[spectre] Park Fiction presents: Unlikely Encounters in Urban Space

[geert lovink]

  Park Fiction presents:
  Unlikely Encounters in Urban Space

  International Congress and Exhibition of Park Fiction's Documenta 11
Installation

  Congress: June 26 - 29, 2003   Exhibition: June 19 - July 6, Reeperbahn 1,
Hamburg

  One year after Documenta 11, Park Fiction's installation returns to
Hamburg. For the first time, the installation will be shown in its place of
origin, St. Pauli, on the Reeperbahn. The exhibition will be accompanied by
an international congress: Unlikely Encounters (in urban space), with groups
from Delhi/India, Tijuana/Mexico, La Plata/Argentina, Milan/Italy and
Berlin/Munich/Hamburg.

  After an intensive seven-year process of wishing, planning and
negotiating, culminating in its presentation at Documenta 11, Park Fiction,
a long-term planned park project in Hamburg-St. Pauli, with and from a
collective of its residents, is in the midst of realization. Just the right
time to reflect on this successful process:  With the Documenta
installation, a precise form was created, making this exceptional process,
where "Art and politics made each other wiser" (Czenki) accessible in its
model-like state. The congress Unlikely Encounters (in urban space) will
open up the view on the global horizon, and create direct connections
between similarly laid-out projects in different countries.

  Urbanism and the appropriation of cities have meanwhile become central
questions in art discourse. What appeared to be a marginal theme skirting
the outer limits of the art system has, with increasing dominance,  settled
down at biennials and international exhibitions, coming into its own as a
separate, vivid branch in art. Especially now, at the end of the industrial
age, new methods of urban practice are developing all over the world, which
broaden  the idea of the possibility for artist actions and interventions in
the city space. These projects find their own space and areas of work, and
cooperating with  non-art fields, out of the perspective of daily life,
intervene in economic, information and academic city planning systems. This
network of local knowledge challenges the global power of the media, and the
state and economic authorities. The congress Unlikely Encounters (in urban
space) will give groups from various countries and fields of work the
possibility to join discussions and establish connections and relationships
between various practises and objectives. It is about nothing less than the
research of the possibility on the horizon of an experimental urbanism of
the multitude.(Negri/Hardt).

  Congress from June 26 - 29, 2003, with:
  Sarai Media Lab/Delhi
  Ala Plastica/La Plata
  Maclovio Rojas/Tijuana
  Cantieri Isola+Office for Urban Transformation/Mailand
  Expertbase/Germany
  Galerie für Landschaftskunst,
  Lignas Musicbox and the
  Schwabinggrad Ballett from Hamburg

  special projects from Park Fiction and contributions from individuals:
Jochen Becker, Sabeth Buchmann, Margit Czenki, Stephan Dillemuth, Sarat
Maharaj, Luis Humberto Rosales, Eva Sturm (more to come).

  Curators:
  Margit Czenki
  Christiane Mennicke
  Christoph Schäfer

  Organization:
  Bernadette Hengst

  Publicity and Public Relations:
  Wanda Wieczorek

  Contact:
  www.parkfiction.org
  Info at parkfiction.org

  Backed by:
  Hafenrandverein für selbstbestimmtes Leben und Wohnen auf St. Pauli, e.V.

  Sponsored by:
  kulturstiftung des bundes