'CityCult'. Series of Public Lectures on City Culture
Project Description
The Centre for Independent Social Research (CISR), in collaboration with the Etagi' loft-project and the Goethe Institute in St. Petersburg, is organizing a series of public lectures on urban culture entitled 'CITY CULTure' to begin in May 2011.
The lectures will address issues concerning street and public art, the 'imaginary city', mental maps and visual cultures, urban gentrification and civic participation among local citizens. The lecture series is envisioned as a trans-disciplinary project involving experts from diverse professional fields, including social scientists, artists, curators, philosophers, architects, artists, designers, urban planers and others. During the series, experts and professionals from Germany, Holland, Austria, Hungary and other countries will discuss the interesting projects undertaken in urban space in multiple different cultural contexts, and reflect on global and local trends in the field of urban studies and urban culture. The project is targeted toward those interested in city life, urban culture and the transformation of city spaces, as well as those concerned about the future of St. Petersburg.
Lectures will take place at FORMULA gallery, loft- project Etagi (4th flor), Ligovskiy av. 74, St.-Petersburg
Lecture Schedule for 2012:
21 March: Adeola Enigbokan, an artist, researcher, writer and teacher based in New York City. Her artistic/research practice involves creating interventions, which provide an alternative framework for approaching urban “problems.”
Theme: “Passing the time: archiving the city as a creative spatial practice”
To move through the city is to move through time itself. The city is full of pockets of time that one can fall into or out of just by walking around. How can we learn to experience these layers of time? Through the example of several site-specific projects this talk explores how we might develop sensitivity to these subtle changes in space and time as we move through the city.
11 April: Inna Prilezhaeva (Russian Federation), project director at the Association of Cultural Managers (projects: Festival of Landscape Objects “Arkhstoyanie,” Museum Token, The Changing Museum in a Changing World, The Creative South, and others).
The lecture will take place with the participation of Dutch partners.
Theme: Art Residence -- an Instrument for Remastering and Rethinking Cities.
16 May: Pedro Soler (Spain), artist, curator and art manager, specialist of new technologies. Author of diverse projects in multimedia art, festival organizer, works with urban spaces and various publics.http://root.ps
Theme: Humanization and Reanimation of Public Urban Spaces using Art
13 June: Irina Prokhorova (Russian Federation), Ph.D. philology, editor and owner of the publishing house “New Literary Review,” co-founder of and chairman of the advisory council for the Mikhail Prokhorov Foundation (Foundation for Cultural Initiatives).
Theme: The Role of Public Art in the Production of Urban Culture, Space, and Identity: on the Example of Norilsk.
26 September: Bastian Lange (Germany), urban and economic geographer, specialist in the field of creative industries, issues of management, and regional development. Professor at Humboldt University in Berlin, head of “MultipleCities.” His main interest is socio-economic transformation in the era of creativity, the use of creative potential in politics, business, and urban development. http://www.multiplicities.de/en/23-bastianlange
Theme: Creative Industries and their Potential for Cities: Transformation and Development.
17 October: Rumkammerat (Denmark) work in the field of conceptual art and game design and organize interactive interaction with the public in city space.
http://www.rumkammerat.dk
Theme: “Treasure Hunt:” Urban Art Games and the Creation of an Interactive Urban Environment.
7 November: Alex Kolashnik (Germany), professor of corporate design and corporate identity at the University of Mannheim. Partner of the organization “TheRelevantSet.”
http://axelkolaschnik.wordpress.com/peronlich
Theme: New Urban Branding. “Bottom up” Approach.
4 December: DUS architects (Netherlands) develop “Public Architecture,” design that consciously affects our daily life: art installations, event design in architecture, urban planning and transformation, and others. Their work’s main principle is creating a dialogue with the community. They bring together developers, future residents, and representatives of the municipality to the same table so that the results of their discussions and their proposals went into the reworking of the project. At the moment, they are running several large projects in urban reconstruction in various cities of the Netherlands.
Theme: Urban Design and Work with Local Communities.
Schedule of the public lectures for 2011:
4 May: Andrej Holm (sociologist, civic activist, participant of the civic movement 'Wir bleiben alle!'; Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany)
'Gentrification as new urban Mainstream - Experiences from Berlin'.
21 June: Philip Horst (artist, curator of public art projects, KUNSTrePUBLIC, Germany),
'Art in Urban public spaces: experience of Berlin'.
(video)
28 September: Stefan Lutschinger (mediaartist, lecturer and mediaresearcher (International Technology Colleges in Vienna; Westminster University, London).
'Difference Engines: Cultural Heritage and Public Art in 21st Century Vienna'.
19 October: Henric Mayer and Martin Keil (artists, REINIGINGSGESELLSCHAFT ; Germany)
'Art/social science/participatory projects: serving the city. Case of St. Petersburg - the 'Avenue of Hope' Project'.
(video)
2 November: Dr. Gantner, Eszter Brigitta (historian, ethnologist, curator of urban studies seminars; Humboldt University of Berlin); Benjamin Cantu (mediaartist, producer, Germany)
'Perceptions of urban landscapes and street art: artistic, activists and scientific perspectives'.
Lecture, demonstration and discussion of the film by Benjamin Cantu & Anne Bürger: 'Street Art : The Epemeral Revolution'.
16 December: Wouter Osterholt and Elke Uitentuis (artists, Netherlands)
'Model Citizens. Cairo. Participatory art- project in Cairo: citizens and management of the city'.
Exhibition, presenting project. Supported by Netherlands Consulate-General in St. Petersburg