Articles, news, interviews, conversations, podcasts, critics… Exchanges on topics related to public space between artists, the civil society and cultural operators. Keeping the dialogue with European cultural policy makers and the cultural and creative sector in general, this section explores how art can have an impact on society, and vice versa.
Live Talk Session
How to reclaim digital and physical public space? Working in public space today
Herman Bashiron Mendolicchio
"Let’s now open an imaginary window. What do we see? Is this how we imagine public space?"This final article written by Herman Bashiron Mendolicchio completes the entire series of nine articles about the Artistic Acupuncture missions that took place all over Europe.
Herman Bashiron Mendolicchio
The city of Moss (NO) and its urban renewal landscape are at the centre of this ninth and final IN SITU "Artistic Acupuncture". The artist Sjoerd Wagenaar carried out his creative Acupuncture mission there, focusing his research on local participation in urban planning - in close collaboration with Østfold Internasjonale Teater.
Herman Bashiron Mendolicchio
In 2019, the choreographer Joanne Leighton was invited by IN SITU to do an Artistic Acupuncture in Terschelling (NL). In this specific island context, the artist focused her creative response on the notions of the global and the local - in close collaboration with Oerol Festival.
Herman Bashiron Mendolicchio
In 2019, dance artist and choreographer Deirdre Griffin was invited by IN SITU to address the complex issue of rural exodus in Catalonia through the development of a creative response. Her "Artistic Acupuncture" took place in Tàrrega (Spain), in close collaboration with Fira Tàrrega.
Herman Bashiron Mendolicchio
Artistic Acupuncture 3#: In 2019, Nada Gambier and Mark Etchells explored the post-industrial district of Csepel, Budapest (Hungary). Within this artistic research, both artists focused on concepts of cultural identity and urban renewal, in close collaboration with Artopolis Association / PLACCC Festival.
Herman Bashiron Mendolicchio
Danae Theodoridou – a performance maker and researcher who focuses her work on the notion of ‘social imaginaries’ and the way art can contribute to the emergence of social and political alternatives – has been invited by La Strada Festival to develop her "Artistic Acupuncture" in the area of Reininghaus in Graz, Austria.
Nan van Houte
Invited as an external eye of the Hot House 2018 in Terschelling, I wondered how the 17 artists I would meet would define their ‘public space’. What they would offer, how they would address the currently over-asked and over-exposed citizens which form their audiences.
Mathieu Braunstein
4 + 4 dny v pohybu or 4 + 4 Days in Motion. For the past twenty three years, this festival has been combining the performing and visual arts in unusual places across the Czech capital. The themes it covers make for a truly unique event…
Ivana Rusnáková
Upon returning to Slovakia in 2009, after finishing her studies in France, Zuzana Pacáková was playing with the idea of establishing a contemporary art festival that had been missing in her hometown of Košice. Inspired by Paris’s Nuit Blanche, she enthusiastically decided to enter a fascinating circle, introducing the now-renowned and popular festival of contemporaryart, Biela noc, to Slovak audiences.
Mathieu Braunstein
The streets are a place of protest and sometimes of concern. In Paris, despite the small number of protesters, taking to the streets is a legitimate expression of the people’s democratic rights. In Barcelona, protests from both sides fill the streets on the question of Catalonian independence. But across the Pyrenees, Benjamin Vandewalle’s latest participatory performance in public space brings us back to art history.
Maddy Costa, journalist
Jay Wahl is the former artistic director of the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. Vladimir Us is a curator with the Oberliht Group in Moldova. Both organisations are members of the IN SITU platform. They examine the concept of popular art and compare their approaches to working in public space.
Metropolis - art and performance in public space
The Metropolis 2007-2017 initiative, launched by IN SITU member Københavns Internationale Teater (KIT), aims to link the world of the arts and theatre with city life and urban development. The ambition is to forge continual collaborations crossing the disciplines of art and architecture, culture and urban planning – across local, regional and national borders.
Antoine Pickels
This article makes no pretence of being an exhaustive account of everything that happened during the Neerpelt Hot House, but offers a specific and partial perspective from a curator and artist who has recently become a network partner. It offers a periscopic perspective, much like that of a submarine – enough to identify what is on the surface, and maybe even to target what is under the surface.
It breaks down into three parts: examination, diagnosis and cure. First I will endeavour to identify what struck me in the artists’ personalities and in their projects, then what bringing together these personalities and projects can tell us about the context and the broader situation in society, and finally what could, perhaps, be refined in the Hot House approach.
Mathieu Braunstein
How can you write about art in public space in Europe, while keeping a critical distance and avoiding eulogistic praises? How can you analyse the performing arts, something that, by its very nature, is temporary, while keeping your ears open to what's going on in the world? As always, books are a precious aid for staying focused on what matters.
Tamás Jászay - Emerging Spaces 2016, Budapest
The European network IN SITU, an advocate for site-sensivite art, has organised yet another edition of Emerging Spaces, a series of intensive workshops. On paper, the seminar’s opening days in Budapest focused on post-industrial areas, with the ruined but beautiful Csepel Industrial Park as its central location, although the set topic would go through various changes throughout the three days of the workshop.
Mathieu Braunstein
This Emerging Space was a strange experience, with a strange title, open to many interpretations, especially in English: "breaking down barriers"…
Giorgia Marino
A garden begins wherever a human foot touches the ground to step into a space that is both vegetable and mineral. That’s the moment when the memory of his presence is first settled in that place.”
Neil Butler (UZ Arts) & Werner Schrempf (La Strada), interviewed by Hugues Le Tanneur (Les Inrockuptibles)
Neil Butler is the former head of UZ Arts, an independent organisation based in Glasgow (Scotland) that initiates a number of cultural programmes worldwide. Amongst other work, Werner Schrempf heads La Strada festival in Graz (Austria) which he founded in 1998. These two IN SITU network members’ directors provide together their account of art in public space today.
Olivier Grossetête & Anna Rispoli (Zimmerfrei), interviewed by Quentin Guisgand, Ariane Bieou (IN SITU) and Jasmine Lebert (Lieux publics)
Olivier Grossetête and Zimmerfrei collective (Massimo Carozzi, Anna de Manincor et Anna Rispoli) build “fleeting” cities. "Fleeting City" by Olivier Grossetête and "Temporary Cities" by Zimmerfrei are two IN SITU projects. As one creates common sense by building real cardboard walls, the other offers a dream version of the city.
Artists' reflection about the invisible walls dividing our towns.
Jean-Sebastien Steil & Ariane Bieou
Licensed city planner Trevor Davies is the director of the Metropolis biennale of art in the public space, organized by Københavns Internationale Teater in Copenhagen. He is also the head of the application committee for the city of Åarhus in the run to host the European Capital of Culture program in 2017.