One type of urban and social situation seems to have moved into the foreground of our thinking. It is a situation that has several significant features, but the obvious fact is probably the most important, a fact that is elemental, and although it is bounded and defined in and by the urban fabric, it is has a powerful transformative quality in itself for many people, it is the natural element, water.
The thought connections involved in this process of consideration are simply linked:
- Thoughts concerning scale, public art, social fabric: These thoughts were prompted by our dialogue and exchange concerning the larger scale, including the infrastructural scale of the Shanghai Metro development, type of public art project, that in the UK is normally viewed and discussed in the popular media as "public art". For many contemporary artists, designers, architects and curators there is a much bigger picture that includes urban territories that are off centre, marginal and peripheral, but for practical and spatial reasons is where most of us urban inhabitants actually live.
- Thoughts concerning contemporary art practices and the spectrum of possibilities for a public art practice: These thoughts were, and are, being prompted by suggestions raised in Shanghai during the dialogue on 02.02.2010. The way the Dream project has, and continues to have, a transformational impact upon a sense of a place, the meaning of a place, the memories of a place, or re-defining a place as a natural or re-covered natural environment, is, as we say, a result! However there are transformational processes that of equal impact but within different terms and different scales, where the fabric of environment is balanced by the need to re-define the social context and experience.
- Thoughts about the benefits that come from the live project, projects that are about the experiences that flow from social engagements, and how these types of experience have a quality of transformative potential that is the more powerful because it is ephemeral, of the moment, performative, and connected to the flow of the practices of everyday life. Artists, designers, architects and curatorial teams provide the context for marking and making these moments and memories.
These thoughts easily led to Urbanism 09:
The press release gives a very clear idea of the vision behind the events that took place 16-20 September 2009.
Liverpool Biennial presents Urbanism 09: five days of exhibition, exploration, discussion and celebration along the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, stretching through South Sefton and North Liverpool; a vital green/blue lung in what many mistakenly perceive as an area of urban decay.
The route of the event runs along the canal from St Winefride’s & St Richard’s School (St Winnie’s) on the canalside in Bootle to Bank Hall in Liverpool. Following in the footsteps of Utopians before them, St Winnie’s has been transformed by architects Raumlabor, artist Kerry Morrison and food activists Squash Nutrition into an Urban Arcadia while Danilo Capasso presents Porto Allegro on the canalside at Bank Hall.
In Urbanism 09 Liverpool Biennial presents new commissions by international artists and architects invited to respond to the canal over the past year as well as the exhibition of muf’s Feral Arcadia and the five shortlisted designs for Waterworks, a mobile hub for watersports and environmental education on the canal and part of the groundbreaking Art for Places Sefton community engagement programme.
Visitors can travel from the Promising Land to Porto Allegro with the artists, architects and food acitvists on 17 September 2009, to examine real case studies of creating positive spaces. Talk to the bees, talk to the sky, drink tea in the floating Tea House, paint in the floating studio, explore the Feral Arcadia museum, make chutney in the Squash vegetable garden, take a swan pedalo down the canal and make plans for the Happy City . . . with David Bade, Ben Parry, Kerry Morrison, Squash Nutrition, Raumlabor, Majciej Kurak, Danilo Capasso, Muf Architecture, Public Works and Rob Sweere.
Taking its cue from architect Carolyn Steel’s inspirational book, Hungry City, the Happy City conference on 18 September 2009, in association with Places Matter! the architecture centre for the Northwest, explores alternative ways of planning and redesigning our cities and neighbourhoods, starting with the premise of not simply providing more houses but improving the quality of the spaces between them and the wellbeing of their inhabitants. Speakers include Pete Halsall, CEO of visionary developers, Bio-Regional Quintain, Joost Beunderman Research Associate at Demos, Ian McArthur Regional Director of Groundwork and Michael Palwyn of Exploration Architecture.
The week reaches a climax on Saturday 19 September 2009 in a water-borne parade including an upturned Black Cab, a floating Mint Teahouse and a whole variety of crafts created by artists and residents who live in the neighbourhoods along the canal; giving a whole new meaning to the traditional processional ‘float’.
The events
Urbanism 09 Boat Parade from Liverpool Biennial on Vimeo.
Urbanism 09 Boat Parade
Urbanism 09 - Ben Parry’s floating mint Teahouse Urbanism 09 - Lambert Kamp's Canal Taxi
Urbanism 09 - David Bade’s Charity boatKerry Morrison - Poo Performance from Liverpool Biennial on Vimeo.
Urbanism 09 - Kerry Morrison Poo Performance
Urbanism 09 - Canal Club Lantern Workshop
Urbanism 09 - Discussion about Canal regenerationUrbanism 09 - Squash Nutrition
Art for Places: Sefton Waterworks Project Award ceremony at Urbanism 09
Peter Hatton of TEA (Those Environmental Artists) and e-space lab brings the experience and example of the project Nothing but Flowers commissioned by The Lowry Centre in Manchester to explore the changing urban context of the Manchester Ship Canal.
TEA Processes and techniques
Each new project involves new negotiations and encounters and selecting methods and media that are appropriate. First we identify the personal, spatial and conceptual parameters of the situation we find ourselves in. These determine how we engage with the place and people. For example, in Boat Trip: Nothing But Flowers the contested margins of the Manchester Ship Canal were explored using on the ground activities and encounters, video, fiction and documentary to construct narratives of various locations along the banks. The device of public boat trips brought together live and mediated, current and remembered experiences of the area. A secondary experience was offered to a wider audience through a publication and CD.
Ideas for dialogue?
Propositions for a Happy City
As part of Urbanism 09 David Bade talks about projects of the past and present with the propositions for a happy city.
Are there themes to discuss here?
Better life?
Better City?
Happy City?
Join the dialogue
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