Archive
21.–23.6.2018

Claiming Common Spaces

Art and Urban Practice / A project by the Alliance of International Production Houses

Cities are our homes, our stages, our works. They provide a rhythm and determine how we move through time and space. As early as 50 years ago, the French sociologist Henri Lefebvre wrote his essay “The Right to the City,” in which he describes a city’s structure, architecture and urban life as a mirror image of its society’s challenges. His vision and critical assessment of the future city, where a “space of consumption” will coincide with a “consumption of space,” have long become our common reality. 

Based on these themes, each member of the Bündnis internationaler Produktionshäuser (International Production Houses Alliance) – FFT Düsseldorf, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, HELLERAU - Europäisches Zentrum der Künste Dresden, Kampnagel Hamburg, Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt/Main, PACT Zollverein Essen, and tanzhaus nrw Düsseldorf – develops a wide-ranging programme that will take place in a shared presentation in the spaces of HAU Hebbel am Ufer and in various outdoor locations in Berlin. “Claiming Common Spaces” brings together artists, urbanologists and activists in order to engage with the most crucial aspects of the diverse, global urban society in the 21st century and observe the current socio-political development of urban centres.

The programme will open with a lecture by and talk with the urban sociologist Sharon Zukin from New York City who analyses the global transformation of cities through the lens of migration, deindustrialization and gentrification. 

Further panels (with Nicoleta Esinencu, Andrej Holm, Nazan Maksudyan, Renzo Martens, Klaus Ronneberger,AbdouMaliq Simone, Christoph Twickel, among others) and four public laboratories (with Chim↑Pom, Lenio Kaklea, Lukas Matthaei, Erin McElroy, metroZones, Nina Scholz, Jeremy Wade, among others) will discuss and elaborate on specific positions, approaches and strategies that could help us to handle the urban realm. Which role does art play in public spaces? How can cultural centres strengthen their international work in nervous times, and how can international cultural policy interfere? Why does the tech-industry try to invade our inner cities? – in short: Who owns the city?

Last but not least, international artistic works will be presented – concerts, installations and performances – that were developed in and for urban spaces: among them are “Corbeaux,” a piece by the choreographer Bouchra Ouizguen from Morocco, and “McDonald’s Radio University” by the Japanese artist Akira Takayama, a lecture series that was developed at McDonald’s restaurants in collaboration with refugee teachers. Further works include the question project “Proyecto Pregunta,” which the artist collective MIL M2 from Santiago de Chile brings to life. Close to HAU2, the inflatable “Bubble Palace” will invite the audience into a space that offers temporary connectivity and exhilaration while also bringing together concerts (Shkoon, One Mother, Boy Division) and various performative interventions.

And with Anas Aboura, Rodrigo García Alves, JochenBecker, Elisa Bertuzzo, Johannes Ebert, Andreas Görgen, Felix Hartenstein,Katja Heitmann, Hauke Heumann, Ingrid Krau, Keigo Kobayashi, Kollektiv ZOO, IngridLaFleur, Jan Lemitz, Eike Lucas, Clemens Melzer, Sebastian Quack, Sander vander Schaaf, Christoph Schäfer, Michael Schindhelm, Mieko Suzuki, MichaelZinganel a.o.

Dates

 A project by the Alliance of International Production Houses, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.