2009-2010. URBAN BUDDY SCHEME PROGRAMME 2009
INTERNATIONAL SEMINARPlace: La Casa EncendidaRonda de Valencia 2Dates: 5-8 February 2009
Madrid is growing in an unprecedented pace. Multi disciplinary initiatives are engaged in processes that formulate new possible relationships with the city and its inhabitants, this while revealing complex layers of information. Activities that aim to envision possible futures, beyond the current construction crisis, continue with impressive strength.
Madrid Abierto 2009-10 (previously an annual event of interventions in the city, now biennial) will host a seminar at La Casa Encendida 5-8 February 2009. This edition of Madrid Abierto sets out to investigate the potentials of collaborative socio-cultural and politically engaged work and how such work may perform as catalysts for change in the city. We will also try to activate processes that integrate new bodies of knowledge into the already existing.
The aims for these days are basically two. One is to connect the group of selected Madrid Abierto participants with people in Madrid, but also to keep connecting people in Madrid with each other. The resulting networks we aim to establish will hopefully serve as information base, forum for discussion and exchange in preparation for Madrid Abierto projects that are presented in February 2010.
In an effort to provide the artists visiting from abroad with tools that facilitate exchange with people in Madrid as well as an understanding and engagement with the city, locally based practitioners from various fields have been invited to present their views of Madrid. The seminar also includes a group of additional invited artists with an international profile who presents their context specific works carried out in other parts of the world as springboards for further discussion.
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PROGRAMME
Thursday 5 February6.00-6.15 pm. Welcome speech by Cecilia Andersson, Curator of Madrid Abierto and Jorge Díez, Director of Madrid Abierto.
6.30-7.15 pm.Brief introductions for all invited participants. Open to the public for participation.
7.15-21.00 h.Presentations by Andrés Jaque, Basurama, Ludotek and Wunderkammer. Chaired by Javier Duero.
Friday 6 February 6.00-6.45 pm.Presentations by Studio Kawamura Ganjavian, Uriel Fogué, C.A.S.I.T.A. y Exprimentolimon. Chaired by Luis Úrculo.
7.00-7.45 pm. Presentation by Kyong Park.
8.00-9.00 pm. Presentations by Apolonija Šušteršič + Meike Schalk, Alexander Gerdel y Teddy Cruz. Chaired by Kyong Park.
Saturday 7 February 12.00-2.30 om. One-on-one meeting expert meetings with inivted participants and the attending public.
6.00-6.45 pm. Presentation by International Festival.
7.00-7.45 pm. Presentations by Laurence Bonvin, Susanne Bosch y Josep-Maria Martín. Chaired by STEALTH.
8.00-9.00 pm. Presentations by Jean François Prost, Adriana Salazar y Gustavo Romano. Chaired by International Festival.
Sunday 8 February 6.00-6.45 pm. Presentation by STEALTH.
7.00-7.45 pm. Presentations by Pablo Valbuena, Iñaki Larrimbe y Lisa Cheung. Chaired by STEALTH.
8.00-9.00 pm. Final discussion with all the participants. Chaired by Cecilia Andersson.
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PARTICIPANTS
Lara Almárcegui (Spain). Her work often explores neglected or overlooked sites, carefully cataloguing and highlighting each location's tendency towards entropy. Her projects range from a guide to ruins in Holland to the display of materials used to construct the cities in which she shows. Her works are simple actions. Behind them are vast research processes.
Cecilia Andersson (Sweden) is curator and founder of Werk Ltd., a curator's studio in Stockholm. Her latest projects include Supersocial; a platform for events organised in different cities and On Cities; an exhibition at the Swedish Museum of Architecture, Stockholm. Curator of Madrid Abierto 2009-10.
Basurama (Spain) focuses its action area in productive processes, the waste such processes generate and the creative possibilities brought about by this contemporary circumstance. It aims to study phenomena that are part of the massive production of real and virtual rubbish in the consumer society, providing new views that act as generators of thoughts and attitudes.
Laurence Bonvin (Switzerland) appraoch her subjects in so-called "documentary style" that implies an exploratory approach, close to objectivity and away from the spectacular. Main fields of exploration are suburban periphery, urban sprawling, the landscape and architecture. Research include discussions with sociologists, urban thinkers, architects and others involved in the shaping of urban contexts.
Susanne Bosch (Germany/United Kingdom) carries out site-specific, gallery and context-based installations, films, drawings, objects, publications and collaborative event-based projects. Her work is usually based on long-term research questions such as the role and potential of art in contested societies and situations.
C.A.S.I.T.A. -on this occasion Diego del Pozo, Eduardo Galvagni and Loreto Alonso- (Spain) carries out projects produced in collaborations that generate time for dialogue simultaneously as they take place in autonomous art spaces. Their current project ( http://www.ganarselavida.net/) observes the conditions of subjectivity and methods of production.
Lisa Cheung (Great Britain/Canada) is interested in public spaces and in creating environments where social exchange can occur. She is also interested in the temporary structures that constitutes urban landscape. In recent projects she utilised gardening and cultivating plants as a point of interaction and participation.
Teddy Cruz (United States). The task of contemporary art and architecture today should be to reveal territorial and institutional conflicts as an operational tool to redefine practices of intervention in the public domain. No advances in design can occur without re-organizing existing political structures and economic resources. This in order to promote alternative systems of sociability and activism.
Jorge Díez (Spain), cultural director and curator. Director of Madrid Abierto and co-director of the MBA in Companies and Cultural Institutions of the Santillana/Salamanca University, curator of the 2008-09 program Espai 13 of the Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona.
Javier Duero (Spain) is an independent curator and cultural producer. He has developed projects and been the curator of exhibitions in different institutions and centres of national and international art. Currently he directs a research group on the cultural tissue of the region of Madrid for the CA2M in Móstoles. He is a member of the Pensart Cultura association.
EXPRIMENTOLIMON (Spain). A non-profit cultural association created with the aim to raise public awareness on the citizen's reading of and engagement with contemporary art. Through different workshops they attempt to make people contemplate and discuss cultural and social topics. Exprimentolimon is a multidisciplinary group involving psychologists, sociologists and art teachers.
Uriel Fogué (Spain) is an architect and teacher of the Architectonical, City and Territory Department at ESAYA (UEM). He is co-editor of the publication UHF. Most recent projects and works of his Agencia de Arquitectura (Agencia de Arquitectura (Architecture Agency) look at the "infra-structuring" of public space as an aesthetic policy practice concerning energy.
Alexander Gerdel (Venezuela). "Shanty" is a recurring topic in Gerdel's work, which resorts to this marginal and periphery architectonic figure - excluded from official history - to analyse the idiosyncrasy of a country and to confront it with its cultural identity.
International Festival (Sweden), initiated by architect Tor Lindstrand and choreographer Marten Spangberg, devises work in a range of cultural contexts and operate at the interface between architecture and performance, and between object and action. Their work facilitates a collective dialogue that aims to dissolve the line between spectator and viewer.
Andrés Jaque Architects (Spain) and the think tank linked to the Political Innovation Office explore the role architecture plays in building societies. They administer the political quality brand Arquitectura Parlamento (Parliament Architecture) and design political transparency plans; urban planning based on the word of mouth or social assemblies based on controversy, among others.
Kawamura-Ganjavian (Spain). Architecture studio established by Key Portilla-Kawamura and Ali Ganjavian. They have worked in several countries in the fields of urbanism, architecture, stage design and product design. Their projects range from the scale of domestic objects to the territorial scale using a consistent language of concept-materialisation throughout these diverse endeavours. They are founding members of Studio Banana.
Iñaki Larrimbe (Spain) cultural activist. In the field of comic strips he co-founded and co-directs the magazine TMEO. He recently coordinated the device Inmersiones focused on artistic practices emerging from the Basque Country. As an artist his most recent works aim to belong to a "do it yourself" culture situated within the mechanisms of cultural industries.
Ludotek (Spain). Ludotek is a chronotopic, social and physical research lab.Ludotek proposes a critical exploration related to the leisure activities of the contemporary individual.Ludotek researches children's activities, produces tests with children based on video, ludograms, documents and play with children without providing any type of education.
Josep-Maria Martín (Spain). With a subjective and reflective will questions and criticises the reality upon which he decides to work. His pieces emphasise ideas about process, research, participation, involvement and negotiation so that the agents identified for each project become real generators of a common project.
Kyong Park (United States) is associate professor at University of California San Diego (from 2007), a co-curator for Shrinking Cities in Berlin (2002-2004), the founding director of International Center for Urban Ecology, Detroit (1999-2001), a curator of Kwangju Biennale, South Korea (1997), the founder/director of StoreFront for Art and Architecture in New York (1982-1998).
Jean François Prost (Canada). Artist and architect whose work is based on initiating change in our perception and conception of the urban environment. Projects aim to activate uses in public spaces, contribute and begin to rebuild an urban imaginary, show, encourage visible acts of resistance, of sociability and signs of positive antagonism.
Gustavo Romano (Argentina) has carried out his work using different media: action art, installations, video, net art and photography. He favours the concept of "project" over work of art. He participated in the Havana Biennial and the Singapore Biennial, among others. Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship 2006.
Adriana Salazar (Colombia) has observed how our behaviours become a sign of our subjectivity, and despite this they are not normally the object of our reflections. She has then gone to the production of machines that subvert the sense of our actions: doing actions clumsily, repetitively and out of context, turning the ordinary into something absurd.
STEALTH.unlimited -Ana Dzokic and Marc Neelen- (Serbia/The Netherlands). Their practice spans urban research, spatial intervention and cultural activism. STEALTH considers space a tool and agency. Projects like Wild City (Belgrade) or Urban Catalyst (Amsterdam) involve diverse models of collaborative practicing and co-creation. Co-initiators of Lost Highway Expedition (Western Balkans) and co-curators of the Dutch pavilion, Venice (2008).
Apolonija Šušteršič + Meike Schalk (Germany/The Netherlands/Slovenia). Šušteršič's artistic research combines practice and theory to pursue methods for reflection in which the provocation of crisis leads to a scenario of alternatives and spaces for hope. Schalk is an architect and researcher, teaching the Critical Studies Studio at KTH School of Architecture in Stockholm, together with FATALE (Feminist Architecture Theory Analysis Laboratory Education).
Luis Úrculo (Spain), a graduate of the ETSAM and Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, carries out projects involving architecture, video, design and illustration, among others for Philippe Starck, Sybilla, Mansilla-Tuñón and BCG. He has exhibited his work recently in the 11th Biennial of Venice, FreshMadrid!, Gallery Dama Aflita (Porto) and JAE (Young Spanish Architects).
Pablo Valbuena (Spain),architect graduated at the ETSAM, he has been linked to the tangent spheres of art and architecture, developing spatial concepts applied to virtual environments, videogames, cinema and digital architecture. He currently develops art projects related to space, time and perception.
WUNDERKAMMER -bblab, G+W gálvez-wieczorek, MISC- (Spain).Team made up of three studios that together develop projects within the field of architecture, urban planning, landscaping, design and teaching. Their collaboration does not fit into a standard studio model, but rather as a laboratory that accommodates a constant exchange of ideas and experiences.
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Director: Jorge DíezCurator: Cecilia AnderssonCoordination: RMS La Asociación
Organize: Asociación Cultural Madrid Abierto y La Casa EncendidaSponsor: Fundación Altadis, Área de Gobierno de las Artes del Ayuntamiento de Madrid, Consejería de Cultura y Turismo de la Comunidad de MadridCollaborator: Casa de América, ARCO, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Fundación Telefónica, Ministerio de Cultura, Radio 3, Canal Metro, Fundación Rodríguez-Centro Cultural Montehermoso
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2009-2010. EVALUATION MEETING 2010 (report)
MADRID ABIERTO 2009-2010Evaluation meetingMatadero, 2nf and 3rd of July 2010
Attendees
Laurence Bonvin, Susanne Bosch, Lisa Cheung, Iñaki Larrimbe, Josep-Maria Martín, Jean-François Prost and Gustavo Romano (participant artists in Madrid Abierto 2009-2010); Pablo España (Democracia), Ramon Parramon and Fito Rodríguez (members of the advisory committee of Madrid Abierto 2007-2009); Jorge Díez and Marta de la Torriente (Asociación Cultural Madrid Abierto); Pilar Acón, María Molina, Mariano Serrano and Manuela Sevilla (collaborators of Madrid Abierto 2009-2010).
Issues
The treated issues according to the established programme created by the advisory committee of Madrid Abierto (March 2008):
Fito Rodríguez comments on the reasons for the absence of this edition’s curator, Cecilia Andersson, who should provide an essential perspective for the evaluation. He also stresses that the horizon seems to be predetermined in suggested guidelines.
Jorge Díez states that proper dates to allow the presence of everyone involved were discussed but that it had been impossible for her to come. He says that in a meeting with Cecilia after the presentation of projects in February, they analyzed the difficulties she had to carry out a proper tracking of the production of projects, due to her living in Sweden and the overlap that occurs when making decisions with the production team and headship of Madrid Abierto. Anyhow, the experience of this edition, which covered two years, with a previous preparatory encounter in February of 2009 was considered very positive. Regarding the proposed guidelines for 2011, they are the consequence, on one hand, of the convenience of developing tasks which are impossible to cover following the usual calendar of project development and, on the other hand, the impossibility of compromising the institutional funding for the next edition, bearing in mind the next local and autonomic elections in the first semester of 2011.
Bellow, different issues brought up in this evaluation session:
1. Keep the open call with a maximum of 50% more artists invited by the curators.To Jean-Françis Prost the edition was very interesting and we must keep it this way. Pablo España underlines the fact that the open call is one of the essential features of the project. No discussion on the subject of percentage of guests.
2. Create a biennial periodicity, keeping the debate sessions and presentations of selected artists for the first year. Focus, the first year as well, on working with selected artists and elaboration of projects.Diversity of opinions regarding this issue, which are determined by the type of project each artist is dealing with. Some artists, like Josep-María Martin, consider a two year span very little time and suggest it should be triennial (first year for reflection, second year to conceptualize the idea and third year to develop the project. “I have had very little time to reflect on the project, in 6 months I had to deliver a final project and for my type of work there is not enough time to conceptualize”.) When asked about such periodicity, Iñaki Larrimbe considers two years as too much time. Other participants came up with the option of giving each artist the time he needs and carry out the project at different points in time, respecting the cycles of each project and its process. Josep-María insists on the fact that it depends on the type of project, if it has already been thought about and is a development of some previous concept or if it is a project that needs to comprehend and develop within the city, with the community. Laurence Bonvin thinks that she would have needed a whole year to discover the city and another year to take the pictures, she agrees with the fact that it depends on if the project already exists. Pablo España thinks that the model of this last edition is much more realistic regarding artistic practices, thus it has clearly improved. The model might use one practice or the other, depending on the global project. The 2008 edition was of direct propaganda. He agrees in expanding the time span but questions its viability.We should keep the first year’s encounter, considered by Susanne Bosch, among others, as very important to create contacts, relationships and know the inner workings of Madrid. In such encounter, the Urban Buddy Schemme should prevail by bringing people together and meeting the city’s residents and other agents that might help in the subsequent development, infrastructure and dialogue that the project will need. Josep-María also thinks that the first encounter in February 2009 went very well. He thinks we should keep that first event and create an intermediate work meeting for the artist to get involved in the management of Madrid Abierto and foster collaborations between projects.
Josep-María thinks it is essential to increase the time period in order to find external funding which is necessary for each project. He also believes that Madrid Abierto should become an agency which prolongs the project in time while other projects and things take place during the year and not only during February. He thinks there at two possible models:A- Select projects in open call and start work.B- Offer contexts and relations to the artists and start working on the project at that moment.He thinks the best model would be a synthesis of both. Ramón Parramón thinks that the concentration of projects in time is positive in relation to communication, visibility… and negative for the artist, but it is necessary to keep a common moment in time for all projects. Pablo thinks that we are tending more and more towards the invisibility of the projects therefore he considers it essential to have a date in which they coincide, although there are projects that need more time and continuity. That common moment could be an exhibition.
Josep-María thinks that it’s very important to do something to make the subjective element of each project visible (Are we capable of transforming something subjective? Reveal the work that has been carried out?). Fito believes we should create an accessible device for the public, to explain the projects. He thinks it makes no sense going back to exhibition halls, this would undermine what has already been achieved in public space. There has to be another way to show it, that is the problem. Pablo thinks it is possible to use both platforms; the hall and public space. He doesn’t believe in going back to the institutions or to work in the enclosed space of exhibition halls. Fito and Susanne think the artist himself should take his project from the subjective realm to decide and find the way of showing it; he has to find a solution in order for the external to return to an enclosed space. Laurence thinks there are projects in which we have to discuss not only how they should be shown but also, in projects that have dealt with an external community, to see how such community or communities have been represented and information returns to that community.
Josep-María thinks that technical problems should be shown, why a project has ended up being a certain way and not another, how a project has started, its plan and how it has ended up. Madrid Abierto is a laboratory, with a development in which the artist’s final analysis and delivery of information is essential. It is also essential to arrive to final conclusions, which must be transmitted. Fito dwells on how people can start out from this lab to transcend it and surpass its frontiers into other realms.
3. Continue with February’s interventions In general, people have suggested carrying out projects outside the month of February, for it is not a proper month weather wise, as well as the amount of ARCO related activities, which interfere. Susanne thinks that by changing the intervention month, a different use of space would be activated on the public’s mind. Manuela Sevilla also thinks it is necessary to change the interventions’ month. Josep-María thinks that the interesting side of keeping it in February is that it coincides with ARCO providing affluence of specialized public that is in Madrid in those dates. The possibility of keeping it during ARCO is discussed, but extending the period of exhibition from one month to three. Jorge Díez underlines the fact that, both the common moment in time and its coinciding with ARCO are product of the restructuring of the Open Spaces project carried out by the Altadis Foundation within the Fair itself and on the other hand, the needed visibility both for the public and sponsorship. It is also indisputable that much of the professionals that go to ARCO can discover Madrid Abierto knowing that it would be very difficult to make them come expressly to see it. Also, due to the lack of money that Madrid Abierto invests on promotion, a special time gap has been created in the busy calendar of the city, just before ARCO, which the media has already incorporated. An example is the lack of attention that the media showed for Susanne’s project which started in November.
4. Include a paragraph in the call to contextualize the edition and another more specific paragraph written by the curator/s.Susanne thinks it is essential because, in her case, she decided to participate only after having read that paragraph.
5. Continue to physically and conceptually exceed the Prado-Recoletos-Castellana axis.Lisa Cheung doesn’t feel the need to keep intervening within those limits.Pablo España thinks that it is necessary to surpass those limits to continue with the more realistic model developed in Madrid Abierto.Jorge considers the transgression of these limits has taken place increasingly and effectively in successive editions. On the other hand, right now institutions would be thrilled by the idea of Madrid Abierto leaving the axis completely. There have been projects (critically oriented) in last editions which have involved very complicated negotiations due to the visibility they had within the axis, and for which other locations entailed no resistance at all.
6. Continue with audiovisual and sound sections and amplify specific means for their broadcast.The issue wasn’t discussed.
7. Maintain the current advisory committee and choose the curators among its members.Jorge explains how in 2009, after some personal resignations, they decided to dissolve the committee created in 2007, after the interesting review of the Madrid Abierto model, as consequence of conflicting interests on the role of the curator and also the bad administration of its participation in the model applied by Cecilia in the preparatory encounter of February of 2009.Once again the role of the curator is discussed, issue on which there is a diversity of opinions. Fito thinks it is important to maintain two values:a. The flexibility proven by Madrid Abierto to constantly review the model.b. He supports the idea of eliminating the curator as individual figure and suggests a collective curatorial position (it’s risky but this wide open policy is a beautiful idea).
On the other hand, like Josep-María, Susanne and Lisa, they support the figure of the individual curator when carrying out their role correctly. It is essential for the curator to be in contact with the artists and never to be “absent”. Josep-María thinks that in this edition the contact with the curator has been very intermittent and might have affected some projects.
Pablo thinks that if the curator is eliminated, Madrid Abierto is under the risk of becoming standard. Josep-María thinks that if we intend to continue with the idea of plurality, and thesis, there must be a curator or curatorial group (for example, maybe the artists of one edition might select the artists of the next), someone to direct the process as an interlocutor in a concrete place, an accessible person who knows the context of Madrid. Susanne thinks it is essential to give each edition a subject or theme; the curator can be international but we also need someone who knows the realities of the city. She suggests the idea of a young person able to create a connection with a foreign curator.
8. Generate documents and publications which expand the experience and the accumulated knowledge of the five editions,Total agreement.
New issues suggested outside the programmed plan:
1. Communication. Essential subject in which there is total agreement. Jean-François, due to his type of project, can’t plan everything beforehand and needs to carry out an action to activate sensibility and participation in the workshop. His intervention in Atocha has been complicated due to the station’s own rhythm and type of people that walk through the area. He would have needed more communication in order to get to people. He suggests the creation of a better and more specific map or plan where each intervention is clearly distinguishable. We have to find and develop new communication channels so the interventions get to the general public.
2. Manuela considers the project has globally gotten to the public after six editions and has been better conceptualized. By taking place in a two year period it becomes more “intriguing” to the public that follows it with more interest.
3. Ramón Parramón thinks Madrid Abierto has found a balance and has grown to relevant dimensions. He finds it complex because it combines a festival with production and residency (distributed in time). To him it also needs contacts and interaction with neighbourhoods and communities. It is important not to have a space or location of reference.
4. Josep-María believes in the importance of evaluation sessions, which must continue to maintain a transparency which he finds essential.
5. Ramón Parramón thinks the team of Madrid Abierto is too small, he also believes dynamic projects need a tracking, both in preproduction and the rest of the process until they develop completely. Fito says the model each time tends more towards a production agency. Therefore he thinks it is fundamental to create a larger team to produce less projects of larger potential. In his mind a team must be created and dedicated to the production, search of interlocutors for dynamic processes and development, as well as another group exclusively dedicated to communicate with the people, communities, media, blogs,… Josep-Maria disagrees with the idea of reducing the number of projects.
6. Madrid Abierto’s independence is crucial.
7. Josep-María and Susanne Bosch think it’s necessary to create residencies for artists.
8. To Josep-María communication and interaction between selected artists is necessary (an initial one and another during the process in order to share the complexity of its development). He claims not to have known the final development of each project, this has frustrated him. Although Laurence thinks it’s very important to bring the artists together during the year, she finds it very difficult, having the timing of each project in mind, to find a date and moment which fits everyone’s agenda. Lisa agrees with the organization of an annual event to specify the needs of each project and to put them in common with the rest of the artists. Jean-François thinks that the lack of communication between artists has been their own responsibility, they are the ones who must create relationships, but they haven’t. He thinks that, for this purpose, certain platforms or already existing tools could be used for this communication. For example, he names places to meet for five days to work on one project, then on another, and then with the rest. Laurence thinks Madrid Abierto is the one who should decide if it wants more interaction among artists.
9. Laurence considers there must be more communication with the Madrid Abierto team which should explain each person’s role in the organization not to get confused when working. Josep- María agrees on this, there must be a curator, a global producer and local producer; this last position would be currently missing. Due to this communication he claims not to have been able to study or see the different possibilities to develop his project, but to have been given very limited options. Jorge says that in the meeting of February 2009 each person’s function was explained, inside the tiny team of Madrid Abierto. He also explains all the options that were gradually given, for example, to Josep-María regarding his project, which, at some point and, in spite of having a local mediator chosen by himself was in a dead end, solutions that turned out to be pretty effective, for example, to locate and access an apartment where immigrants lived.
10. Both Laurence and Jean-François think it is important to make a first payment of fees at the beginning of the edition. Laurence also thinks that part of the fees should be external to the rest of the money used in production, being important to speed up the payment of those fees. Jorge explains that the fees are included in the totality of each project, but clearly separated and quantified; he apologizes once again because the payment still hasn’t been made due to the fact that Madrid Abierto has not received the City Hall’s subsidy yet, something that has never happened before.
11. Laurence thinks it is important for foreign artists to have a person who mediates with the project and knows the city well. For Lisa’s type of projects, she says she needs an infrastructure-platform to develop them and a different dialogue to that which other projects may need. To her it is basic to have a person in the city where she’s intervening through which she can access the people of different neighbourhoods and to create connections with them. Josep-María thinks that each project needs a support team or an ambassador (it could be done through University students or a teacher or hired person). With time to find funding, such support could be possible. Susanne thinks that the role of an ambassador who works and becomes each project’s spokesman is very important, be it a student or a hired person. Jorge stresses that in different ways all type of possibilities have been experimented, in some cases promoted by the artists and in others by Madrid Abierto. When someone is hired this must be included in the total budget and so it has been done when certain artists have decided to, but volunteers or grant holders have certain degree of uncertainty and lack of professionalism that some artists assume as part of the project and others don’t. The same thing happens with the basic team of Madrid Abierto, which changes with each edition. The reason to this is probably the scale of the whole project and the available budget, which, on the other hand, is dedicated mostly to the projects. It is very possible that the level of voluntarism has exceeded for long any reasonable limit.
12. The search of parallel ways to find funding. Jorge says that this has always been done in different ways for specific projects, but that the global funding has decreased once Altadis Foundation abandoned the project while other alternatives haven’t been found in the private sector, in spite of Telefonica Foundation’s momentarily interest. Also, both the City Hall and Community of Madrid have been reducing the budgets during the last two years, as a consequence of the economic crisis.
Result analysis of the finished projects and new guidelines:
1. Madrid Abierto’s open archive in Matadero.Jorge explains that, after many tries, and thanks to the collaboration of Pablo Berastegui, coordinator of Matadero, Madrid Abierto will share a space with three other projects (architecture, performing arts and visual artists from Madrid) to organize and centralize both the digital and physical contents that have been generated along the six editions. María Díaz and Manuela Sevilla are already structuring the contents and adding them to the archive.Susanne and Lisa think that each artist should provide material from the draft, the project and conclusions. It is also felt that it should be open, for communication (blog type) and for a future international forum. Jorge stresses the fact that, initially, everything will be incorporated, except certain contents due to their characteristics or to lack of permission from the artist to be uploaded. At first, like other archives in Matadero, they will be available for public enquire by having previously arranged a date. Susanne underlines the fact that there are other projects in Europe that are working on this subject. Jorge asks for available information to try and collaborate with them.
2. Educational project.María Molina considers it is possible to keep developing the educational project, in 2011 this year’s pilot experience could be extended.
3. Production of a document based exhibition about the whole of Madrid Abierto in its six editions.Jorge claims that this exhibition would help us review the work that has been done and reinforce the project’s presence both in exhibition halls and different activities to which Madrid Abierto is invited.
Due to lack of time we won’t analyze each project in the current edition, therefore we find both evaluation sessions to have ended.
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2009-2010. DISCUSSION PANELS PROGRAMME
Location: La Casa Encendida (Ronda de Valencia n 2)Moderated by: Cecilia Andersson and Jorge Díez.
MEETING AND PRESENTATION OF THE INTERVENTIONS
4th of Februaryfrom 18.00 to 21.00h
Participating artists:18.00 to 18.30 Lara Almarcegui18.30 to 19.00 Laurence Bonvin19.00 to 19.30 Teddy Cruz19.30 to 20.00 Josep-Maria Martín20.00 to 20.30 Pablo Valbuena20.30 to 21.00 Debate and questions
5th of Februaryfrom 18.00 to 21.00h
Participating artists:18.00 to 18.30 Susanne Bosch18.30 to 19.00 Lisa Cheung19.00 to 19.30 Inaki Larrimbe19.30 to 20.00 Adaptive Actions20.00 a 20.30 Gustavo Romano20.30 a 21.00 Debate and questions
PRESENTATION AND SCREENING OF THE AUDIOVISUAL PIECES
6th of February 18.00h
Introduction of the audiovisual pieces selected in the 9th and 10th edition of Intervenciones.tv conducted by Fito Rodríguez.
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2009-10. ARTISTS / INTERVENTIONS / LINKS
Laurence BonvinGhostownwww.laurencebonvin.com
Lisa CheungHuert-o-Buswww.lisacheung.com Iñaki LarrimbeUnofficial Tourismwww.web.jet.es
Josep-María MartínUna casa digestiva para Lavapiés / A digestive house for Lavapiéswww.josep-mariamartin.org
Adaptive ActionsCampo AA, Madrid / AA Camp, Madrid www.adaptiveactions.net
Gustavo RomanoTime Notes: Oficina móvil / Time Notes: Mobile Officewww.gustavoromano.org
Pablo ValbuenaTorre / Tower Blockwww.pablovalbuena.com
Teddy CruzVallecas Abierto: ¿Cómo nos van a ayudar con su arte? / Vallecas Abierto: How is your art going to help us?estudioteddycruz.com/
Susanne BoschHucha de desesos: ¡Todos somos un barrio, movilízate!www.susannebosch.de Lara AlmarceguiBajar al subterráneo recién excavado / Going down to the recently excavated underground passage.
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2009-2010. Adaptive Actions. AA CAMP-MADRID (poster / Estandard II)
** SEE THE ATTACHED PDF
09-10inmc2807
2009-2010. Adaptive Actions. AA CAMP-MADRID (2009.11 / project review / theoretical data)
NOVEMBER 2009
ADAPTIVE ACTIONS – GENERAL DESCRIPTION Short abstract
Adaptive Actions was initiated in London 2007 by Jean-François Prost and explores alterations in the workplace, at home and in public spaces in general. Identifying the variety of these personal and found alterations in the city as different forms of adaptation creates a vocabulary for the expression of the collective imagination through the existing urban structures therein.
These 'actions' modify and activate the intended use of architecture and enhance the character of the urban environments. They create positive tensions that test the limits of tolerated appropriation.
Can these simple actions, images and ideas, such as the hybridization of conventional and unusual urban realities, infiltrate our collective imagination to promote feelings of identity and a sense of cultural belonging?
Adaptive Actions points to how urban phenomena may have an impact on residents' perception of the environment and their relationship to it. By offering a space for sharing experiences, ideas, forms of actions and specific accomplishments, Adaptive Actions are in the process of compiling an inventory of alterations rarely presented to a general audience. Printed documents and organised events are being planned to increase the visibility of selected actions to the public eye, to build affiliations and encourage communal thinking.
For more information: www.adaptionactions.net
AA Camp in Madrid During the Adaptive Actions Camp in Madrid, we would like to document and create new micro-actions. Some actions will be initiated in Madrid (in various types of spaces and neighbourhoods) but also in other cities and countries. I cherish the idea of creating a project of distributed actions taking place simultaneously in different places and brought together in one communal art project. All actions will be documented on the website and some will be part of the next AA publication.
Open call (for collaboration): > Published in specialized and local neighbourhood newspapers > Posted on billboards, urban furniture and places were people can and already post information. > Sent to local community groups, schools and universities > Sent to artists, Madrid Abierto members and all those who submitted proposals for 2010 but were not selected. This in order to offer additional possibilities for participation, to increase the number of participants and to reach a wider audience.
DurationFrom Feb 04 – 28The camp would be open 5-6 days a week. Visual material will be visible at all times.
AA Publication – Madrid edition At the AA Camp the publication will be produced by several people who edit existing and incoming content (locally and through the web) in order to produce the new book, print and web (eBook format as a verbatim digital copy of the printed work) which will be published after the sojourn.
The publication will include (in Spanish and English) :- 101 Adaptive Actions or locations with images and when necessary short descriptions - 4 texts (or more) including: - 2 interviews: one on the topic of micro-politics with philosopher and theorist Brian Massumi and Marie-Pier Boucher, PHD student at Duke University in North Carolina, and Jean-François Prost as representative of Adaptive Actions.
ADAPTIVE ACTIONS. LONG DESCRIPTION
Global idea and intention:The project consists in documenting, revealing and creating new micro-actions of appropriations and unplanned uses in the city of Madrid and elsewhere
Action – process:The project indexes and reports on existing adaptive actions in the city and encourages the implementation of new activity in relation to architecture, urban spaces and objects. It unfolds in three overlapping stages: (1) a call for proposals; (2) action, and; (3) its subsequent publication/broadcast.
1. Call for Contributions and ProposalsIn order to document and create an inventory of existing urban acts, a survey is being conducted (before and during Madrid Abierto). The objective of this project is to document existing or new, marginal, singular or popular, less discussed or highly known forms and places of singular actions. The request for proposals accelerates the process. Several existing or proposed adaptive actions will be chosen along with an idea for a collective action and a workshop.
2. ActionA space for gathering, loitering and submitting proposals will be erected in a busy Madrid public building. This temporary camp (with a large recognizable sign indicating ADAPTIVE ACTIONS) will combine presence, production and interaction.
Our shared knowledge and expertise will be applied towards accomplishing a creative project the aim of which is to modify the intended, predominant or limited use of architectural and urban elements. This infiltration of public space highlights such topics as resident adaptive actions and appropriations, creative transformation potential and the multiplicity of users and uses.
3. Publication/broadcastThese new adaptive actions will be made public via the Internet and through the production of a publication. Dissemination within the community will aim at representing the different forms of actions (in the workplace, the home or public spaces in general) as a creative means of appropriating shared realities and therefore as a form of adaptation. The presentation of actions (on a greater or lesser scale), be they projected or completed, will create a vocabulary with which the collective imagination may express itself through the use of existing structures, and will encourage the growth of other actions.
The intervention is based on the repetition of a series of micro-actions, simple gestures imparting and initiating change in our perception and conception of the urban environment.This project wants to activate uses in public spaces, contribute and begin to rebuild an urban imaginary, show, encourage visible acts of resistance, of sociability and signs of positive antagonism.
Jean-François Prost, representative for the project
09-10intb3639
2009-2010. Adaptive Actions. AA CAMP-MADRID (poster / Scan, Script, Supplement / workshop)
** SEE THE ATTACHED PDF
09-10inmc2815
2009-2010. Adaptive Actions. THE ART OF LOITERING (theoretical data)
GLOBAL IDEA AND INTENTION
The Art of Loitering is a new work which will be created specifically for Madrid Abierto. The project consists in documenting, revealing and creating new loitering actions in the city of Madrid. This project explores the possibilities and enablement of loitering – i.e. flânerie, doing nothing, wasting time, staying idle in one place, moving slowly and, through this simple act, assert the public status of urban spaces.
CONTEXT
In Liverpool, I asked kids and teenagers what was the most public space in the city for them. Several answered their basement room or sofa. In their reality, the most public space was the most private of spaces: in the comfort of their home far away from any CTTV cameras or from increasingly common monitoring systems. In your living room, you can loiter, sleep with a hood over your head and gather in large groups without being scared of contravening public gathering laws (3 or more). After thought, this astonishing, unanticipated, spontaneous and even at first violent answer appeared the most logical to me. Had widespread forms of control, increased bans, CCTV cameras, exacerbated the boundaries between seen and unseen, inside and outside, private and public? Were usually visible social behaviour, illicit activities, signs of poverty, diversity and creativity pushed underground?
Observing cities around the world as well as my own, one readily realizes that the privatization and normalization of public space has become global. To what degree is Madrid like many other cities caught in this world phenomenon? Is loitering still an active part of Latin (especially in Spain) life and culture and can it inspire others? What is slowness today? Where do loitering acts take place: underground parking lots, parks, basements, underpasses, vacant lands, malls, derelict buildings? How can we describe them, qualify them, talk about them and make them visible? What do these current practices of loitering say about public spaces in general? Where, how and with what tools, devices or tactics can we initiate and develop new areas of flânerie in public spaces, often exclusively dedicated to circulation and consumption?
ACTION – PROCESS
The project indexes and reports on existing loitering actions in the city and encourages the implementation of new activity in relation to architecture, urban spaces and objects. It unfolds in three overlapping stages: (1) a call for proposals; (2) action, and; (3) its subsequent publication/broadcast.
1. Call for Contributions and ProposalsIn order to document and create an inventory of existing urban loitering acts, a survey is conducted (before and during the event Madrid Abierto). The objective of this project is to document existing or new, marginal, singular or popular, less discussed or highly known forms and places of loitering. The request for proposals accelerates the process. Several existing or proposed loitering actions will be chosen along with an idea for a collective action and a workshop.
2. ActionA space for loitering and submitting proposals will dwell on a busy Madrid street or plaza, or in a public building were people bustle and rarely have the opportunity or time to stop. From this temporary camp (with a large recognizable sign indicating LOITERING in Spanish) combining presence, production and interaction, participants and Madrid visitors will be offered loitering coupons (equivalent or higher to the hourly-rate salary in Spain). They will be paid to do nothing and to loiter with one of the Adaptive Actions Representative to share (discover) and document their existing or proposed act of flânerie. Workshops and acts of collective loitering will also be discussed and elaborated from this space during the event.
Our shared knowledge and expertise will be applied towards accomplishing a creative project the aim of which is to modify the intended or preponderant or limited use of architectural and urban elements. This infiltration of public space highlights such topics as resident adaptive actions and appropriations, creative transformation potential and the multiplicity of users and uses.
3. Publication/broadcastThe selected new and existing loitering actions will be made public through the distribution of multiple examples of a printed document and via the Internet . Dissemination within the community will aim at representing the different forms of loitering (in the workplace, the home or public spaces in general) as a creative means of appropriating shared realities and therefore as a form of adaptation. The presentation of actions (on a greater or lesser scale), be they projected or completed, will create a vocabulary with which the collective imagination may express itself through the use of existing structures, and will encourage the growth of similar actions.
The intervention is based on the repetition of a series of micro-actions, simple gestures imparting and initiating change in our perception and conception of the urban environment.This project wants to activate uses in public spaces, contribute and begin to rebuild an urban imaginary, show, encourage visible acts of resistance, of sociability and signs of positive antagonism.
Jean-François Prost, 2008Representative for the project
.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................* The project title and loitering lexicon will be in Spanish. A preliminary linguistic research is in progress, but no definite choices have yet been made.
* A section will be added to the website www.adaptiveaction.net for the loitering project and a Madrid edition of the Adaptive Actions publication-journal will be produced during and following the event
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2009-2010. Adaptive Actions. AA CAMP-MADRID (location)
Atocha train station, AVE Upper lobby
09-10intd2880
2009-2010. Adaptive Actions. AA CAMP-MADRID (poster / open call)
** SEE THE ATTACHED PDF
09-10inmc2805
2009-2010. Adaptive Actions. AA CAMP-MADRID (2009.05 / proyect review / theoretical data)
ADAPTIVE ACTIONS The process and concept are the same as previously proposed.
But instead of focussing on loitering, I prefer to make a broader call for collaboration on the Adaptive Action theme and have one or two workshops or collective actions on a specific topic such as loitering.
For and during the Adaptive Actions Camp in Madrid, we would like to document and create at least 101 new micro-actions. Some actions would be initiated in Madrid (in different types of neighbourhoods including the conurbano) and elsewhere in other cities in Spain or other countries. I cherish the idea of creating a project of distributed actions, simultaneously happening in different places and brought together in one communal art project. All actions will be documented on the website and some will be part of the next AA publication which will be produced during the Madrid Abierto event.
ADAPTIVE ACTIONS Camp in Madrid A space of production, presentation and actions
Open call (for collaboration)
> In specialized and local neighbourhood newspapers > posted on walls, urban furniture and places were people already post information. > to local community groups, schools and universities > to all those who proposed, submitted a project to Madrid Abierto but were not selected. - to offer them a possibility to participate, to increase the number of participants, and widen the audience.
Duration
One month in Madrid The camp would be open 6 days a week and activated by collaborators and me 4 or 5 days a week.
Publication
The publication will include: 30 (with current budget) to 101 Adaptive Actions (depending on final available budget for print & design) one center-fold poster-image 2-3 texts (or more if additional budget)
One interview
(which will be translated from English to Spanish) on the topic of micropolitics with philosopher and theorist Brian Massumi and Marie-Pier Boucher, PHD student at Duke University in North Carolina, and Jean-François Prost as representative of Adaptive Actions. Brian Massumi recently confirmed his participation and we will be doing this summer a few preliminary lectures and discussions before the official interview.
Collaborators
Confirmed for Madrid Abierto: Marie-Pier Boucher (Raleigh, USA) = 1 week (publication committee) Frank Nobert (Montréal) = 3 weeks (publication committee) Jean-Maxime Dufresne (Montréal)= 4-5 days (workshops) During the followings weeks I will be looking for two or three persons located in Madrid. I have several persons in mind and hope to meet others when I come back to Madrid and after making the call for collaboration.
Volunteers
Will you have one or two volunteers? I recently had two persons available at several events and it makes an enormous difference for the artist and visitors. It also permits the artist to free some time to document and assist the work of several participants creating actions outside of the camp.
Assistants
How many assistants will be available, and for how long, to assemble and demount the work?
PROJECT PROPOSAL FOR MADRID ABIERTO 2010
Global idea and intention
The project consists in documenting, revealing and creating new micro-actions of appropriations and unplanned uses in the city of Madrid and elsewhere
Action – process
The project indexes and reports on existing adaptive actions in the city and encourages the implementation of new activity in relation to architecture, urban spaces and objects. It unfolds in three overlapping stages: (1) a call for proposals; (2) action, and; (3) its subsequent publication/broadcast.
1. Call for Contributions and Proposals In order to document and create an inventory of existing urban acts, a survey is conducted (before and during the event Madrid Abierto). The objective of this project is to document existing or new, marginal, singular or popular, less discussed or highly known forms and places of singular actions. The request for proposals accelerates the process. Several existing or proposed adaptive actions will be chosen along with an idea for a collective action and a workshop.
2. Action A space for gathering, loitering and submitting proposals will dwell on a busy Madrid street, or in a public building. This temporary camp (with a large recognizable sign indicating ADAPTIVE ACTIONS) will combine presence, production and interaction.
Our shared knowledge and expertise will be applied towards accomplishing a creative project the aim of which is to modify the intended or preponderant or limited use of architectural and urban elements. This infiltration of public space highlights such topics as resident adaptive actions and appropriations, creative transformation potential and the multiplicity of users and uses.
3. Publication/broadcast The selected new adaptive actions will be made public through the production of a publication and via the Internet1. Dissemination within the community will aim at representing the different forms of actions (in the workplace, the home or public spaces in general) as a creative means of appropriating shared realities and therefore as a form of adaptation. The presentation of actions (on a greater or lesser scale), be they projected or completed, will create a vocabulary with which the collective imagination may express itself through the use of existing structures, and will encourage the growth of other actions.
The intervention is based on the repetition of a series of micro-actions, simple gestures imparting and initiating change in our perception and conception of the urban environment.
This project wants to activate uses in public spaces, contribute and begin to rebuild an urban imaginary, show, encourage visible acts of resistance, of sociability and signs of positive antagonism.
1 A section will be added to the website www.adaptiveaction.net for the Madrid edition and a second Adaptive Actions publication will be produced during the event.
MAY 2008 Jean-François Prost, representative for the project
09-10intb3417
2009-2010. URBAN BUDDY SCHEME / 07 feb 2009 (video)
Saturday 7th of February, 2009
1 Cecilia Andersson (presentation of International Festival)00:00 - 00:55
International Festival00:55 - 19:35
2International Festival00:00 - 19.39
3International Festival00:00 - 06:49
PRESENTATIONS, GROUP 1Moderator: STEALTH
4Josep-Maria Martín 00.00 - 16.56
Susanne Bosch18.37 - 19:39
5Susanne Bosch00.00 - 19.51
6Susanne Bosch00.00 - 01:22
Laurence Bonvin 01:40 - 18.35
STEALTH (questions)18:35 - 19:46
7STEALTH (questions)00.00 - 00:45
8STEALTH (discussion with the audience)02:20 - 15:14
PRESENTATIONS, GROUP 2ºModerator: International Festival
International Festival15:14 - 18:50
Jean François Prost18:50 - 26:29
9Jean François Prost00.00 - 05:27
Adriana Salazar 05:27 - 20.41
Gustavo Romano20:41 - 26:13
10Gustavo Romano00:00 - 09:50
09-10mdvc2429-7
2009-2010. Adaptive Actions. AA CAMP-MADRID (published text)
A space of production, presentation and actions www.adaptiveactions.net
AA
The Adaptive Action (AA) laboratory, initiated in London in 2007[1], lends voice to marginal causes, alternative urban lifestyles, counter-conducts and citizen’s artistic creations by which imagination and personal creativity influences daily life. AA makes an inventory in order to disclose these singularities and existing actions.AA also aims to encourage others to engage in new creative activities in order to adapt the urban fabric. AA nurtures itselfon individual and collective contributions and initiatives by extendingan open call for collaboration (taking placein several places simultaneously). AA is looking for contributions for the website, itspublication as well as for contributions that maystimulate reflection, discussions and presentations at the Camp in Madrid. Through the AAwebsite or at the Camp, people may register as actors and submit actions.These may be already existing, created by you or by others, all are welcome. You may also comment or discuss forthcoming contributions.
AA CAMP, MADRID
At the Atocha train station in Madrid, a production and live-action Camp will house the AA project during February. Experiences and materials – whether in the making or from past and/or future initiatives – will be presented at the Camp and in a forthcoming publication. Visitors may modify existing contributions or post their own. Supporters[2] at the Camp will assist theactors and discuss possible additions, proposed actions and arisingissues with participants. Madrid citizens will be invited to put forward micro-actions yet to be carried out.
WORKSHOPS
The program of events at the AA Camp (workshops/actions, lunch-and-learns) on specific topics and locations will build bridges between actors and actions. The latter will undergo prolongation and be remodelled. Some will be launched in Madrid some inother cities and countries) and collected into a joint art project. The aim, as Maurizio Lazzarato would say, is not to neutralise differences but, conversely, to enrich the concept of commonality through these differences[3]. As Lazzaratoargues, the challenge is to find ways to retain multiplicity, to embrace heterogeneity while maintaining disparity.
LIVE PUBLICATION
The second AA publication[4] will be developed and produced in Madrid, live and in publicwithin a limited timeframe. During themonth ofproduction camp, all material for the publication will be assembled and edited and by the end of thisprocess, the book will be published. Actors can contribute directly to the selection and preparation of material on site or viaemail. Throughout this process, visitors will post new actions atthe Camp, hallmarking the ongoingrenewal of adaptive actions in counterpoint to those featured in the publication. At the AA Camp, structure and planning will coexist with the unexpected.
EXPLORATORY MODE
This project will expand thoughts on various themes related and complementary to architecture and art, including the concept of post-production and unplanned, un-programmed transformation and appropriation that give meaning to the city. By this process, various impressions will merge. One-off, geographically isolated acts will converge and, in vast numbers, take new directions, shape coherences, strengths and arouse interest by creating unexpected -and otherwise impossible- associations, links and cross-references.
The project focuses on micro-actions because these prompt or modify our perception of the urban environment. Their design is a reflection and expression of behaviour in tune with artistic creation. Many actions are anonymous, unsigned, clandestine, previous to transformation. The authors are awarethat these actions will eventually be changed, maintained or possibly eliminated by others. Their relation to the context suggests a potential re-appropriation, but the collective imagination they establish - especially if they multiply by numbersand if their presence becomes widely known - ensures the sustainability of a state of mind akin to artistic expression. Consciousness, signature and participation are thus inherent to this type of project. Citizen actions suggest a different process for shaping cities, open and collaborative, responsive and crosscutting.
Visit www.adaptiveactions.net for information and schedule of activities, workshops and meals that will take place weekly at the AA Camp in Madrid and elsewhere.
...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
[1] By Jean-François Prost and at SPACE studios and Canadian International residency in Hackney, East London.
[2] Several past and new AA collaborators will, in turn, tend to the Camp.
[3] Yves Citton, Puissance de la variation, Maurizio Lazzarato, Multitudes 20, pp.187-200 and book : Puissances de l'invention. La psychologie économique de Gabriel Tarde contre économie politique, also published at Les empêcheurs de penser en rond, 2002.
[4] The first Adaptive Actions publication (UK edition) was launched in March 2009. It features many actions as well as articles by Pascal Nicolas-Le Strat (France), Judith Laister (Austria), Frank Nobert and Jean-François Prost.
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2009-2010. DISCUSSION PANELS / 5 feb 2010 (video)
5th of February 20106pm to 9pm. PRESENTATION OF THE INTERVENTIONS
1Presented and moderated by Cecilia Andersson and Jorge Díez (00:00 - 00:40)
Iñaki Larrimbe, Unofficial Tourism(00:40 - 20.05)
Adaptive Actions, AA Camp, Madrid(20:05 - 27:05)
2Adaptive Actions, AA Camp, Madrid(00:00 - 26:36)
3Adaptive Actions, AA Camp, Madrid(00:00 - 05.17)
Lisa Cheung, Huert-o-Bus(05:17 - 27:29)
4Lisa Cheung, Huert-o-Bus(00.00 - 01:24)
5Gustavo Romano, Time Notes: Mobile office(00.00 - 05:36)
Susanne Bosch + Zoohaus + María Molina, Hucha de desesos: ¡Todos somos un barrio, movilízate!Susanne Bosch(05.36 - 20:28)
6Susanne Bosch + Zoohaus + María MolinaSusanne Bosch(00.00 - 03:00)
Zoohaus(03:00 - 19:46)
Susanne Bosch + María Molina, Educational ProjectSusanne Bosch(19:46 - 20.29)
7Susanne Bosch(00:00 - 05:33)
María Molina(05:33 - 11:30)
Susanne Bosch + Zoohaus + María Molina(11:30 - 20:29)
8Debate and questions(00:00 - 06.27)
09-10mdvc2427b
2009-2010. Adaptive Actions. AA CAMP-MADRID (2009.11 / fieldwork)
INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE
ADAPTIVE ACTIONS Camp in Madrid A space of production, presentation and actions with Madrid Abierto, February 2010
To whom it may concern,
Several collaborators and myself are currently working on new content for the Adaptive Actions' website, second publication and to present and discuss at upcoming Madrid Abierto 2010 event. Adaptive Actions (www.adaptiveactions.net) will hold camp next February, during one month, in the centre of Madrid: a space for gathering, sharing experiences and submitting actions (happening in the city) while previous or ongoing ones will be shown. The idea is to create an environment in which thinking and doing enacts both local and international dimensions. The project investigates theories and examples of architecture that focus on the social, political, gender,activist or other aspects of the production of space.
I would very much like you to contribute to the Adaptive Actions' research platform in Madrid. I am looking for a collaborator, professor and students in Madrid interested by new ideas and research in alternative architectural and urban practices and to participate in a 2-3 day Charette workshop at the AA (Adaptive Actions) Camp.
The proposed topic: document absurd, unusual, neglected, over controlled spaces in need of reflection and different forms of activation. The objective is to document existing adaptive actions and encourage the creation of new ones by the proposal of critical spaces of intervention and give meaning to our daily built environment. The Charette will be followed by a round table discussion and documented progressively on the Adaptive Actions' Website and upcoming 2nd publication (Madrid edition).
Hoping you will accept our proposition, we look forward to your response so we can discus in more details and meet during my stay in Madrid during the following week.
If you have any other queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Kind Regards,
Jean-François Prost Adaptive Actions Email: infoadaptiveaction.net
(November 2009)
09-10intb2662
2009-2010. Adaptive Actions. AA CAMP-MADRID (2010.01 / technical data)
JANUARY 2010
TECHNICAL FACTS
Wireless Internet connection(for visitors to be able to see the website, directly add information and for us to be able to work and communicate- most of us won’t have a phone).
Electrical power (plugs) of 1000-1200 watts: for 3 laptop computers (3x65 watts) a small printer (100 watts)5 lamps (5x60 watts)2 battery chargers (2x65 watts)and occasionally a projector for presentations (200 watts) and 200 watts for additional needs.
Installation4 days (3min) to install (31st January, 1,2,3 of February) a day to disassemble (March 1st).
A small space for storage: in the station so we can deposit a suitcase with the printer and small objects.
+
If the meeting goes well, could you ask them for 10-15 collapsible chairs? (for the workshops and seminar) and three tables for the whole month.
09-10intb2658, 09-10inib3623
2009-2010. Adaptive Actions. INFLEXIONS IN THE GENERIC CITY, 2002-2003
INFLEXIONS IN THE GENERIC CITY, 2002-03
Jean-François Prost spent five months scouring and infiltrating generic places with the help of a specially constructed set-up. Begun in Granby as part of the Supra Rural residency program at 3e impérial, the project continues at the 2002 Biennale de Montréal he opened an office for six weeks, where he was present to document the places under study and share impressions with visitors in the course of casual discussions.
Jean-François Prost resorts to mimesis in one of his extramural projects. From April 15 to June 15, 2002, during his residency at the 3e impérial, and in following autumn at the Biennale in Montreal, the artist occasionally parked his white camper van in the parking lots of various shopping malls in the suburbs of Montreal and in Montérégie. This perfectly ordinary vehicle, concealed the fact that the interior was covered in styrofoam, which, despite the limited space, created a comfort zone reminiscent of a makeshift bedroom or a hotel room. Prost spent time there – sometimes entire days – sheltered from the traffic and surrounding activity. He read, wrote, thought, and sometimes received guests. He also took opportunity to visit the big commercial strips, where he collected observations on their layout. During these excursions, he sometimes left the rear door of the van open, exposing the unusual interior to the passing consumers. Prost says that he sometimes found, upon his return, people sitting around in the van – an indication of the vehicle’s agreeable interior.As the title suggests, the aim of the project was to modify the use of the ‘generic city’ – the identical architecture of the urban an suburban agglomerations that are found throughout North America, from Montreal to Mississauga to Seattle. The phenomenon is widespread (as observed in the uniformity of fast-food chains in both their design and their products), - but the proliferation of vast commercial complexes at the edge of cities is one of the most significant manifestations of this homogenization of the urban landscape. Prost explains that the layout of Wal-Mart and Costco branches are planned right down to the smallest details, so that to shop in Longeuil, Philadelphia or Los Angeles, is to be subtly forced to use the same perceptual routines and to exercise one’s choice from a predetermined set of options; the experience of the city as something unique is blanked out, negating all local identity.
This generic city has an unequivocal normativeness that Prost wants to thwart; he seeks to express his disagreement in situ and in vivo, to pit himself against the dependency that it induces. In order to do so, he allowed himself to loiter, without being a consumer, in a place where the entire spatial structure is devoted to consumerism. He tested the potential of his van to occupy a spot without being noticed. The parking lots, despite their appearance of good-natured receptivity to consumers, are private and not public spaces, and are thus discreetly supervised. He used a place of transit as a place for dallying, and so suspended productive and goal-oriented time in order to create an enclave of free time in which the tactic norms are momentarily eclipsed. Prost thus created a kind of cell hollowed out of the very public space that is the most exposed, a place that is in principale the least inhabitable spot of all (the flat and empty space of a parking lot). The white van became, by means of its anonymity and banality, a mimetic tool, the Trojan horse of a subtle, critical dissent that allowed him to establish an alternative use of the site.
Here we observe the double phenomenon of the indiscernible and undecidable. The average shopper would be unlikely to perceive the vehicle as the site of artistic activity, or to recognize a work in progress in the calm, observant presence of this young man who wasoften found reading, observing, or taking. What in fact was the nature of Prost’s project? Was it urban research mixed in with a new kind of ethnography? Was it an individual act of resistance to the market? A work of conceptual art? It was probably all these at once.
We notice in all of these projects that the object is placed without artistic mediation, it tends to blend to its surroundings in such a way as to reduce the effect of its intrusion. Far from actively attracting notice, the work seems to lie in wait in the public space, as though designed to take the unaware observer by surprise. Such a practice involves a play that hovers between dissimulation (because interventions mostly avoid the spectacular and are somewhat secretive) and irruption (because, the moment it is perceived, the gesture or object appears as a disruptive anomaly in the unusual order of things).
Prost’s work, as described above, also participates in the second kind of undecidability mentioned earlier. Here the work is more of site-specific activity than a form of representation; it is more a way of testing a particular context that has inspired the artist to experience it concretely. The van is thus a means of organizing a period of time, and preparing a use of place, different from those anticipated by the parking lot and the shopping mall. Whereas MacLean’s and Bélanger’s interventions consisted of the objects or gestures occupying space, this second type of intervention takes place in time, activating a process that occurs in lived reality.
Patrice Loubier, Shortcuts and ambushes, Forms of Undecidability in Contempory Art Interventions from the book: The Undecidable, Gaps and Displacements of Contemporary Art, 2008, ESSE editions,www.esse.ca/fr/livre.php
09-10aama2556, 09-10aaia2557
2009-2010. Adaptive Actions. AA CAMP-MADRID (poster / From Context to Situation / workshop)
** SEE THE ATTACHED PDF
09-10inmc2811
2009-2010. Adaptive Actions. AA CAMP-MADRID (2009.05 / proyect review / proposed locations)
Options (see images of different Madrid locations for references)
The choice of the location for the Adaptive Actions camp is crucial to the success of the project. I did not have time to identify a location last time in Madrid during our preparatory trip, but I was planning on travelling to Madrid 3 or 4 days when I will be back in London to find a relevant place for the project. Meanwhile, before my return, maybe you would have some suggestions.
I would need about 60 to 80 m2 for the tent and outside space for gathering, information panels and a large banner (could be less or more depending on location and visibility).
1- Vacant lot On which I could put the AA tent (Red-Cross type tent) Considerations: visibility, security when not there and tent temperature (it was colder in Madrid then I initially thought, especially for long activities).
2- A space with a garage door which opens on a busy street Considerations: visibility
3- An indoor public space in which I can install a tent (ex: Madrid train station) Considerations: who are the regular users of the space and are they diversified…?
Estación de Atocha Estación de Atocha
PROJECT REVIEW MAY 2009Jean-François Prost, representative for the project
09-10intb3421, 09-10inib2657
2009-2010. Adaptive Actions. AA CAMP-MADRID (images)
ADAPTIVE ACTIONS CAMP, LA ESTACIÓN DE TREN ATOCHA, MADRIDPhotos: Adaptive Actions
TALK AND WORKSHOPFrom Context to Situation: Micropolitics and Adaptive Actions By Marie-Pier BoucherPhoto: Adaptive Actions
WORKSHOP / URBAN WALKScan, Script, SupplementBy Jean-Maxime DufresnePhotos: Madrid Abierto / Alfonso Herranz
Photos: Alfonso Herranz
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ACTIONS SUBMITTED DURING THE AA CAMP IN MADRID
OPENING (AA147)Actor: AACreated by: unknownLocation: Madrid Photo: Adaptive Actionswww.adaptiveactions.net/action/147/
FREE LOUNGE (AA231)Actor: AACreated by: unknownLocation: Madrid BarajasPhoto: Adaptive Actionswww.adaptiveactions.net/action/231/
LA CASA Y LOS SUEÑOS (AA207)Actor: Paco SánchezCreated by: Paco SánchezLocation: Gran Canaria CP 35250Photos: Paco Sánchezwww.adaptiveactions.net/action/207/
THE BRIDGE (AA224)Actor: gemeraldsCreated by: Familia Melgar- MolineroLocation: Villatuelda, BurgosPhoto: Melgar Molinerowww.adaptiveactions.net/action/224/
CUPS (AA203)Actor: AACreated by: unknownLocation: LondonPhotos: Adaptive Actionswww.adaptiveactions.net/action/203/
FREE PHONE (AA193)Actor: michacardenasCreated by: Micha Cárdenas, Elle Mehrmand, Chris Head, Katherine Sweetman, Felipe ZuñigaLocation: Tijuana Mexico/San Diego Ca.Photo: unknownwww.adaptiveactions.net/action/193/
MONSTERS (AA226)Actor: TintaCreated by: E1000inkLocation: MadridPhoto: E1000ink www.adaptiveactions.net/action/226/
AM HERE (AA148)Actor: AACreated by: Lasse Johansson & Andrea ZimmermanLocation: Hackney east LondonPhotos: E1000ink www.adaptiveactions.net/action/148/
09-10inic2800, 09-10inmc2804, 09-10inic3382