We Are Public Space: Bodies and Minds in Post-pandemic Cities
(2023)
author(s): Marketa Kinterova
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
The project aims to pay heightened attention to public spaces in cities on several levels. The first follows the trend of newly developed privately owned public spaces (known as POPS), which establish a precedent for how corporations and cities define public space and what they prioritize within it. A clear focus on people as consumers – rather than citizens – have several effects, including strict restrictions, the creation of societies of control (Deleuze 1992: 3), and various forms of often indirect exclusion of certain groups of inhabitants.
The second level attempts to accentuate subjective experiences focused on our bodies and making them consciously present in relation to public space. Both layers are a significant component of the performative lecture walks, on the basis of which I introduce the results of interactions with the respondents in my case studies. Finally, I shall describe what cities looked like during the pandemic and consider whether these scenes might be a model for the future. Are we to expect further experiences of empty cities?
Poner el cuerpo – Making spaces public
(2023)
author(s): Rossanaconda
published in: VIS - Nordic Journal for Artistic Research
In this exposition, I expand the notions and practices of collective body-action intervention (dance, performance, happenings, etc.) as a method to strengthen embodied knowledge, an instigation to engage in restorative encounters, and an invitation to intervene and disrupt political biases of (public) spaces. These methodologies propose alternatives for knowledge exchange/production beyond hegemonic, Eurocentric education.
In parallel, I reflect on my own practice and the anti-patriarchal and decolonial feminist political basis of the collectives of which I am part. We work with strategies and methodologies inspired by feminisms from the Global South, such as taking care of others as a practice that puts aside the patriarchal capitalist model of life that mainly separates, individualizes, prioritizes, and promotes competition and exploitation. We promote exchange, cooperation, and interdependence. I reflect on how these encounters summon the festive memory of our territories and the resilience of our* wounds.
Emotions of the bodies and the resistances will trigger our rituals in Abya Yala**, the flows and drifts will make this poetic-affective encounter, as will the skin itself.
___
*We: Here I refer to collectivity in a broad sense in each case: We as the collectives I am part of, we as women (cis, trans, nonbinary), we as immigrants, we as bipoc, etc
**Abya Yala: Self-determined name for the territories in the global south named "America" as a result of the colonizing process.
Scented Rooms
(2023)
author(s): Shauheen Daneshfar
published in: VIS - Nordic Journal for Artistic Research
The exposition Scented Rooms aims to be a form of resistance that finds itself in poetry and politics, poetic imagery, re-thinking censored archives, existential reflections on photography and cinema, and dance.
At the very core of the research is an important historic icon in Iran; The country's oldest theater which was burnt down by extremists during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, closed forever and has decayed over time. The burning of this theater, along with many others, was the starting point for imposing restrictions on art and culture.
The research departs contextually from the efforts of the Islamic government to control civil society. It is a reaction to a history of imposing a specific language discourse and discarding elements that represent a non-religious view, visual changes in the urban space and limiting access to specific types of information that refer to citizens’ collective memory.
Giving agency to this theater, the research aims to revive the collective and public memory of a society, being the voice of those that have been silenced for a long time.
Place to Action! Art that Inteferes
(2022)
author(s): Thalia Hoffman, Yannick Schop, Lakisha Apostel, Maryam Touzani, Alicia Cotillas Vélez, Robin Whitehouse, Bødvar Hole, Miro Gutjahr, Žilvinas Baranauskas, Anne-Claire Flora Mackenzie, Gaetan Langlois-Meurinne
connected to: Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
published in: Research Catalogue, KC Research Portal
The course Place to Action - Art that Interferes is motivated and inspired by places. More specifically: the histories, contexts, narratives, situations, circumstances and people’s interactions and intra-actions and relationships with locations, which form places. Lingering in places with attention, listening to them and experimenting the possible ways of movement within them.
These attentive gazes of places will initiate interdisciplinary artistic actions and interventions that aim to explore and reflect the possibilities of art to interfere.
Here on this exposition the group will share their findings and actions.
Situating Practices: An ecological approach to exhibition making
(2020)
author(s): Claire Robyn Booth-Kurpnieks, Louise Atkinson
published in: RUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research
Situating Practices was a research-led exhibition (17.05.19- 01.06.19) as part of the Temporary Contemporary programme in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. The exhibition was a showcase of the practice-based research work of nine postgraduate researchers from the University of Huddersfield and other higher education institutions.
It explored what it means to do research in, with and through practice and the potential new configurations of knowledge that is produced through their display, this included artist practitioners, architects and researchers working at the boundaries of social science and creative practice.
This exposition questions the concept of “curating research” (O'Neill & Wilson, 2015) from an ecological perspective, considering the interdependent, emergent and developing relations and tensions when curating research for public display in the context of the Situating Practices exhibition.
Strategies of Fiction
(2019)
author(s): Stephen Bain
published in: RUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research
Fictional Worlds as Structures for Public Space Performance is an exposition that fractures into multiple parts, text, performance, spatial design, and creative writing. Fiction is seen as a device for creating shared experience, a familiar process in the performing arts but also observed in the public domain of politics, where a key example is taken to discuss the dynamics of how fiction may be both symbol and action. Relating aesthetics to politics through fiction as a method, a collective influence is confirmed by the event.
Fiction is split into various strategies in a poetic reflection on archetypes of space, proposed as 8 distinct fiction-types that open the way for common understanding. Using the format of a screenplay, 8 types are fleshed out and supported by reflections on influential international artworks and theories. Finally these types are used as a tool to analyse my own public space performance experiments in Auckland, New Zealand.
Creative practices and public engagement
(2017)
author(s): Daša Spasojevic, Ana Souto Galvan
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
This exposition explores the role of creative practices in creating methods for public engagement and the promotion and recognition of tangible and intangible heritage at a local community level. It argues that principles of participatory design and co-creation have the power to contribute to community social cohesion and development. A literature review covering the main concepts and methods is introduced to provide an appropriate context for the main case study: Mapping Nottingham’s Identity. This research project includes the methodological and conceptual framework that were piloted and tested in collaboration with three localities within Nottingham (Sneinton, Carrington, and West Bridgford), including different stakeholders (community organisations, higher education, primary schools, local authorities, and the general public), producing a variety of outputs (a participatory methods’ toolkit, performative maps, community furniture, exhibition, websites) and reflecting on their role in creating meaningful interactions and place-making.
Expanding Public (Im)Possibilities
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Xenia Tsompanidou
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Documentation of the 'Expanding Public (Im)Possibilities' gathering, an international gathering of disciplines that perform public space |
Organized by the Fontys Professorship Artistic Connective Practices, Fontys MA Performing Public Space and Fontys Journalism.
MY PUBLIC STAGE
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Ioannis Karounis
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
"My Public Stage" is not merely an artistic practice; it is a dynamic fusion of performance art and civic engagement that transcends conventional boundaries. At its core, this practice navigates the intricate relationship between the artist and the public sphere, offering an unconventional perspective on how art can reshape our understanding of the world.
The essential aspect of this artistic journey lies in the intentional placement of artistic interventions and performances within public spaces, where the encounter with viewers is not a predetermined spectacle but a meeting. This deliberate approach seeks to dissolve the traditional separation between the artist and the individual, fostering a unique connection that is spontaneous and genuine.
I view public space as not only a material but also a social environment that is produced, reshaped and restructured by the citizens through their experiences, their intentions for action and the relations they develop in it. My project draws on Lefebvre’s (2019) approach to urban public space not as a neutral container of social life, but as a fluid entity, both constructed and produced by social practices. Lefebvre’s approach confirms and expands my view that public space is not fixed, yet it requires a conscious effort to intervene in its production.
The philosophy driving "My Public Stage" aligns with the concept of civic engagement. By presenting long durational performances in the heart of everyday life, the artist consciously assumes the role of a creator, using performance art as a medium to unveil the interconnected elements that bridge art with life. This philosophy echoes the sentiment of Joseph Beuys, who believed that everyone is an artist, actively sculpting the intricate sculpture we call life.
In embracing the public sphere as its canvas, this practice transcends the conventional boundaries of art and daily reality. It becomes a catalyst for a different perspective on how individuals perceive and engage with their surroundings. The transformative power of performance art is harnessed to reveal the latent artistic potential within each person, emphasizing the symbiotic relationship between art and life.
DE MIJAVELHAS ÀS FONTAINHAS
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Clara Sefair
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
A investigação pretende cartografar as águas, os espaços públicos e as práticas sociais entre as ruínas de Mijavelhas e os Lavadouros das Fontainhas, na cidade do Porto. O foco principal é compreender os espaços coletivos e públicos de majoritária presença feminina utilizados para reprodução social desta comunidade nos séculos XIX e XX.
Cartografar as águas é identificar os comuns, é mapear as histórias contadas ao lavar roupas, as trocas materiais feitas junto às fontes, os ritos espirituais, as músicas de trabalho entoadas coletivamente.
CO-creating public space as a way of RE-claiming the city
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Michalina Gradzik
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
How can citizens reclaim public spaces from the hands of municipalities and developers through co-creating their local space? Is the community an expert in what it needs? And importantly, what is the secret to the long-term impact of people-driven urban interventions?
Trópos
(last edited: 2024)
author(s): Daniele Pozzi
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Trópos is a system-specific, site-adaptive sound installation for public spaces. This exposition collects aesthetic reflections from its process of development, as well as documentation and artifacts produced along the way. [exposition is in progress]
ENHANCING PERFORMATIVE CIVIC ENGAGEMENT IN MEANS OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Ioannis Karounis
This exposition is in review and its share status is: visible to all.
Through 2 workshops in Amsterdam and in Athens, we created a toolkit with artistic games and props, which all passengers can use in order to interact with others in public transport. My aim is to empower citizens to transform the non-place (Augé, 1995) in means of public transportation into performance space/time and, subsequently, social space/time (Lefebvre, 1991) through a creative form of civic encounter.
Public transport is not only a public utility and a means of accessing other public places; it is also itself a mobile public space (Paget-Seekins & Tironi, 2016). Using public transport is an outdoor "necessary activity," which is more or less compulsory, such as going to work or waiting for a bus, where people are in "passive contact" with each other -they only see and hear other people- and only minimum activity takes place (Ghel, J. 2011, p. 9-13)
" I dance in the shadows of the public and the personal.
I travel between the rational and the irrational, between fantasy and reality.
I invite you to a trip whose purpose is the journey, to introduce you to my friends, the known and the unknown, the transient, the ephemeral, the everyday.
People, passing by, hurrying along, watch me, thousands of them swarm to my temporary island, my railcarriage, my home. They sit down across from me smiling at me. Do you want to play? Do you want to play? in this game there is neither winner nor loser. The realization of the significance, and yet the insignificance of my existence gives me balance.
There is no stop-free trip, just as there is no stop without a traveller.
I liken life to a string that pulsates and is constantly reshaped at any moment without specific angles or bows and sides, a string that offers us no chance to measure it. This is the field that concerns me primarily, the general reshaping taking place on all levels.
I don’t separate life from creation nor do I separate art from life.
I bear responsibility for the act of everyday life, conscious of the whole and of the future. I am a sensor of the universe and my actions are recorded and return to me, not so much in the form of punishment or reward, rather as the trajectory I pursue in my own significant / insignificant life. "
IOANNIS KAROUNIS
Wording
(last edited: 2022)
author(s): Lena Séraphin
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This exposition is entitled Wording: on Collaborative Writing in Public Space, in short Wording. It is a continuous non-conclusive working space and a collection of research on collaborative writing. The aim of this attempt at writing is to shape a public space using words and to position ourselves in shared spaces and reciprocated texts. Wording has a performative quality as writers in public space are observed themselves, and the question is if this collective writing experiment acts as a countertext to the commodification of our corporeal selves. Wording is inspired by Georges Perec and his experimental work "An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris" from 1974 and is facilitated by Lena Séraphin.
Research exposition
(last edited: 2021)
author(s): Mafalda Deville
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
An Activist work under the topic of domestic violence, a “hidden epidemic” during confinement, questioning between the public space and stage performance and their ability to communicate the activist event.
Project Description Artistic Research Project n°2 (HALLO, MARSCH!, (Sept. 2017)
(last edited: 2019)
author(s): Liz Rech
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
This is the project description of my second artistic research project within the frame of the graduate school "Performing Citizenship" (HCU/Hamburg).
Title of the project:
"Hallo, Marsch! Kollektive Walkingperformance für Mit-Läufer und Schritt-Macher."
It was a participatory performance which was presented at the Hallo Festspiele on the 09.09.2017 as a walking performance from the Berliner Tor to the old Kraftwerk Bille at Hammerbrook / Hamburg, Germany. It startet at 3pm in the afternoon and took one hour.
After the performance the audience filled out a questionary.
Research & Performance: Liz Rech
Objects: Kathrin Affentranger
Deer, Tigers, Perec and The Everyday - a choreographic approach
(last edited: 2019)
author(s): STELLA MASTOROSTERIOU
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
My research focuses on the interrelations between different types of spaces and the types of movement they encourage or impose. The research is inspired by the writings of writer Georges Perec and informed by concepts and methods from the fields of sociology, anthropology and architecture.
This portfolio supplements the written exegesis of my practice-led research process, which revolves around two interwoven strands / projects, and serves as an analysis of the artistic outcomes and as documentation of the artistic processes. The practice research has been constantly informed by theoretical concepts deriving from an extensive theoretical research, which will be selectively reported. Several smaller projects, experiments and workshop processes that I will briefly delineate in this paper, led into forming two more elaborate projects that I have been developing in the past year and will be more extensively reported in this paper.
The first strand has to do with working in the public space and aims to devise ways of thinking and creating in and for the public space. Under the title I DON’T SEE DEER, I work with observation and writing as a tool for studying everyday life and movement in the public space, in order to highlight existing aspects of the city and propose new site-specific situations. Both the research process and the artistic outcomes were located outside – in the urban space. The process and the outcomes of this part of the research have so far been translated into various forms: a video work, a live performance, a photographic series, a workshop, and most importantly the outline of a flexible way of working that I can bring into different places and groups.
In the second strand, I attempt to incorporate concepts, tools and findings from working in the public space into choreographic research and creation for the stage. While keeping observation of street life as one of my main tools, the practical research here was mainly studio-based. This strand led to the creation of the work WE ARE NOT TIGERS that I presented as my final project for the master.
The two strands did not follow any successive chronologic line. Instead they emerged and were developed concurrently, as autonomous processes that constantly affected and informed one the other, throughout the past year. In this paper though, I will mainly follow the chronological order of how my research path evolved, while linking the practice-led research to the theoretical research.
City Walls
(last edited: 2018)
author(s): Azar Kafaei
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Story of two urban spaces; a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut and a public housing project in Connecticut.