DISPOSITIFS POST- | S+W+I
Artistic practices and citizen action networks in postcrisis contexts.
18-24-25-26.01.2014 | SEMINAR + WORKSHOP + INTERVENTIONS in the framework of FAQ: Zone of frequently asked questions and ECLECTIS (European Citizens' Laboratory for Empowerment: Cities Shared)

DISPOSITIFS POST- | S+T+I is a project comprising different phases with the aim of reflecting upon, imagining, discussing and proposing interventions and collaborations which will bring together social space and creative practices. Approaches to a future beyond the scenario conditioned by decadence and the tensions generated by the crisis.

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General topics.

DISPOSITIFS POST- | S+T+I explores the role of creative practices in relation to citizen action networks of assuming and advancing proposals for future transformation. A series of questions for analysis in this theatre of debate arises from the relationship between social space and creative space, imagining future options. These issues will be argued and discussed in the context of a seminar, a workshop and a series of interventions in public space.

What are the interactions between art and social space in the contemporary context? Can art really influence the social sphere? What role may citizen action networks play with regard to future policies? In a time when the public is involved in emancipatory processes, what role may cultural/art practices play, from the perspective of the reactivation of social space? How is creativity channeled into city-building processes? What happens when the function of art is to be useful? Is there an abuse of this kind of practice? Neglect, passivity, impotence, decline or scheduled dismantling of public institutions? Do we need a reconstruction of the institutional? What role can creative projects play in a context of crisis models? Are artistic practices necessary in contemporary future societies? What is the role of cultural institutions in a new paradigm led by mobilised citizens?

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PROGRAM AND TOPICS

DISPOSITIFS POST- | S+W+I
SEMINAR + WORKSHOP + INTERVENTIONS

18.01.2014 | 18.00h LECTURE
PAUL ARDENNE. "L’ART DANS L'ESPACE PUBLIC: UN ACTIVISME"

This conference" is an opportunity to make a reasoned inventory of the different forms of artistic intervention in urban areas, especially those of a "contextual" nature. The artist seeks to capture the city - and therefore the audience -   to embed it within creations which are not necessarily unexpected, which are usually unplanned, and which sometimes attempt to attract the attention of passers-by. We insist here on the evolution of this kind of art which is less concerned with representation than with "presentation", indicating one of   this kind of art's   postmodern perversions which must be analysed: the temptation of cultural industry to change these art forms "in real contexts "(Guy Sioui Durand) into an integrated creation, a justifying formula which attempts to act as a factor of" dependency" and of restoration of the social linkage.

Paul Ardenne is a lecturer in the Arts Faculty at the University of Amiens, France. He is the author of several books dealing with contemporary aesthetics: Art, l'âge contemporain (1997), L'Art dans son moment politique (2000), L'Image Corps (2001), A contextuel Art (2002) portraitures (2003), and various monographs on architects and an essay on contemporary urbanism, Terre Habitée (2005, reprinted 2010). He has curated "Micropolitiques"(Grenoble,2000), "Experimenter le reel"(Albi, Montpellier, 2001 and 2002),"Working men"(Geneva, 2008),"Elsewhere"(Paris, 2011),"L'Histoire est a moi!"(Printemps de Septembre in Toulouse, the festival of contemporary art, 2012). He participated as a guest curator at the exhibition"Force de l'art", at the Grand Palais in Paris (2006). http://paulardenne.wordpress.com/

24-25.01.2014 | SEMINAR
Place: Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Aragó 255, 08007 Barcelona
Ana Méndez de Andés [Madrid] | Tania Ragasol [México DF]| Marco Stathopoulos [Paris] | Joan Subirats [Barcelone] | Jeanne van Heeswijk [Amsterdam] | Peter Westenberg [Brussels]
Tables for interaction and presentation of projects: Waag Society [Amsterdam] | Prostoroz [Ljubljana] | Expeditio [Kotor] | Transforma [Torres Vedras] | Idensitat [Barcelona] | PACT [Brussels] | Dédale [París] | Recreant Cruïlles [Barcelona] and the artists who participated in the public space interventions.

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- Dedale is a French research and production association, focusing on culture, new technologies and social innovation. Dedale’s key activities include SmartCity (exploration of urban space through artistic interventions in connexion with inhabitants and local stakes); Emergences (international festival dedicated to new arts form and new media in Paris); D-Lab (support to innovative projects and residence exchange programme (axis of work: digital territories, mobil’art, interactive design and virtual architecture); European observatory on new art forms and new uses.dedale.info

- Expeditio - Center for Sustainable Spatial Development, is a non-governmental organization whose mission is to encourage sustainable spatial development in Montenegro and the SEE region through activity in the fields of sustainable architecture, cultural heritage, urban planning and through projects that encourage the overall development of the civil society. Expeditio was established in 1997. Expeditio head office is based in Kotor (Montenegro) and our branch office is in Belgrade (Serbia). expeditio.org

- ProstoRož explores, examines and opens new possibilities of public space use in accordance with the needs of its inhabitants and tries to reveal how sometimes minimal means and small interventions are enough to present the city’s inhabitants and visitors with pleasant spaces for hanging out, playing or working in the open air. Its interventions are not mere artistic installations in public areas but also in-depth searching for new city planning options of space use. prostoroz.org

- Transforma is a cultural institution that provides physical, material and relational conditions for the implementation of theoretical and practice based research and documentation processes under artistic and educational contexts. The research processes focus mainly on the connection between art, creativity and location, taking into account the particularities of the context in which the institution is integrated and the global world in which we all live in. The research carried out at it also analysis how all these relations exert influence upon concepts, in terms of creativity and artistic creation, as well as upon production and programming. www.transforma.org.pt/en/

- Waag Society is an institute for Art, Science and Technology. The organisation aims to develop creative technology for social innovation. It has one of the oldest and largest independent Media Labs in Europe and is linked, both local, national and international to a large network of people and organizations in the scientific and artistic community. Nowadays the organization focuses on new technologies and innovations in gaming, participation and distributed cooperation. With its long time, international experience in community building and managing innovative and avant-garde projects it has developed several groundbreaking prototypes and applications in (inter)national projects and programs. www.waag.org/en

- PACT is an observatory and a platform that aims to promote a cultural approach of the city in Europe. PACT members believe on the positive impact of a cultural approach of the city on urban fabric, citizen integration, friendliness, social justice, and sustainability. PACT is involved in the implementation of actions on the ground idendfying innovative cultural urban processes, in their scientific analysis, and in giving them visibility through dissemination and access to the public discourse.www.pact.eu.com

- 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. Currently they are carrying out a self-management project that activates the empty space.  This project has been granted by the competition of the "Empty Plan" organized by the City Council. www.recreantcruilles.wordpress.com

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WORKSHOP
TRANS-NATIONAL NEIGHBORHOODS | PETER WESTENBERG.

In this workshop we will make extra-ordinary spoken words travel between the Germanetes area in Barcelona and the borough Bosnia, located in the neighbourhood Saint-Gilles in Brussels. Bosnia has many inhabitants of Mediterranean origin who arrived in the 50s and 60s and again during the recent financial crisis. What role can trans-local-community-talk play in filling the holes in our neighborhoods? What connects local speech with global problematics?

Peter Westenberg, is a visual artist working in film, video and urban intervention. He is a core member of Constant, a Brussels-based organisation for art and media, active since 1997 in the areas of feminism, copyright alternatives and networking.

Audience addressed the seminar and workshop
Open to artists, architects, designers, historians, educators, cultural managers, sociocultural activists, social workers, students of sociology, anthropology, art, architecture, education, as well as an audience which participates in or is involved in projects where art intersects with social processes of citizen participation.

 

Arabian Nights, or at home, Catie of Balmann

This project aims to involve the residents of a building in Eixample Esquerra in changing the cityscape through small everyday actions. Curtains and light (solar and electric for each household) are the elements which the artist uses, on the one hand, to involve residents in the transformation of their immediate urban environment, and, on the other hand, to play with the relationship between outdoor and interior spaces through light and colour. 
By means of different curtains arranged from inside to out, residents revealed the interior, the home, to take possession of the exterior for a few days, and vice versa. In this way, a visual field will open out which questions the limits of public space, the boundaries between private and public areas.

FloorDrawings / WallMakeUp, Gianluca Cresciani

This project is an artistic intervention through environmental painting  involving multiple disciplines such as physical awareness, body movements and the psychological context which the body contains. More than a project in itself, it is a considered methodology for the creation of an urban design combining  horizontal and vertical architecture, using symbols and shapes. The intervention becomes a laboratory where everyone has a one-to-one, experiential relationship with space. The artist and a group of residents of the district will take part in the intervention. In this way, at the hands of several authors, the intention is to create a stimulation of the senses in spatial perception, which, it is hoped, will lead to a new reading of the landscape through the chromatic differences  imposed on it.

Public Dancefloor,Maria Anwander

Public dancefloor is a project which, starting with a small intervention, redefines public space, temporarily creating a new leisure and festive [playful] situation. The artist creates a dance floor in public space starting with the installation of a mirror ball, with music and lights, activated by a button. Its effect lasts for the duration of a song, and when it comes to an end, the lights go out and the ball stops spinning. The aim of this project is to bring the magic of partying and dancing into an urban environment, with the purpose of bringing citizens together through expression, fun and spontaneity in this new context.

Chromakeying, Laia Solé

Chromakeying is a project inspired by illusionism, sleight of hand, disappearances, and the tradition of art in specific contexts. 
The intention behind the project is to “disappear” temporarily, in real time and in a specific place, certain urban devices which "regulate" public space: walls, fixtures, etc.. These interventions consist of painting green, or covering with green cloth, selected elements to be 'deleted' using Chromakey, an analogue and digital device (mounted on a cart with video camera and screen) which, by acting within space, will make evident and augment the presence of these elements in the urban context.

Video Graffiti, Álvaro Muñoz Ledo

Graffiti Video sees the street as the perfect place to express collective ideas. So, the goal is to give the opportunity to change the urban landscape through ephemeral projections of drawings, text, colours, graphics made ​​live or by using previously prepared materials. From a low-tech built interface, built with repurposed materials, participants can experience live the transformation of the urban landscape in a simple but effective way to redefine public space.

Small Surfaces, Olaia Sendón

Small Surfaces speaks of the “family” neighbourhood shops endangered by a process of gradual extinction, accelerated by the economic crisis. The intention behind this project is to pay them the tribute they deserve. For this, the artist toured various neighbourhood shops, selecting small objects. This process led to the recording of conversations, the collection of various items, a description of each product and its price. The result of the project is  a guided tour of the shops, a soundscape and a sample exhibited in public space of the catalogued objects.

Play and reclaim. Dixpositivos

Play and reclaim  is a recreational and sporting intervention, a proposal for collaborative games and sporting activities, using a maze-like construction. The project is a creative response to the  restrictive regulations progressively limiting and prohibiting sporting practices in urban areas, with the intention of redefining this relationship, returning sport and play to urban public space in creative, fun and participatory ways. The intervention encourages specific aspects of sport and play, such as cooperation, improvisation, hybridisation and learning.

Atlas Project, Colectivo Atlas

Starting with "collective mapping" work, based upon conversations and experiences shared with residents from the Esquerra Eixample district, the artists propose to create a mobile device acting as a traveling stage-set. On this, recording will be made of people explaining their demands and needs, which will be distributed to residents of the same neighbourhood, and to publicise various local problems. The stage-set serves as a place where offers of and demands for services can be exchanged, and can be used by other residents, or neighbourhood organisations.

 

Germaqueta, Raons Públiques

 

The Germaqueta project empowers the appropiation of space by residents of the Esquerra de l'Eixample District. Through various collective construction workshops, to build a model of the district, the Germanetes site during several days become the epicentre of a collective reflection upon the public space. Aimed at both children and adults residing, the content of the activities has been conceived with the needs and the expressed interest of various involved parties in mind.