East European Performing Arts Platform (EEPAP) supports the
development of contemporary performing arts (dance and theatre)
in 18 countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

Public Space Library: Let’s paint the town red! Urban space in contemporary art and theory (Chișinău, Moldova)

BMF

Public Space Library

Let’s paint the town red! Urban space in contemporary art and theory
March 10 – May 26, 2015
Every Tuesday, 6-7:30 pm

 

Moldova State University

Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literature

Austrian Library (room 101)

str. Mihai Kogalniceanu 65, Chisinau, Moldova

 

With more than half of the global population living in towns and cities, urban development has become an ever more important issue. The socio-economical and architectural changes modern cities undergo often generate the citizens’ need to take part in the processes which shape their urban environments. Not surprisingly, many of the recent protest movements, e.g. in Istanbul and Hamburg 2013, sparked off by controversial construction projects.

Starting from Henri Lefebvre’s seminal work The Right to the City(1968), we shall discuss different approaches on urban and public space. Leading questions are: What makes a space public? What is community? How does contemporary art reflect and intervene in public space? Besides debating fundamental texts on these topics, we shall explore the urban space in Chisinau, have a look at urban movements in other cities and get familiar with practices of artistic appropriation.

The seminar is open to students of all faculties and will be held in English and Romanian. It is organised and conducted by Christian Rabl, German Lecturer at Moldova State University, in collaboration with Vitalie Sprinceana (Oberliht Association).

Programme

March 10, 2015, 6 pm
The modern city: from estrangement to guerrilla gardening?
As early as at the beginning of the 20th century, city life has been described in terms of heightened individualism, anonymity, estrangement and an ensuing longing for simplicity, nature and community. Nowadays, such diverse activities as urban farming, clothing swaps or car sharing seem to manifest a rekindled interest in shaping alternative ways of living together in urban space. In this first session of the seminar, we shall read short literary texts and discuss different notions of city life with a particular focus on the discursive relationship between nature and the city.

March 17, 2015, 6 pm
The (de)centralised city: urban planning and the idea of the centre

March 24, 2015, 6 pm
The postmodern city: places and non-places

March 31, 2015, 6 pm
The production of social space

April 7, 2015, 6 pm
What is community?

April 14, 2015, 6 pm
The post-democratic city

April 21, 2015, 6 pm
Spaces of otherness

April 28, 2015, 6 pm
Appropriating urban space

May 12, 2015, 6 pm
Focus on Chisinau

May 19, 2015, 6 pm
Participatory Art

May 26, 2015, 6 pm
Urban art and consumerism

You can find additional materials on the Public Space in Post-socialims group.

“Let’s paint the town red! Urban space in contemporary art and theory” reading group is organized as part of Public Space Library with the support of Moldova State University, Robert Bosch Foundation, OeaD – Austrian agency for international mobility and cooperation in education, science and research and European Cultural Foundation.

 

Source: 

oberliht.com

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