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Urban Knowledge

Urban Knowledge Dutch Artistic

Dutch Artistic

Research Event #4

Research Event #4 At the invitation of the Utrecht Biennale for Social Design, the fourth edition of maHKU,’s DARE (Dutch Artistic Research Event) focused on the often problematic situation of the urban environment today. The main question to be tackled was how research-based visual art and design could contribute to a critical investigation and understanding of that problematic urban situation. In that context, projects, exhibitions, screenings, discussions, and a symposium were organized at various locations in the city of Utrecht in the week of 4-13 September, 2009. In collaboration with curator Mika Hannula, ma HKU’s Fine Art department set up a dynamic studio project called Common Site – Come Inside. During a three-month residency project in Hoograven, a multicultural neighborhood in Utrecht, ma HKU, Fine Art graduates explored the direct surroundings of the Hoograven studio through projects and a parallel activities program.

maHKU’s Spatial Design department also delved into the situation in the Hoograven area deploying various methodological perspectives. Some of the results were part of Hoograven Invites You, the main exhibition of the Utrecht Biennale. Another part specifically dealing with spatial design and research was presented in the Utrecht Architecture Center Aorta – curator Arjen Oosterman.

maHKU’s Communication Design department presented research projects in the center of Utrecht. In the Dutch Design Center, maHKU’s Editorial Design graduates showed various diagnoses of a visual rhetorics connected with an Urban Lifestyle – curator Thomas Clever. The Academiegalerie presented a series of critical Urban Fashion statements of maHKU’s Fashion graduates – curator Anne Vroegop. During all exhibitions, various research screenings and discussions on topical issues took place involving maHKU’s Fine Art and Design graduates. The Artistic Research professorship was responsible for the international Urban Knowledge symposium in the Utrecht Central Museum on September 9.

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The symposium dealt with the question of how specific forms of Urban Knowledge could be produced and deployed as a research tool kit. Speakers were: Claire Doherty, director of Situations, Bristol, UK; Jan-Erik Andersson, artist and PhD Graduate Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki, Finland; Mika Hannula, maHKU Artistic Research lecturer, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Adam Budak, curator of Kunsthaus Graz, Austria; Kobe Matthys, artist and director of Agency, Brussels, Belgium; Huib Haye van der Werf, curator, NAI, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Moderators: Klaas Hoek, maHKU Fine Art program leader; Mika Hannula, maHKU Artistic Research lecturer. Mika Hannula reports below on the Urban Knowledge symposium and makes the concept of Urban Knowledge unfold further.

maHKUzine