Public program: "A Second Exchange" Title: Redesigning the City Date: Saturday 26 September Location: Oudezijds Achterburgwal 78a
Participants: Alexis Blake (artist RED A.i.R.), Gideon Boie (BAVO), Vinca Kruk & Gon Zifroni (Metahaven). Moderated by Huib Haye van der Werf (NAi)
The first event of the public program focuses on urban planning, the development of the city's identity and imageries, and the role of Art in this. The idea behind this conversation is to bring together artists and cultural practitioners with a particular vision on the topic and who in their work challenge the current political and economic dynamics shaping the urban environment.
Gideon Boie (BAVO) speaks of the indispensable function of Art and culture within the urban transformation and gentrification of Amsterdam today. He shows how the new concept of ‘creative coalitions’ helps artists and cultural actors to find their natural, activating role in the social reconquest of our cities. Creative coalitions build synergy between public-private partnerships and the creative sector while preserving for the latter the much desired autonomous sphere of action. Vinca Kruk & Gon Zifroni (Metahaven) introduce "Stadtstaat. A Scenario for Merging Cities", a mise-en-scene of an urban experiment that merges the cities of Stuttgart and Utrecht. In this latest project they formulate new visions and positions from the perspective of graphic designers dealing with the construction and representation of the public image of political institutions. Alexis Blake reading "IN/OUT/EITHER/NEITHER: reflections of a choice". Using dialog fragments from her focus group research, which she conducted in the De Bouwkeet of the Stedelijk Museum at the end of July 2009, and quotations from her conversations with Michael Franke -a logician and philosopher of rational choice theory- Blake reflects upon why she chose choice as her topic of inquiry in the RED A.i.R. residency.
27 SEPTEMBER 2009, DAY 2
Public Program "A Second Exchange" Title: The Function Of Art Date: Sunday 27 September Location: Oudezijds Achterburgwal 78a
Participants: Diedrich Diederichsen (ABK, Vienna), Eva Fotiadi (UvA), Joyce Goggin (UvA). Moderated by Jan Hein Hoogstad (UvA)
This panel brings together various perspectives on the role of Art and the function of the artists in Amsterdam and western democracies. Joyce Goggin discusses the role of artists and prostitutes in Dutch culture of the 16th and 17th centuries, sketching some interesting parallels with the current RED A.i.R. project. Eva Fotiadi comments on the role of the artist in urban planning and development in the Netherlands, derived particularly from a study of state-funded programs and policies in the 20th century. Taking as a reference his latest publication, "On (Surplus) Value of Art" (2008), Diedrich Diederichsen formulates his thesis on the role of Art in today’s neo-liberal democracies.
