The Millenium Park in Zielona Góra is a centrally located urban park. Soon the park will undergo a thorough revitalization. Before this stage begins, we will observe and comment on the park activities
PARK TYSIĄCLECIA №5(10)/2013
common space
MILLENIUM PARK
/We improve our common space together with local residents /Revitalisation /Artists for common space /Urban activism About the 5th (10) issue
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< rotor > Graz/ Austria
Urban Quartier < rotor > center for contemporary art is a Graz, Austria, based art association founded in 1999. Since 2009 the center runs a long-term project in the neighborhood: ˮThe Art of Urban Intervention“and is dedicated Presentation of the text installation „Annenviertel Manifest“ realized by the artist Isa Rosenberger in collaboration with Marianna Asatrjan, Anya Ditchkovskaya, Endah Ebner, Rosemary Emiohe, Merhanisa Huskić, Marisol Kahrrillo and Jamileh Pahlevan, 2011 at Metahofpark, Graz, courtesy of <rotor> During a stencil workshop directed by Georg Dinstl, Christian Kasper and Josef Wurm in the Volksgarten park, Graz, 2010, courtesy of <rotor>
to highlight the presence of the district Annenviertel and its transformations through artistic and cultural practice. Contemporary forms of action should be applied in public and social space, where participation in urban developments in general and especially in artistic productions is of high priority.
< rotor > would like to take on the challenges which emerge from numerous questions of a possibly typical middleeuropean urban quarter, and enter into a dialogue with the local players: the residents, the tradespeople, the numerous social and cultural institutions, the policymakers. www.rotor.mut.at
www.milleniumpark.eu
In the latest issue of our magazine we present Polish and European urban activists whom we have invited to Zielona Góra for discussion on the topic of their experiences of work in the public space. Among them there are artistic initiatives, institutions and non-governmental organisations that work in firm cooperation with local residents of their cities or local communities. Aforementioned initiatives’ meeting will be held on the 29th and the 30th of November 2013 in the Salony Foundation for which we would like to invite you. We will discuss how to influence our city so it is more inhabitants friendly. Detailed program of the meeting is available at milleniumpark.eu.
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Myatt’s Fields Park, London/ UK
Access to the Park fot. Zuza Brzozowska, courtesy of the Muzeum Sztuk
Ekologie Miejskie, Muzeum Sztuki, Łódź/PL
Series of good practices The programme of the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź “Ekologie Miejskie” (“urban ecologies”) is a research on the environment of contemporary cultural institution from perspective of characteristic features of a particular city – Łódź. “Ekologie Miejskie” is an example of a self-aware institution developing itself by updating constantly the founding idea which is the avant-grade concept of the Art as a laboratory in which alternative ways of living in the world are tested. They function as prototypes of space and social solutions which turn to places regarded as deserted and neglected. Being open to local residents of Łódź, they create an ethical bond with the city. “Ekologie Miejskie” has its roots in whatever is local; in actions changing every
day practices and building interdisciplinary platform of cooperation for different groups. Their aim is to create a set of good practice which uses the city’s potential, and yet undermines the rhetoric of the new to benefit from wellbalanced actions. The “Ekologie Miejskie” project is a way of thinking about the surrounding that assumes the awareness of presence and the influence of other organisms – plants and animals. They argue with the division of nature and culture; the process of realising complex relations with the world of living matter and the inanimate nature. This metabolistic community does not allow us to be indifferent to the complexity of links with the environment. “Ekologie Miejskie” is a tool for collective production of knowledge about a place, promoting the ideas of projecting the city in a bottom-up process, submitting to reflexion and criticism the anthropocentric and economy-dependent approach towards culture.
Myatt’s Fields Park is a charity governed by a group of local volunteers. Our aims are to improve access to the park and promote wellbeing in a deprived area in South London. We do this throughout: organising events (eg. Summer sleepover for families, harvest festival, art in the park), workshops about growing food and home cooking for all generations, sharing food knowledge from all different parts of the world and running a cafe which provides a local meeting point for people. We collaborate with about 10 local organisations and the local council. We involve volunteers at all levels, from decision-making to setting up events or baking cakes for the cafe. www.myattsfieldspark.info www.myattsfieldspark.info
Curators: Aleksandra Jach, Katarzyna Słoboda www.ekologiemiejskie.pl www.msl.org.pl
Fot.courtesy of the Myatt’s Fields Park
Space and time The artist Renata Kaminska hosts yearly an exhibition under the name of BEL ETAGE in various indoor and outdoor places around Rosa Luxembourg Platz in Berlin-Mitte. Invited artists respond both to the theme, the space and their surroundings inscribing their works in domestic, urban, private and public venues. BEL ETAGE becomes a social gathering, a circumstance giving room, time and space to connect people and artistic concerns, and raises questions about the sense of belonging to the public realm.
www.milleniumpark.eu
BEL ETAGE/ Berlin
www.bel-etage-projects.de
Sculpture, by Olaf Holzapfel; Fot.: Yves Sucksdorff, courtesy of the BEL ETAGE
Forms and Shapes Foundation, Warsaw/ PL
Forms and Shapes The Forms and Shapes Foundation gives new forms and shapes to reality around us. It turns sites into places one can interact with art in. The foundation is interested in local myths and narratives and analyzes everyday obsessions as well as promotes its creative potential. The idea is to develop platforms for idea exchanges between creators of culture and their spectators, mobilize architects, gardeners, philosophers, musicians, graphic designers, farmers, cooks and physicists in order to blend their experiences and curate interdisciplinary projects. The founder of the Foundation and curator of all projects is Iza Rutkowska.
Fot Courtesy of the Form and Shape Foundation
The Forms and Shapes Foundation is very important initiative on the map of Polish art and participatory projects. The organization realized the series of successful projects as: Plac Zbawiciela, Eugeniusz (in Warsaw, Rzeszów and Katowice), Mushroom picking (Powsin/ Warsaw, Prague), Fishing (Warsaw, Brazil), Cuddly (Warsaw) and many others. www.formyikształty.pl
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Fot. Courtesy of the On Site Foundation
On Site Foundation, Warsaw /PL
Placemaking in Polish The aim of On Site Foundation is to help to develop, create and strengthen local communities by creating PLACES that evoke social interactions and bring people together. The idea is to bring back and enliven natural gathering spaces such as marketplaces or backyards that for various reasons do not fulfill their functions well, are deserted, or have become dangerous. A PLACE is a space designed in such a way as to encourage people to be in place, to meet and interact with one another. PLACES have the potential to create lively local communities. Only the spaces created by the residents themselves can function as intended – thus, and our organisation always works with both the space and its users. The Foundation operates in the spirit of the partner organization, the New York based Project for Public Spaces. This year the Foundation works on space development of surroundings of the National Stadium and the renovation of deserted square by Krochmalna Street 3 in Warsaw – one of very few green public spaces at residential area “behind the iron gate”. Thanks to joint work with local residents there are the plans to restore this place for them by reorganizing it the way they like it. www.namiejscu.org Park Tysiąclecia / Millenium Park Trials, sketches, scenarios for a new public space (c) 2013 circulation: 500 texts: courtsey of institutions edited by: Romuald Demidenko, Marta Gendera, Nora Markiewicz graphic design: Magdalena Heliasz (txtpublishing.pl)
F13, Zielona Góra/PL
Public Pedestal
Audio-visual city
Verejny Podstavec (Public Pedestal) is a platform to generate free ideas about the public space. The idea is a long-term use of the empty pedestals, squares as a place for presenting contemporary art. The aim of the project is to create a sort of Temporary Autonomous Zone (T.A.Z) for art – the space for expression of freedom and solidarity. In 2012 the organization invited to cooperation the Polish artist Pawel Althamer, who decided to create a spacious sandpit out of non-functioning fountain Družba at Freedom Square in Bratislava. The purpose of this project is an encounter and communication link among school and preschool kids via playing with sand, drawing and a collective reading of the book Little King Martin the 1st by Janusz Korczak. The reunion should be a celebration of children and adults and should evoke relaxed atmosphere of freedom at the square. Althamer’s vision inspired by the book Little King Martin the1st is that adults become „servants” of children.
F13 is non-formal art group/ audio – visual collective, established as Fabryczna 13 Centrala Twórcza in 2008 in Zielona Góra. F13 means spontaneous actions, happenings and interventions in the public space and actions in the neglected parts of the city. It’s also the TiTmouse Gallery and the Look& See – the art events series promoting contemporary audio – visual culture, young artists and off music.
www.verejnypodstavec.com
Paweł Althamer’s project in the Freedom Square, Bratislava, 2012, courtesy of Verejny Podstavec
artists and designers: BudCud, Johanna & Helmut Kandl, Aleksandra Kubiak, Basia Niemiec, Verejny Podstavec, Isa Rosenberger, Simone Rueß, Gregor Różański, Magdalena Starska, Jaśmina Wójcik, Janina Wick video: Rafał Wilk photos: Marek Lalko website: Feliks Marciniak / Noviki.net cooperation: BEL ETAGE, Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi, Fundacja Form i Kształtów, Fundacja na Miejscu, F13, Myatt’s
www.milleniumpark.eu
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Public Pedestal, Bratislava/ SK
www.f13ww.blogspot.com Millennium Park, Zielona Góra/PL
Millenium Park
Park Tysiąclecia/ Millennium Park is a project launched by the Salony Foundation and BWA Gallery in Zielona Góra that is aiming at changing the image of the park located in the centre of Zielona Góra. The realisation of the project started in 2012 with a series of sociological research and public consultations which served as a source for the report on needs of the local residents. Basing on the report, a new conception of the space development has been made by the architectural agency Bud Cud from Krakow. Deriving from the needs of local residents, and in cooperation with the architects, artists and designers, we hold projects in the park surroundings by presenting temporary installations and happenings which encourage the local people to discuss on the public space in Zielona Góra. Fields Park, <rotor> center for contemporary art, Verejny Podstavec media patronage: Magazyn Miasta, Radio Zielona Góra, Res Publica Nowa We’d like to thank Restauracja Winnica, plac Pocztowy! www.milleniumpark.eu facebook.com/milleniumpark www.fundacjasalony.pl
The project is realized thanks to the financial support of The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, Zielona Góra City Council and the
Austrian Culture Forum in Warsaw