Citizen Art Days // Kooperative Kunststrategien und Beteiligungspotentiale im öffentlichen Raum

CAD market place #4 - University of the Trees - Berlin

2014-05-16T17:16:18Z

9 – 14 June 2014

Citizen Art Days ‘CAD Market #4' invites you to an intensive University of the Trees (UoT) programme from 9 -14 June in Berlin Mitte, facilitated by Shelley Sacks. University of the Trees (http://www.universityofthetrees.org) is an on-going platform for working with social sculpture understandings and practices in the field of human-nature interactions, transformative education, and creative, cultural action.

The programme runs daily from 15.00 to 19.00 [except Monday 9 June which is from 16.00 to 19.00] will introduce the core principles of the UOT as well as some of its programmes, like ‘Earth Forum'. The workshop will also position the UoT in the wider field of social sculpture, including associated people and projects. This will include an update on current UoT developments and future priorities.

Sacks says: “University of the Trees is a platform for developing creative responses to the ecological crises of our time. This includes perceiving our relationship and attitudes to the world. Exploring different kinds of thinking and experiential knowledge, as well as the relationship between ‘imaginal' thinking and action, it is an alternative, mobile university that offers ‘instruments' and approaches for connecting imagination and transformation, re-schooling the senses and building creative capacities for resilience. It is a university that stimulates ecological citizenship based on awe and working with what is difficult. As ‘artists' of a viable future, we need to explore the relationship between freedom and responsibility in all aspects of our lives, as well as the connection between inner work and outer work. The new dialogue processes and practices –like Earth Forum – are designed to facilitate such connections and to develop creative potential. In this global, participatory social sculpture – that can be realised and recognised everywhere on the planet - the trees and other beings are also teachers and the ecological crisis is an opportunity for consciousness.”

The workshop in Berlin
You can participate with or without prior involvement in the UOT. At the beginning of the week there will be an introduction to the UOT and the opportunity to participate in an Earth Forum. Two days in the middle of the week are set aside for those who want to do the Earth Forum training, and for those who have done it and want to deepen their practice. On Friday other UOT instruments will be introduced and discussed, as well as the forming of a Berlin-UOT group/s. On Saturday we will do an acupuncture action, renewing the tree-bands around the Victory Statue. After this we will create a temporary ‘field of awareness' and discuss how this can be used in different situations and localities.

If you have not yet done an Earth Forum and do not know about UOT, then you need to participate in the first two days at least. However, we recommend you participate in all the sessions if possible.

The sessions will be in German, with some English.

To cover the basic costs we are requesting a minimum contribution of €20. Please contact us to book a place.

Download venue

Venue: download site plan

Shelley Sacks, a student and later a colleague of Joseph Beuys has for more than three decades - through her own practices and research - been exploring ways to make accessible and develop Beuys' social sculpture proposals. This includes an exploration into the relationship between the imagination and transformative processes, as well as learning how to think together.

contact: anmeldung@citizenartdays.de

Link: https://www.facebook.com/socialsculpture

Program

Monday 9th June
4 – 7 pm)
– Inroduction
– Create a Field of Awareness

Tuesday 10th June
3 – 7 pm
– Earth Foren

Wendsday 11th June
3 – 7 pm
– Earth Forum Training

Thursday 12th June
3 – 7 pm
– Earth Forum Training

Friday 13th June
3 – 7 pm
– more instuments

Saturday 14th June
3 – 7 pm
– Field of Awareness, Tiergarten Berlin

Interview with Meena Vari

Stefan Krüskemper — 2014-04-01T08:23:46Z

Parallele Welten: How did the development of the Interim Semster at Srishti came about ?

Meena Vari: We started at Srishti with the Interim Semester in 2004. There were a lot of departments and every department was separate. Students never talked to each other. We thought that it would be interesting to have an interdisciplinary space build into the system so that students from different semesters and faculties are forced to talk to each other. Interim Semester was created with the focus that students should go out of the class room, connect with the public and create works from the public space itself.

PW: Do you see a difference in the use of public spaces here in India to other parts of the world?

MV: in India there are very few opportunities for people to see interactive performance based art in public spaces, but historically we had a lot of things that used to happen in the street places. You have people walking around like the circus groups. Handicraft and political activists, as part of their daily life, are performing outside. But they don't see it with that art vision, they see it as cultural things.

PW: What do you expect from the participating artists?
We invited artists for the Interim Projects from all over India, international artists, and also artists who are all ready practicing within Srishti. This year we had 22 projects in total during the one month lasting Interim Semester. As an institution, you have to guide people to the future. Where is the future for them, that is what we have to show and thats why practices like yours become important for students here. It is like opening different ways of thinking for them. For me the Interim worked, when the students find open windows and doors to associate with the public in a way.

PW: What is your vision for the future of the Interim Project?

MV: We look at an area, a practice that can have conferences, workshops and presentations, we can invite people, who are already experts. People from all over the world come and participate within the Interim Semester, so why not creating a bank of knowledge, that can be shared with people and which can be refered back. A bank of knowledge which is practiced in the public spaces, or practiced within experimentation that new media and new mediums offer. That would be a kind of a vision.

Meena Vari is Dean of Contemporary Art and Curatorial Practice at Srishti. Since 2002, she has been developing, organizing events and projects in close association with faculty members, visiting artists and students.

Published in Stadtkunst Kunststadt

Interview with Deepak Srinivasan

Stefan Krüskemper — 2014-04-01T08:22:23Z

Parallele Welten: What‘s the Tree Festival itself?

Deepak Srivinasan: Bangalore's history is tied to trees but nobody is really aware about the cultural and the historical aspects of natural heritage. Trees mean a lot for everyone connected to the city in terms of identity. The sudden growth of the city causes the authorities to run over private and public property and widening the old planted roads, getting of the trees. The numbers of old Bangalory who has been living here for twenty years are incredible low and accordingly the memories of what was. That are starting points for us to conceptualize the festival. It's a larger network of Artist, ecologists, musicians and tree-enthusiasts. We create a space for conversation. We are trying to find creative ways of protest which will involve more and more people, to allow them to see differently and become a part.

PW: What means Citizenship in India?

DS: Only It becomes evident in time of political elections in India. If things are going wrong politicaly class groups which have all the facilities might talk about it but they don't necessarily see it impacting citizenship. Academics NGO's and artists - the intellectuals of the society are the ones who more directly deal with the question of citizenship. Other groups are not really connected to it. The discourse is stuck in this sort of English speaking world. In the post colonial sense in of the divided India it becomes a divided sense of public.

PW: How are you trying to reach communities?

DS: We wanted to be more local in terms of the languages that we're communicating in. So we want to take some of the content back into more local and originally spaces. It has also to be done out of the rich tradition of the left using culture in protest using propaganda. People have to engage with new material which is not symbolic. Aesthetics becomes important in the process. You can‘t be an activist without bringing an aesthetic. We have always been thinking in images. When the public really engages it's not only about that cognitive rational sense of what should be right and wrong or what is democratic. The Indian public is connected to the image. We need to actively bring back the image and image making and thinking about images. It's all about compensation and communication and fighting ignorance.

PW: what is your role as an artist?

DS: I‘m critical of activism and art and the ways it function in the city. We really need a new way of imagining this in between characters. It's not so much of a role of an artist is much more of a facilitator of dialog.

Deepak Srinivasan - performance artist, media practitioner & researcher, founder of the Neralu Begaluru Tree Festival 2014

Published in Stadtkunst Kunststadt

Interview with Surekha

Stefan Krüskemper — 2014-04-01T08:20:10Z

Parallele Welten: How did you came to accept the curatorial work at the Rangoli Metro Art Center (RMAC) being an artist?

Surekha: Because of my kind of work. It's a big responsibility working in a public space. At the RMAC we had to start from the beginning, because in Bengaluru there are not public spaces like this. Here the space needs a different kind of art. So I think my work is getting people together, sort of connecting them and opening the public space.

PW: For most of our students it was the first time working in the public space and they were surprised because of the restrictions they found at the RMAC. Is there a difference working in the public space in terms of rules?

S: It is something in between, I think. I'm from the art background, I've been working as an artist for more than 15 years and we have those spaces that are private and we know what is happening there, we all know how things work there. Here I don't know how the reaction is going to be, you have 2.000 people walking and 2.000 opinions. If one person comes and falls here, he will go the press. Simple things like that... Those are the questions we have to handle here. Since I'm here responsible, I'll try to negociate and find a way within the system, so that things can be done.

PW: How do you see the development of the RMAC? According to restrictions, to the questions of public space...

S: Since the begin we realized that the space could be opened not only for visual arts, but for many different things. Even I sort of opened up...and started seeing in a much more wide perspective. But we are still experimenting, because it's been just 6 months... Somehow it is coming to some direction know. At the begin we didn't know how it would really work. ...an Art Center for the city. Like the word Rangoli for the logo. Rangoli is this ritual people do in front of their houses on the floor, but it is also this form of connecting points. That's the whole idea, the idea of a unique drawing, of a visual form with different dots that connect and make a new form. PW: Do you have a vision for the RMAC?

S: This should be a place full of different sorts of projects… so many things that give people the idea of an utopian art, a kind of art utopia in the space. Also with much less restrictions, with more freedom, giving only importance to the freedom of art expression.

Surekha is visual artist and has realized numerous projects for the public spaces. She curates the Rangoli Metro Art Centre since it was made available for the public in May 2013.

Published in Stadtkunst Kunststadt

Belgrade - The Toolkit Project Exchange with Berlin- Citizen Art Days

Marjetica Potrč — 2013-07-29T21:23:45Z

Students of Design for the Living World, HFBK Hamburg with Marjetica Potrč and participants of The Citizen Art Days discuss participatory practices and exchange of knowledge with residents on two locations, in Belgrade and in Berlin.

The Toolkit, Foto: Till Richter

The Toolkit, Foto: Till Richter

Design for the Living World is a class on participatory practice by Marjetica Potrč at Hochschule für bildende Künste HFBK in Hamburg. From September 15 - November 18 2013 Design for the Living World engage with The Toolkit Project in Savamala district of Belgrade. Students work with residents to acquire a particular craft and learn about the social and economic systems that support it. The Toolkit Project is part of Belgrade Urban Incubator and it is supported by the Goethe Institute Belgrade, the City of Belgrade and the Municipality of Savski Venac and HFBK Hamburg.

Students of Design for the Living World, HFBK Hamburg in St.Lambrecht, Foto: Pater Gerwig

Students of Design for the Living World,
HFBK Hamburg in St.Lambrecht, 2011
Foto: Pater Gerwig

[(The Citizen Art Days 2013 will take place from September, 27th to October, 6th 2013. Please note that the program is not yet finally fixed. Exact dates for the various events will be announced.)]

Karma economy

Van Bo Le-Mentzel — 2013-07-26T12:07:56Z

Le Van Bo's idea is to enable access to high-quality and timeless design for many people. His Hartz IV furniture series is not for sale, since the process of self-assembly is crucial.

Citizen Art Days support the crowdfunding campaign for the construction of the Unreal Estate House und want to use it for the CAD13.

www.startnext.de/unreal-estate-house

Musicircus

Sigune von Osten — 2013-07-26T11:25:20Z

Musicircus is an idea related to public space of the composer, visual artist, poet, philosopher, Zen follower and mushroom expert John Cage. It consists of a single phrase with instructions and the announcement of the time and place for those who would like to participate in an artistic performance at the same time in the same place together with others. It is nothing less than an organized chaos and the dissolution of boundaries, the interaction between arts and everyday life.

The internationally known singer and music artist Sigune von Osten, who knew Cage personally, will create her Musicircus on the occasion of this year's Citizen Art Days in Berlin and direct all contributors.

www.artpoint-th.com

Eranosdialogue

Christiane ten Hoevel — 2013-07-26T11:12:42Z

Eranos in ancient Greece was originally a meal with friends to which each guest contributed something. In a figurative sense, Eranos is a spiritual feast, to which the invitees bring something of their own, for example a speech, a song, a contribution of whatsever kind, or the openness to improvise together creatively in a discussion. The common spiritual acting characterizes Erano's meals with friends and guests. The underlying idea is that each individual can make a personal contribution. The resulting common “We” offers the possibility for something new to emerge.

“Eranosdialogtreffen” (Erano's dialogue meetings) take place since 2012 in different locations and can be initiated by anyone.

How to change - applied post-growth economy

Boris Woynowski — 2013-07-26T10:52:53Z

In view of ecological, social and economic crises, an economic growth that exceeds the tolerance of the ecosystem boundaries neither appears to be a sustainable option, nor a desirable development trend. Thus, individual and social change processes are required to ensure long-term prosperity and quality of life. These transition processes - away from the focus on economic growth and moving towards socially and ecologically tolerable economic practices and lifestyles with the goal of a cohesive post-growth economy or post-growth society – are summarized as "growth turn”.

Boris Woynowski's and the members' of the “Förderverein Wachstumswende e.V.” (a registered supportive association supporting growth turn) declared goal in relation to this socio-ecological transformation towards a post-growth economy or post-growth society according to the bylaws is

– to analyze with scientific methods
– to realize ecologically and socially responsible forms of business and lifestyles themselves and
– to make the knowledge about it accessible to public and politics the form of education

In this context, the association pursues the non-profit interest of promoting education.

Boris Woynowski assumes the introduction of the theme day »P-Day«

More about the theme day Applied post-growth economy

Citizens Campus Mentorship

Susanne Bosch — 2013-07-26T10:26:12Z

Citizens are the driving force for change and the experts of their everyday life and they are also those who can offer the most creative and sometimes sustainable ideas for their personal environment. For me, the "Citizens Campus" is an intervention of citizens aiming at the sustainable changing of the urban environment. The civil campus for me stands for the idea of a "social organism" where spirituality, openness, creativity and imagination, which are already existent in everyone of us, can flourish. These skills only need to be recognized, trained and promoted. The "Citizens Campus" can thus be regarded as a kind of support program for these skills.

I'm looking forward to supporting the realization and specification of these ideas.

To the "Citizens Campus" projects