Making art while thinking about politics and trying to be useful
A workshop lead by Cecilia Andersson
Arteleku 22 Oct – 21 Dec 2009
Timetable: From 10:00h to 14:00h / From 17:00h to 20:00h
Inscription: Deadline extended until october 15. Send your personal data with your CV to arteleku@gipuzkoa.net
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“Most of these city tableaux are marketplaces, and their architectural compositions set the stage for a particular kind of experience. Marketplaces from the beginning of time have always been those interstitial spaces where go-betweens gather and contracts are negotiated. Often located on the edge of town or at crossroads and border lands – just beyond the control of regulated zones – they were places of exchange and movement between people and goods”
M. Christine
Boyer, Contemporary Forms of the City of Collective Memory
The overall idea behind this workshop is to develop inclusive models that may stimulate civic participation and that contributes to decision making processes related to the future of urban developments in Gipuzkoa.
Some of the current plans in the region include for instance an immense port and urban regeneration of Pasajes, profiling of the region as candidate for European Capital of Culture 2016, the development of an International Cultural Centre (Tabakalera) along with plans to be connected to a high speed train network. Indicating a high level of ambition in terms of renewal of the region, these projects also implies the necessity to generate new capital, new ideas and to organise society in a new way. All of which will influence the future of the region to a high degree.
In order to capitalize on already existing information and knowledge and to make the most of existing resources, how can ordinary citizens come closer to the reality of this renewal, get involved and potentially contribute to political decisions being made? What can we learn from developments taking place in the region and how can this lesson be communicated to others? We may also ask ourselves; what kind of urban environment do we want in the future and how can we shape it together?
By initiating the Urban Marketplace for Ideas at Arteleku, the starting point for this workshop and art project is to establish connections with already existing networks of ideas and knowledge that aim to explore urban futures. This may be on a local, regional, national and international basis and will serve as reference and make further developments and explorations possible. The workshop will proceed by selecting a few observation points in the neighbourhood of Loyola, Martutene and Txomin Enea, where we will initiate our own research. The neighbourhood will serve as our most immediate frame of reference, field of exploration and creates the context for exchange and interaction.
A major part of the workshop sets out to explore ways in which people can trade knowledge, skills, ideas and at times actual objects with each other. This idea to establish a kind of marketplace reflects a desire to gather around something symbolic and simple. In this context, trade stands for a straightforward action where everyone can take part.
Informed by research, discussions and by work methods generated within the workshop, the aim is to establish ways in which citizens may participate and contribute in decisions that affect the future of the neighbourhood. We will learn by doing and the research conducted will accumulate relational knowledge. We will base our work on innovative and informal approaches and explore how this way of working may possibly be integrated into more formal decision making processes.
Using research, trading skills, intuition and instincts, workshop participants set out to achieve the following:
- To research local, regional, national and international relevant activities
- To collect, analyze and visualize information about the region, both in terms of its past and its future
- To re-present information about the city in all possible ways (written, drawn, installed, told, sung, performed and more)
- To establish new communication channels across disciplines
- To address the informal and the formal
- To sketch possible futures of the city
Workshop schedule
Thu 22 Oct. Meetings in and around city (with representatives)
Fri 23 Oct. 19:00h, conference: Axel Timm/ Raumlabor (www.raumlabor_berlin.de) + work in group
Sat 24 Oct. Work in group
Thu 19 Nov. Meetings in and around city (with representatives)
Fri 20 Nov. 19:00h, conference: Cecile Bourne/ Nouveaux commanditaires (www.nouveauxcommanditaires.com) + work in group
Sat 21 Nov. Work in group
Thu 17 Dec. Meetings in and around city (with representatives)
Fri 18 Dec. 19:00h, conference: STEALTH (www.stealth.ultd.net/stealth/about.html) + work in group
Sat 19 Dec. Work in group
Mon 21 Dec. Final presentation (Sto Tomas)
