paris|FR] www.dedale.info
Associated partners :
Sinapolis [Beijing|CN] www.sinapolis.net | European Network of Living Labs [Brussels|BE] www.openlivinglabs.eu | Academica [Belgrade|SR] www.academica.rs
