Social
Spaces

Participants sought for the art project ’Short Cut Leuven’ by Stijn Van Dorpe

Short Cut traces an imaginary straight line (a ’short cut’), via a group of walking people, through Leuven. The aim is to form a line and walk a trail between Naamsevest and Engels Plein, straight across private property, public buildings, streets and squares. In this way Van Dorpe reconnects the private to the public, while making us think about topics like “living in the city,” “loss of privacy” etc. More info.

Z33 – ZEBRA DELUXE

KUNST IN DE OPENBARE RUIMTE: donderdag 23.09

19u00: Vertoning “Nearly Present, Just Past” met inleiding door Cel Crabeels

20u15: Vertoning documentaire over ‘Innercoma’ aansluitend gesprek met kunstenaar Philip Metten en Jan Boelen (artistiek directeur Z33)

Met ‘Innercoma’ transformeert de Limburgse kunstenaar Philip Metten (°1977) vleugel ’58 van Z33 in Hasselt tot een gigantische sculptuur. Naar aanleiding van deze tentoonstelling staat ZEBRA DELUXE volledig in het teken van ‘kunst in de openbare ruimte’. De publieke ruimte bevat de belofte van het paradijs, maar blijft steeds een slagveld. Beheerst door politici, ontworpen door urbanisten en gestoffeerd door kunstenaars, vormt ze een utopisch voorstel tot de ideale democratische omgeving. Het publiek heeft slechts drie opties om met dat voorstel om te gaan: accepteren, negeren of reageren. Dit kan de vorm aannemen van beschaafd protest (petities), verbeteringen (graffiti) of vernietiging (vandalisme).

Het laatste overkwam het kunstwerk Funhouse for Children (1998) van de Amerikaanse kunstenaar Dan Graham (°1942). Speciaal geconcipieerd voor het heraangelegde Sint-Jansplein, overleefde het zijn inhuldiging niet lang. Kort daarop werd glazen paviljoen met zwaar beschadigd, en nog tijdens de herstellingswerken definitief vernield. De ruïneuse restanten van de minimalistische constructie werden daarop verwijderd en tijdelijk opgeslagen. In samenspraak met de kunstenaar werd vervolgens een alternatieve locatie gezocht. Het gehele proces van opstanding tot val en wederopstanding werd gedocumenteerd door Cel Crabeels in zijn artistiek documentair project: Nearly Present, Just Past.

I discovered this very interesting article about the meaning of Participatory Art and how it relates to concepts like space and time. Paul O’Neill - currently also investigating the art in public space landscape in Flanders – makes a difference between three stages of Participatory Art, being relational, social and durational art. While the first relates to what Bischop described as the authored tradition (expert vision), “social art” relates to a more community oriented and de-authored tradition (participatory vision). The third term “durational ” that O’Neill introduces is quite interesting. It gathers the first two terms in one concept (and in that way is able to go beyond a dichotomy) and adds one additional trait, namely time. Durational art produces “work” that keeps on generating social interactions after the artist has left the project site. This is of course very important when artists try to create work for a participatory culture (for more discussion around the concept of participatory cultures, join the discussion online, next wednesday!).

Our Social Spaces researchers had an active day yesterday making and sharing stories about their research and personal work and experiences. We joined a workshop on Cultural Probes and a Pecha Kucha evening.

CALL FOR PAPERS: 2010 Conference: “Art on the Street”
The Korean Society of Art Theories, Seoul, KOREA
October 24, 2010

We seek to build upon the recent discussion on public art and community by
investigating specific examples of the practices of contemporary art in
particular contexts. We pay attention to the way in which the process of
creation, perception, and reception of the artwork relates to the formation
of a community. We invite papers on mural projects, site-specific urban
planning projects, parks, public monuments, and other types of
community-oriented projects. Discussions on a project or network of
activities that form relationships among participants and a public are also
encouraged. At the same time, we hope to explore artistic practices that
resist or negotiate in terms of everyday life, localization, globalization,
and social and cultural structures. We also encourage papers that revisit
the issue of memory of community. While proposing art as potential means of
collective empowerment, we aim to investigate art that invokes or produces a
community. All perspectives and methodologies are welcome.