Reacted Monument, Connected Citizens by elsa carenzo

REACTED MONUMENTS CONNECTED CITIZENS Through participatory actions, reveal the relationship with the (un)common past to rekindle the city.

by Elsa Carenzo

How by creating playful situations around monuments can generate new relationships with them so they can become a common denominator between citizens? Over the past century and since the early 2000â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, artists, art movements and thinkers have strived for more freedom in the streets and citizenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s involvement. It is through a series of urban participatory interventions, performances and games that statues and sculptures became the medium through which action takes place. An evolution of the visitors as spectators, then, participants to actors of the situation and therefore the city.

Introduction

A before / an after The Other, the Stranger A need to make presence The public space has a voice, a history

Absurdity Carnivals Celebration Community

Play Street Art and urban re-appropriation From static art to participatory art. Reacted Monuments, Connected Citizens

When the academic year 2013-2014 started, I just returned from a three month holidays in Marseille, France. In 2013 Marseille was the European Capital of Culture and a lot of things changed in the city. I had in mind to use prospectively this tool to connect the immigrants and their children to the rest of the population. There, I have made a workshop in a workingclass neighborhood of Marseille. Opportunity was the key word. If the opportunity to be part of something, to act, to express is present, there are people willing to engage with their city and improve their surroundings . We do not have the choice of interaction, of connection with one another anymore whatever her or his class, gender, race or education. What are the reasons that make us stay outside and enjoy public spaces? What are the bonds established between the city and its citizens? An enthusiasm for urban arts, performances and the creation of participative collectives show a revival and willingness from people to recover and be part of the becoming of their city.

... I will first discuss the state and the lost role of the City nowadays and our relationship with strangers. Those strangers not that strange after all... And come to the question of making presence to find the appropriate balance to engage with one another and with the city in certain ways. Then, the subject will be oriented to question the relationship between citizens and celebrations. What is the impact on both of them, with a reference to absurdity, Flash Mobs trends and Carnaval culture in the Netherlands, as it switches neglected places into an active and reappropriated public space. In the third part, I state the willingness of artists and art movements to recover their city through the History. And how they challenge and question the current establishment (of their period) and give the opportunity to people to act, express, fool around to reflect upon reality. This chapter will end with the purpose and aim of my final project, with a succinct explanation of its practical mechanism. Finally, on a lighter note I will present the interventions I have made in Eindhovenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s public space (outdoors) and how they led me to create a participatory installation as a medium of civic reflection and pleasure.

keywords: public space, ritualized space, positive interaction, stranger, fellow citizen, ritualized space

an after

A before The public space in the broad sense of the term is usually neutral. It is a free outdoor (sometimeo indoor as buses) space where people of different ages, classes, genders, and races can meet and spend time together. (1) Also, it is meant to belong to all citizens

who can use it as a democratic place to gather, to express their opinion and be free to eat, drink, stay as long as they want, at least on paper. Nevertheless, we now make a difference between the public space as a pure physical space and a gathering place which is created by the human gathering. Yet, without humans, without citizens, there is no city and hence there is no public space. (cities, citizens... civic citizenship). Both together were formerly called agora.

«In classical times the presence of other people was an inevitable condition of the life of a free person. The origin and existence of the Greek agora is an expression of this concept of freedom.» Fedor Blascák

Therefore, gathering spaces are shifting from the outside to the inside in shopping malls for instance – which still are public spaces, but with pure commercial purposes – or at home thanks to the Internet and social networks where political and psocial needs are now fulfilled. Urban plans are increasingly designed to encourage a flux of people to a point to another instead of fostering its presence, gathering and interaction. We can notice the blooming of unwelcoming urban furniture to prevent homeless people and young people to sleep or sit around idly and spoil the city landscape. The city is shaped to look good without people.It is almost difficult to feel comfortable in a noncommercial public space because it has not been designed to be enjoyed with others.

For instance this is how Eindhoven’s main square looked like in the 1970’s. When negotiating almost empty spaces (squares, parks, streets) with people who already know each other and meet in known corners, where a strategy must be adopted to avoid or acknowledge the presence of Others, it is needed to tackle the issue. Anxiety and fear that are hanging over our head can be avoided in public spaces, but citizens need to feel the presence of people, to feel de liveliness of the place, the past, the potential of being appropriated. This change in the meaning of public space has brought a shift from a place to meet and socialize toward a more discriminating way of living. The chance for interactions between people has widely declined and it comes at no surprises that those facts lead us to an even more individualistic society.

the Stranger

The Other,

Here I want to denounce the relation we have with the Other, our supposed fellow citizen. Lithuanian-born French philosopher Levinas approaches the acknowledgment of the other as a fellow can involve a simple Bonjour (Hello). A physical face-to-face encounter allows the recognition of the other and thus its respect. He argues that the Other goes along the feeling of shame, through the Other, one’s is the object of the look, the gaze, hence he is more likely to feel judged. (3) But I see a difference between the Other and the Stranger. When I say stranger it is to be provocative. The Other imply just people we do not know, we ignore them and it is fine. The definition of stranger is close to Other but the altruistic connection is minimal or even nonexistent. A stranger is for one’s position, an outsider, a person who is unacquainted with or unaccustomed to something, a person who is not a member of the family, group, community.

A stranger is someone we have no link with and that make us feel queasy yet, this stranger in our city is usually our fellow citizen.

(4)

Also, the Slovenian art historian Igor Zabel criticizes through his essay We & the Others (5) the Occidocentric supremacy to ensure the civilizational unity of the West and, at the same time, its political and cultural primacy and stresses the fact that our position is not universal any more (so we feel that) it is necessary to understand and “explain other cultures. I do

not strive for cultural homogenization but for the acceptance and recognition of other cultures, and thus the Stranger. We are always the stranger of someone else... The professor of sociology and author Richard Sennett explicits well the dark side of this homogenization. He states that the desire to neutralize difference, to domesticate it, arises from an anxiety about difference (…). One result is to weaken the impulse to cooperate with those who remain intractably Other.» (6)

A need to make presence A need to make presence A need to make presence Sennett sees in the absence and invisibility space public. For instance, in certain cities, (ignorance) the results of prejudices and fear people use the waiting time at bus stop to set up of the presence (mistrust). This difference a table a play cards together under the shelter (9) (between absence and presence in the city) lies both physically – who is actually on the street On the other hand, the urban planning, the tools and perceptually – how are people aware of made available are not really present to reach others, accounting or discounting their presence the genuine public space definition. In sum, the in urban space? How are those considered public space can be used as a tool to ease social invisible or inconsequential enabled to ‘make and ethnic tensions (mostly generated by media). presence’ in urban space – through their bodies, actions, activities. (7) The presence it is the Other,

The book Ground-up City – Play as a Design Tool the Stranger, thus our fellow citizen. Sennett synthesizes the present climate and reality. (10) denounces a society which tends to socially avoid in engaging with Others. We don’t see each 1- Immigration involves new people – strangers other as part of the same city, community but as – with different language, habits, culture, religion different from us (regarding race, religion, class, which can be not easy to understand. Yet instead ethnic, education); this is what his book Together of avoiding or ignoring it, the public space is all about. He also emphasizes the importance could use its potential to gather people through of sociality as mutual awareness, not necessarily activities. through actions but through the acceptance of the stranger as a peer. (8) This state of mind could 2- Fortunately for those with kids, playgrounds are improve the city and foster positive interaction a strong medium to bring people together. between citizens. 3- We need to re-imagine the public space. On the one hand, people are free to set their Well, how to enjoy the public space – not that own rules (and not endanger or prejudice others, free and public anymore? obviously) to make the public space more liveable. As the architect Ma Qingyun would argue, people in China are the only actors to make the public

Franz Erh

ard Walt

her 12

Saskia Janssen

voice, a s a h e ic spac l b u p e Th a history... Saskia Sassen, Dutch-American sociologist, is concerned about the power that the public space can have to give a voice to its citizens. In her essay Does the City have Speech? she speaks about ritualized space recognized as such by citizens as a way to live the city through its true meaning. It is now inconvenient to find meanings and rituals when squares are designed or arranged in such way that people are not invited to enjoy and appropriate them. She explicits that the city’s speech is thecapability to alter, to shape, to provoke, to invite, all following a logic that aims at enhancing or protecting the city’s complexity and its incompleteness. (11) She emphasizes that city’s

sociality and the need for new solidarities are vital to make changes. The public space is a medium to connect citizens because it is something they all have in common. The city is not complete without the engagement of its citizens. I would call it une ville molle, a sluggish city.

I would venture to compare certain places as squares and streets as terrains vagues; (12) a metaphor coined by Sassen; defined as an abandoned in-between space where people’s memories are still present. They are places where artists usually use their role to make them more enjoyable, social while keeping in mind surroundings, people’s memories and rituals.

summary.... The agora is becoming a shopping center where people are not aware of their surroundings. Some places are left aside, other are too crowded, therefore the chance for interaction between people has radically decreased. (in did not tackle the sometime overwhelming smartphone issue, because there is too much to say, as its negative and positive influence are equal. see p.18). In making presence we activate spaces, the chance for interaction is higher. Nonetheless, people need tools and excuses to socialize or acknowledge strangers as fellow citizens. Looking in the eyes, facing the Other is not something easy, it is easier to ignore. By ignoring we suppress and by gazing this other feel judged. There is thus a need to create a kind of interface to foster positive interaction. Making presence is one thing, but to appropriate the space is another. Some abandoned or seemed forgotten places are usually “ritualized spaces”. People have memories linked to them yet nothing happen to activate them. By re-appropriating those terrains vagues we can find a crack to reconnect with the place and create a common denominator to connect / recognize different cultures. 13

keywords: absurdity, celebration, community, story, myth, tradition.

Car dity

Absur

Absurdity is forgetting all established rules to live through instinctive, primal and joyful drives. The Surrealists emphasized that the most fundamental questions of life lie beyond the scope of logical reasoning and utilitarian motives. The city has a big influence on our mood and everyday life, by accepting to be part of the civic society, we accept to behave correctly, for the respect of Others, for the safety of ourselves. For the Dada and Fluxus absurdity was a way to express and fight against social alienation. Yet, it is harder to connect with people in the public space and everywhere else due to our growing individualistic lifestyle (and the media power) The fear of the Stranger, of being judged and so our inhibition prevent us to be open toward strangers. Absurdity - even though hair-raising – beckons people to see reality from a different perspective and encourages them to behave in an uncommon way. Absurdity rules our world but in the wrong way, through a monotonous ruled routine. Absurd in the context of the society, in the existentialist way, entails that we are the master of our behavior, even though the overwhelming norms and rules. Behaving in an unorthodox way would lead to self-consciousness if time and/or space frame is not settled. We need a place, a time to let off steam, to misbehave. It is not just a question of being absurd, bizarre all the time but to permit ourselves to a have some moment for it.

vals

The Carnival is the invitation of instinctive and absurd behaviors. Throughout centuries its meaning changed but its purpose remained the same. In the Netherlands, Carnavals is an inclusive event where all kinds of people gather to celebrate... nothing. Just for the bliss of being together, the pleasure to feel eventually free, regardless social norms, for the sake of the tradition. If the spatial planning is not meant to encourage interactions between citizens at least events and festivals in the streets can help to meet and interact. Celebrations permit the gathering of people in the streets pacifically, where transgression with a possible misbehavior from the people (…) remains quite codified and controlled.” (13)

As the ethnologist, anthropologist Emmanuelle Lallement suggests; celebrations are framed but make public some places that are private or semi-private for a given time. Yet, those events if not too “exclusive” can foster social cohesion by gathering people from different neighborhoods, culture and status together. Also, the Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin speaks about the assets of the Carnival / Carnivalesque that subvert and liberate the assumptions of the dominant style or atmosphere through humor and chaos. (14) Participants and

spectators are the same and social hierarchies are just forgotten. Everyone is a fool. He sees in the carnivals’ world an opportunity for familiar and free interaction between people; where the gathering of people fosters interaction and the atmosphere brings them to express themselves freely together. Where eccentric behaviors and misbehaving is well accepted. Thanks to the costumes and disguises citizens impersonate a character, they become more anonymous, thus they feel more free to act in an unorthodox way. Unorthodox in the sense that they do things that they would not do in their day-to-day life because of the strangers’ gaze, because of the norms of the society. In a carnival situation there is no judgement, no assumptions.

In the Netherlands, the Carnaval last between 3 to 6 days. Although its religious meaning has been put aside, the tradition remains strong and has been largely re-appropriated. This tradition takes its roots from the Medieval Christianity. The modern carnival can be compared to the Feast of Fools, a three-day of absolute madness where the clergy let loose in blaspheming, misbehaving and breaking all the rules imposed in their everyday life. They would urinate and copulate in public, imitate animals, gamble (which was prohibited at this time) and challenge each other to drinking games and as you can(not) imagine with odd and overtly sexual disguises. According to Alain de Botton that foolishness (…) is our second nature

. . . . . .. . . . . . .. . . . . ..

Celebration

Also, the feeling of living as part of a community is psychologically important. As an artistic act, the French artist Pierre Huyghe has launched a celebration day called Streamside Day in a brand new suburban city in United States where everyone is a newcomer. It is a starting and is inherent in man. (15) point to create memories between citizens, a day to gather, to meet and celebrate the city. The most important aspect of the carnival throughout Since each celebration has its own rituals and the years is that, for a given period social roles and traditions, Huyghe surfs on the world of fairy tales norms are interrupted. (16) It is also the reason why wave, so has included a parade with animals, masks and disguises were important to mocked the costumes, flautists, trucks, a Streamside Day imposed rules of society and the church. cake and hotdogs all ingredients of a sur-real tradition. The first day «Often this gave the mass the opportunity to pelt the was recorded as part church ministers with shit, a phenomenon in slightly of Huyghe’s work and was scripted and modified version to be found now in the spreading romanticized but this confetti from the carnaval floats...» celebration questions our relation with the In the early modern period the south and environment, of the others, of the community, the north (roughly) of the Netherlands went and the history we want to create. In reality, this through a religious split between Protestantism idyllic life as property developers’ promised with which rejects the carnival tradition (North) and a strong community spirit and a big piece of Catholicism (South). Through the 18th century nature is actually a fiction. It is now also the role catholics managed to keep some tradition alive of the citizens to appropriate their urban space in the street as dressing, playing and other non- by creating new realities and traditions. This sensed rituals like smashing and burning cats. celebration is not for the sake of a commercial The feast of fools starts to shift from the inside to celebration like Christmas or Halloween the urban space, through shipping companies and nowadays, but for the sake of the newly created guilds during the late Middle Age. The charivaris community. which started to gain in importance and were viewed as parody, as a way to change current social establishment and denounce abuse of power by the government. This tradition was a huge public humiliation for people who deviated from the norm or acted wrongly. It was the starting point of the gigantic dolls carried in a ridiculous procession. It is during the Batavian revolution that the carnival feast came back with strength. Charivaris can be seen today as the antithesis of the modern carnival. It is not a way to denounce social immoralities but an opportunity to test the limits of citizens rights as individualization, sexual revolution and secularization. (17)

Community Community Community

Homa Khaleeli, journalist for The Guardian writes about the Ping! project that it “Reminding

The interest in the occupation of the public space has largely increased since almost 10 years, through the Flash mobs for instance, which gather people for a given time to create together a filmed performance. Pacific and non-political, they have however a will to reclaim the public space. It is a kind of carnival without costumes to celebrate citizenship and the city in an unusual and sometime absurd way. There is no need of a disguise, to hide. The strength of unity suffice to take action in the city. Flash mobs work thanks to the Internet that permits the gathering of people at the same time and place more easily thanks to the broadcasting of videos. Each intervention is thus time-space framed and the instructions given by the event organizers are essential. They have a real impact on people’s vision of the city. The purpose of the gathering can be a complete non-sense. For instance in 2003 forty persons met to throw plastic ducks in a fountain while imitating the duck scream before dispersing. Numerous happenings took place, people dancing or singing together in malls and squares, applauding nothing in museum, wearing the same shirt in stores or just panties in subways. Throughout the years this movement has created a huge community of citizens willing to appropriate the city in a more extensive way. The American collective Improv Everywhere creates unexpected performances, where citizens are the principal actors of the situation. They have managed to find a way to re-appropriate every kind of public spaces, they have led people to be aware of their city’s rights and to acknowledge the others as a fellow.

with a stranger; a rare occasion in London; when the conversation started being too friendly the stranger “mumbled a goodbye and walked off.” (25) We are not used to speak with strangers, in the streets, but this kind of events are a good starting point to be more open to others. These kind of situations rekindle the kairos concept. It is this specific moment in time when one’s take the decision de live the time differently, through his senses and to let go.

As an example of making presence in an unusual manner, the PARK(ing) Day is an annual worldwide event where artists, designers and citizens transform parking spots into temporary public parks. They usually organize creative workshops for children and adults. This action shows that people want more than temporary performances, they strive for change in the urban landscape and behavior by staying in inappropriate spaces. With this aim in mind, the project Play Me I’m Yours and Ping! have scattred pianos and ping-pong tables across England and all around the world for people to play with.

us that our squares and streets are places of communication, interaction and leisure is no bad thing.” She relates her experience of chatting

summary... Carnivals are the occasion to be politically incorrect, to break taboos, to be ridiculous, to exaggerate and distort reality. The most significant legacy of this events is the desire to change identity temporarily and to react traditions for the construction of a common identity. Also, the gathering of people in such way induce to a significant social cohesion since assumptions are shut down by costumes. What I see through carnivals, beyond reasoned criticism is a genuine desire to be absurd. To let ourselves being guided by our feelings, positive or not. Here absurdity could lead to a break in the reality and as carnivals do well, making presence and share the experience with our fellow citizens in a more genuine way.

The celebration, is the commemoration of the past. Traditions, regarding, food, dance, costumes, music, the appropriation of space, evolve throught the years but become absurd stories, myths that cultivate the identity of a city / country. In the creation of Streamside Day, Pierre Huyghe has started what seems like a contemporary tradition that could remain and repeat in the future years. The tradition is the social glue of this new born suburban city. It is also thanks to the Internet that movement as Flash Mobs and the events of Improv Everywhere became a trend and have created a sense of unity and community in an urban and digital context.

keywords: play, participation, frame, engagement, street arts, interventions, social sculpture

Play yalPPlay yalPPlay yalPPlay yalP The interest in play gradually came back this last decade: institutes for play are created throughout the world, big companies use games and the action of play as a tool for promotion (for instance Coca Cola’s Moment of Happiness and Volkswagen’s Fun Theory), newspapers dedicate more and more rooms for playful projects and events. In october 2013 the French newspaper Courrier International which select and translates articles from all around the world’s newspapers proposes an issues entirely devoted to play and games. (18) More particularly about the “gamification” of our everyday life. Games and phone’s applications are created to enhance our daily life both on a professional and a personal level. People want to escape reality and have fun, even more in an unorthodox way. As would say the Dutch historian Johan Huizinga, the fun of playing, resists all analysis, all logical interpretation. As a concept, it cannot be reduced to any other mental category. No other modern language known to me has the exact equivalent of the English «fun». The Dutch «aardigkeit» perhaps comes nearest to it (derived from «aard» which means the same as «Art» and «Wesen»* in German). (19)

When tackling art history, we mainly relate play to Dadaists and Fluxists. The Dadaists are adults behaving like children. They are looking for the apex of joy, but are ruthless with their provocative approach. Their reaction from the World War I’s non-sense brought a new vision to the future art world.; what they called anti-art. The museum of play The Strong ® which is “devoted to the study and exploration of play” (21) publishes articles every three months in The American Journal of Play ®. In his article Play and Avant-Garde: Aren’t we all a little Dada? Philip Prager gives another vision of Dada movement far from the usual art historians’ analysis that neglect the importance of play in the construction of our identity.

“Dada did not just mark a watershed in the understanding of creativity but that it constitutes a precursor to identifying the importance of play as fundamental expression of humanity.” (22)

Dada is guided by instinctive feeling, constant curiosity, the destruction of shame and embarrassment.

From the Fluxus perspective, the artist Allan Huizinga claims that playing is in some sense an Kaprow who first coined the word Happening, «irrational» activity, it has no goal but the reach defines it as a game... of pure pleasure and joy. Playing is a break, an «... a continuation from Action Environments. They are an escapade that embellish event to bring the audience and objecte together, they are set life, so it is a necessity for humans and society. up in unconventional spaces like empty lofts, on the streets, In sum, he sees play as a in cellars. This made them appear spontaneous, random culture function. (19) actions and sequences. Although many were rehearsed or On the other hand the participants had instructions. Each one is related to the French sociologist Roger Callois defines play in a more every day world.» rational way. As free and not obligatory, that takes place in a ruled, spacial A multidisciplinary performance engaging its and temporal frame fixed in advance. Also, it is spectators, letting them being part of the work, uncertain, unpredictable and leave room for of the performance, widening the artists’ scope improvisation and initiative from the players. of visions and activities. And most importantly all of these components As participatory project, we can refers to the create a fantasy layer, an imaginative world, a notion of Thinging, which implies the interaction sense of Make-believe. (20) Callois’ play theory between to the participant (in this context) and enounces the principles of what constitute most the medium (game, installation..). Their dialogue of the urban games and participatory installation. open up new participatory engagements. (37) Huizinga’s theory has a more extrem and genuine and give form to new meaning and field of vision on the definition of play. possibilities

The Dutch artist and co-founder of CoBrA, Constant Nieuwenhuys’ New Babylon (1956) aims to reach the state of a playful society. This fictional place has no frontier, it is a place accessible to anyone, since we are all human beings. Constant describes New Babylon as place where “the disorientation that furthers adventure, play and creative change is privileged.” to go against the utilitarian society

in search of efficiency and time optimisation. It is a dynamic maze, seen as architecture of a new social space. Inspired by Huizinga’s Homo Ludens theory (1938), Constant visualizes New Babylonians as anti Homo Fabers who would have the freedom of action, where collective spirit (Marxist influences) takes the place of individualistic sake. (36) Five years later, still in a utopian manner, it is the English architect Cedric Price with the theatre director Joan Littlewood who propose the never built Fun Palace. It is seen as place for leisure and creativity. It is a place where Art and appropriation whould be at the core of any activities. Where flexibility, evolution and visitors’ involvement would create a cohesive social space.

Cedr

ic Pri

Mirko Zardini describes him in the pamphlet A stroll through a fun palace : Rather than pretending to offer permanent solutions to problems, Cedric Price projected, through architecture, alternative interpretations and ideas full of social and cultural potential. Starting from daily life, in all its ruthless ordinariness, he worked and engaged with often neglected elements and positioned them as the central topic for new questions. Through a critical and analytical approach, he created and offered a most valuable set of tools for the 21st century.

Street Art and urban re-appropriation When we speak about appropriation of the public space, it is hard to not relate to street arts. First recognized through graffiti in the 1980s, street arts is now an eclectic field which includes video projection, yarn bombing as installations and stencil art. The increasing number of street/urban artists has influenced our relation towards the public space. Visiting a city is not totally centered around monuments and museums anymore. Street arts are now part of the picture that sometimes gives the city its distinctive character and emphasize the city heritage as the Berlin Wall for instance. Most of the street artists are politically engaged or try to denounce the flaws of a system and deficiencies of the society. Their subversive orientation trigger conversations, arouse debates all around the world. As a direct reaction, people take and share pictures of these new elements in the urban landscape because they are attractive and/ or provocative, because they break the visual monotony of cities. These disruptive interventions give the opportunity to the viewer, the citizen to reflect upon his surroundings, on society issues, and can give an excuse to react or at best share opinions with people around or not. There are artists like Francis Alÿs who appropriate the public space in creating anecdotes, myths, as fables. His interventions are irrational and dreamlike stories (24) that challenge the relation between the dweller and his city. Through his work The Leak he questions the impact of artistic interventions. Are they as relevant as they raise a critical awareness of the situation, or the non-sense of it shows only its absurdity? Alÿs sees through the absurdity of the poetic act a moment when meanings and reality are in recess. It is a way for him to step back from the real absurd situation he is facing and to share another reality. The Leak can in a way be linked to his Fairy Tales (1995) where he wanders throughout the city unravelling the yarn of his sweater along his journey. Through these actions he re-appropriate the city by the act of walking, the act of flâner as Baudelaire’s definition of wandering. He also creates a situation in his wander, which can be related to the Situationist International’s psychogeographic dérive aimed

to release a free and instinctive creativity leading to a revolution of the daily life. (24) Alÿs has a provocative and reflective approach through his walks. He aims to trigger curiosity from the witnesses of his acts, to arouse awareness of people’s rights in their own city. Walking alone aimlessly or not is a way to appropriate the urban space, but making presence by occupying the space bring another dimension when it comes to share the experience with others. Notheless, walking (alone) has this ephemeral characteristic that is relevant when leaving a trace and/or being documented. This is what is happening in The Leak and Fairy Tales, whether through a permanent line of paint left behind a stroll or through a more temporary mark, the thread.

From Static art to Particip ato

ry art.

«Political could be read in Greek sense of ‘polis’, the city as a site of sensations and conflicts from which the materials to create fictions or urban myths are extracted.» Francis. Alÿs

The beginning of the twentieth century marks a radical change in the Art field when avant-garde movements such Dada and the Futurism quest for the abolition of the Art diktat. Their non-art works and interventions were created to arouse people curiosity, senses and anger. They wanted to stir the audience up – it worked – it was the perfect opportunity to merge art and politics and conquer the mass thanks the public space. The Futurists’s main interest were events and collective experiences followed by Dadaists with their Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. (26) But their attempt to break down the boundaries between the viewer and the work of art hadn’t been totally successful. In 1960s with Fluxus, the Situationist International and Warhol’s Factory, events and performances reappeared. Apart from their common desire to collaborate and use every kind of media as way of expression, they also wanted to tighten their relation with the public in a more carnivalesque manner. For the German artist Joseph Beuys every man is an artist. He sees the society as a giant sculpture in which anyone can transform the whole to become truly free. He first introduced the term of Social sculpture in the early 1970s It quialifies any sort of artwork that “requires social engagement. requires social engagement, the participation of its audience, for its completion”. (31)

We can relate his concept with the french writer Michel De Certeau’s vision on the invention and daily creativity through users’s activities. De Certeau believes that people re-appropriate what they consume in a very personal manner and find a balance between what it is given to them and which meaning they add to the product. He also formulates his definition of tactic as everyday practices like chatting, reading, wandering or going to the market. These practices are moment of pleasure, of leisure that depends on the right time to seize but cannot be capitalized. (27) On the other hand the Situationist International were attempting to create “situations” where humans would interact together as people, not mediated by commodities. They saw in moments

Erwin Wurm

of true community the possibility of a future, joyful and un-alienated society.

from people / visitors / spectators to engage with art, to dare. When I say successful, I mean participation-wise and not the participant’s «Our central idea is the construction of wisdom. As seen in situations, that is to say, the concrete construction Marina Abramovic’s work like Rhythm 0 of momentary ambiences of life and their transformation into a superior passional quality.» in 1974 where she allowed visitors to Guy Debord manipulate her body Everyone has something within oneself, an eagerness with the props she has provided with only one to do crazy things, a little voice that we don’t listen instruction: because it is not in the norm. It can be creativity, and There are 72 objects on the table that one can other drives, more instinctive and sensitive. People just use on me as desired. 6 hours. People started to need a boost. The Eventstructure Research Group is a behave gently, but became quickly out of control, good example when it comes to merge, art, participation, tearing up her clothes, pushing roses’ pins into play and celebration in the public space. They have created her skin, and targeting a loaded gun to her face. several inflatable structures where people could interact Without frame and too much freedom, people’s with, by jumping on it, climbing it collectively. primitive impulses can express disproportionately. The success of all participatory events, shows a certain desire

“My work is like the light in the fridge, it only works when there are people there to open the fridge door. Without people, it’s not art it’s something else, stuff in a room.” Liam Gillick

Other artists like one of the most important figures of Brazilian post war art, Lygia Clark for whom art was a multi-sensory experience and considered the viewers as participants. Also, the Austrian artist Erwin Wurm and its One Minute Sculptures who gave complete instructions through drawings to the visitors to frame their behavior. The role of the audience become as important as the artist’s work and the viewer is sometimes the central piece of the work. Without their actions there is nothing to see, to feel and the artwork is not seen as its full potential. There is a big room for serendipity, each audience and action is different. The control is not in the artist’s hand anymore and thus, make every work unique but hard to valuate in the art world. In a more strict and choreographied way, the German artsit Franz Erhard Walther aims to the aesthetisation of his work through pure collaboration. It should be emphasized that the rules set up for any participative work and event are essential. It is like a game and participants are like children; without instruction or guidance the result will not be what expected at all. Artists and designers have to play with this fine line between a structured and freely opened intervention or performance. For instance, during Robert Morris’ retrospective at London’s Tate Gallery, they had to close after the destruction of some installations. But it was not sabotage, but just an overuse of his participative works. (26) We can state here that the question of urban space’s re-appropriation has shifted from a more individual action as the graffitis where artists mark their territory or criticize the system, to a 3 dimensional and participative way of doing.

There is a significant will to disrupt the everyday boredom whilst inviting citizens to be more aware of their rights in their city. These interventions create stories and sort of myths that nurture the city’s history. Art played its role as a provocative and reflective element in the society. Viewers as spectators, viewers as participants, contributors and most importantly, viewers as worthy actor and activator of the situation. Every single one of us has an unfettered imagination, eager to express. We tend to ignore and repress it so thanks to participative (artistic) interventions we can eventually let off steam.

summary... When it comes to play my point is that, the essence of play is to express our forgotten inner-child. Playing is losing the sense of time, is to achieve a deeper self-understanding. Play can lead us to another state of mind, more instinctive and pure as Huizinga’s explains. On the other hand, the freedom of playing can be seen as a political act. When Francis Alÿs plays with the city, makes it his playground to question the values, norms and flaws of the society. These three last decades, street-arts brought a ludic aspect in cities. Ludic for its aesthetic, or first layer of understanding, but mostly political engaged if not just an appropriation gesture of the public space. It is also through avant-garde movements of the XXth century, through Dada and its absurd provocation, Fluxus with its action art and happenings, the Situationist International who/which “demand games with great seriousness” (29) and numerous artists that visitors and audiences were invited to reflect on the established system and to partake in social oeuvres (sculptures) and movements. It is through a certain frame and the creation of new situations that people can let loose and reflect upon society.

Reacted Monuments, Connected Citizens keywords: participation, community, debate, play

In many cities and cultures, monuments still have an active cultural role in public space. In various intentional or unintentional cultural rituals, monuments are touched in certain ways or certain actions take place around them. This reality applies mostly where religion and myths play an important role in the city identity. In English the word “monument” is often used in reference to something of extraordinary size and power. The word comes from the Latin “monere,” which means ‘to remind’ or ‘to warn’. (32) The monuments that I here tackle, are specifically statues and sculptures. Statues as they are trying to remind a common past, to emphasize an ideology, a pride of identity. And sculptures as art gestures loaded with meanings and stories. Both of these monuments are given to citizens as a nostalgic or aesthetic features in the public space. Nonetheless, these monuments and their (hi)story are ignored, forgotten or unknown and the space that surrounds them often lacks of human interaction. Monuments are in a way, not static. Their meaning changes throught years even though their form remains the same. As Bradley states, it can be adopted, it can be left alone, but unless it is actually destroyed, it is almost impossible to eradicate from human experience. (33) This

human experience is in some places, passive. Locals can relate to those monuments, but their meaning and memory can be hard to grasp or to relate to. Through the creation of a new situation (a participatory urban installation) I try to trigger new stories that citizens and new comers can

«The function of the story is to find an intentional state [which can come from something within the culture, like a national expectation, or within the person] that mitigates or at least makes comprehensible a deviation from a canonical cultural pattern.»(28) J. Bru 24

ner

appropriate and interpret. Monuments reflect culture, but culture reflects the collective accomplishments of a civilization. (34) When different cultures meet, they need a common ground to meet and relate to one another and foster social cohesion and acceptance of the Other, our actual fellow citizen. The stories that would emanate from this installation are personal, yet connected to the story the sculptures and history of the statues. From a political point of view, there are artists like the Croatian conceptual artist, Igor Grubic who gives his critical and poetical view of the modern society through urban interventions and performances. With his project 366 Liberation Rituals/Scarves and Monuments he anonymously attempts to trigger debates and change in emphasizing the failures of the current system. Creating memories and relationships with something all citizens don’t have in common: the past e.i statues e.i heritage. Reacted Monument’s installation aims to reactivate interest around statues and sculptures, but also arouse debates.

I. Grubic

From a lighter point of view, I see statues and sculptures as a chance to create positive interaction and social cohesion. The installation/ machine can be seen as a game in which people are challenged to act in a different way in front of the monuments. The monuments in question are decontextualized from their usual environment and projected in a different place of the same city (here, Eindhoven). Reacted Monuments’project has its principles rooted in Situationist thinking. Through the creation of situations, people can aprehend their surroundings and appropriate it.

rules the historical meaning of the place. (35) Giving the opportunity to interpret monument’s history and meaning, is to give birth to common denominators that would link different cultures of the city. Still, without demeaning the memory of them if no totalitarian ideology involved.. The project question accepted behaviors in public space and daily routines. The Mexican electronic artsit Rafael Lozano-Hemmer plays with people behaviors and interaction between them. Through is interactive installations he

«A major point of criticism in the contemporary debate on monument concepts is that many monuments perform this function only inadequately. Monuments are abstract and seek a common denominator: they aim to make a collective statement on historical events, but all too often, individual viewers are given hardly any or too few starting points J. Young for their own reflection.» Citizens are invited to be part of a new community that re-act monuments, and give them a second breathe. This community spirit is formed through the creation of videos, published online on a website. In each intervention, the installation films the participatory citizens acting in front of the fictional piece of public space (the monument’s projection). Then, all of them are gathered in one video aiming to generate a sense of belonging.

explores what is called “relational architecture”. where self-representation, agency and the key idea that absence and presence are not opposites are in the center of his work. He

plays with layers of comprehension, reflecting on past events or on actual interaction between strangers. Participants are the actors of the situation, they make stories and create meanings around his installations. It is through the thinging

E. Carenzo The German artist Jochen Gerz involves citizens in the process and result of his work, where memory, collaboration and critic vision of heritage are at the core of his reflection. He creates these so-called anti-monuments (or counter-monumentalism) whose purpose is to reject authoritative social force in public space or any imposing ideology (past dictatorship or overwhelming remembering monuments) that

concept, i.e the frictions between the installation and the citizens that meanings appear, and the project make sense. It is not an end in itself but a never ending story that needs to reach as many people as possible.

I work through intuition. I wander in the city and try to understand cracks in which to act. The citizensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; involvement is always at the core of my participatory installations. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe in perfect interventions in which everyone would want to participate. Instead, I believe that through creation of new situations, I can foster new realities for people to take part of. There is no logic order, but through these urban interventions, I used what worked and left aside what did not. I just kept the ones that make sense regarding to the end project.

the photo booth

THE SITUATION On the main square of the city of Eindhoven, during lunch time, for an hour. TOOLS & INTERVENTION A camera, a table, a lot a props (glasses, mustaches, furry ping-pong bat, a skull, a braid, christmas lights...) THE AIM Invite people to be as bizarre as possible in the public space for a picture. The picture is also sent by email. THE CONCLUSION The use of props helped the participants to slip into the shoes of a character and to let it go easily. The role of the camera crucial because it frame the time, so it is â&#x20AC;&#x153;now or neverâ&#x20AC;? to misbehave, to be absurd at an unexpected moment and place. How can I trigger this kind of behavior in a more meaningful way? As inviting citizens to engage with their city more freely.

the performance THE SITUATION Public spaces are space of freedom. Citizens can do whatever they like. (as long as we do not put anyone in danger) TOOLS & INTERVENTION I have mastered a part of a public bench and I have converted it into a stage. A public dancing stage. I had speakers on my chest and sign with the question: Would you like to dance with me?

THE AIM People sometimes need to let off steam. Dance to relieve stress and break the routine. Make people dance with me. Make them aware that they can dance in the public space if they want to. Give them the opportunity to move their body on an unusually place and time of the day. They have the entire choice to break their own boundaries and dance in front of everyone around. It was an occasion to let off steam and break the everyday routine. Music is a powerful medium to gather people.

THE CONCLUSION A smile, a laughter, a suspicious wince, and sometimes fear. It takes a few second to the passerby to react, to click and jump ahead. What makes people daring? Being face to face, led to a conversation in motion for a song-time. Music is a powerful medium to gather people. For the next intervention, I wanted to go deeper in the relation people have with their city and fellow citizens. My role would be the mediator for interaction.

the game THE SITUATION The city center on saturday afternoon is like a multicultural anthill. This hustle bustle creates negative interactions. The chance to have a break, to recess are only found in cafés. However the chance for what I call “positive interactions” are reduced. Locals are too used to their city, their surroundings but is their any chance to shake up our habits? INTERVENTION: I brought a small table on which is inscribed the question: «Dare to play... in public?» A over-sized cocotte (the dare game), some blue balloons and papers. THE AIM The pedestrians were invited to play and be challenged in the streets Challenge passers-by to interact with strangers and to reflect on their surroundings. Through those challenges, pedestrians were invited to break their boundaries and to be a bit less inhibited.

The challenges were: Blow a balloon and give it to someone who looks whether sad or angry - Ask someone to take a picture of you with a funny face and ask him to do the same - Write on a paper something you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t like and throw it in the public bin - Ask to a random person to take a picture with you as if you were friends - Tell me 3 things you like around you. THE CONCLUSION Passers-by glimpsed, smiled, stared at my small table. Playfulness + challenge = the magic formula. I had the longest conversations there. Participants and passers-by mingled. The playfulness and simplicity of the game made people comfortable. People dared, people chatted with me and with one another. Intuition and simplicity are the key words of this game, which makes it accessible to anyone.

photo shoot in the street

THE SITUATION On the Eindhoven’s main square. It’s a neutral square with no cafe but in between a shopping mall and the the main shopping street. The only interaction with stranger is through commercial booths and the entertainment is through occasional street musicians. INTERVENTION One camera and some animal’s figurines. They had to pick a figurine and an action to pretend to fight, dance, meditate or cuddle the head of dinosaur, a horse or a tiger. The reward was a photo send by email THE AIM Invite people to act in an unorthodox way in public and alone. CONCLUSION The participants were aware of the play with perspective (the figurine was close to the camera and the participant in the middle of the square) so they were able to trust and be open enough to act freely within the game’s directions. {frame}

the projection THE SITUATION In a small dead end in the city center, during dinner time for an hour. Can a projection attract passers-by in a dodgy street? TOOLS & INTERVENTION A box which project silhouette in an unusual position. The projection is triggered by passer-by on the wall. THE AIM People are invited to interact with those silhouettes, by imitating them or being silly around them. The silhouettes are used as an excuse ÂŤhe did it before me!Âť THE CONCLUSION People are (obviously) not keen to go in this dark street. Triggering absurd behaviors in showing silhouettes is not enough. Giving instructions and creating a story around it, to find a meanin

Map of sculptures, statues and their myths monumentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; tour

THE SITUATION Sculptures and statues of Eindhoven are given features of the city. How to give them an extra layer for citizens to relate to? TOOLS & INTERVENTION The map tells myth-like stories about monuments. And one box at the feet of each monument (6 in total) where the stories and rituals are explained, accompanied by props to make the actions happen. THE AIM All of them triggers a ritual, an action searching for a health, happiness, love or showing political indignation. Give a bit of absurd meaning to this monuments where people could relate to them. Each of them has a role. THE CONCLUSION Each boxes had different actions and props. sticking, folding paper, throwing, touching.. When that action is too centered around the props, the particpation is limited (folding paper, throwing). When the action relates directly to the shape of the sculptures (touching - cf pictures)

the objects

THE SITUATION Pyramid is an participatory installation based on the sculpture De Bekoring, de Wijsheid en het Gevaar (The Temptation, the Wisdom and the Danger) by Henck van Dijck (1995). It takes place in the center of Eindhoven. Even though it is surrounded by cafĂŠs and a restaurant, the sculpture is just another element in the city landscape and now totally embedded in our everyday routine. INTERVENTION I used the existing set up of the sculpture and the triangular shaped square around it and I have aug- mented its aesthetic. I took the top of the statue as reference and reproduced it in quantity and reproduced it 59 times out of chalk. I wanted this intervention to be integrated in the existing situation.

THE AIM Give to people simple tools which are site specific objects, to trigger unusual situations, to help them engaging with their city, to interact with their fellow citizens, to stimulate their creativity and senses in an absurd manner. The aim is to play with social rules through ambigui- ty, and to see how people can appropriate something that is offered to them. On the other hand Pyramids gives the opportunity to use the space differently, to express what they want and so to reappropriate the space.

THE CONCLUSION Apart from the appropriation and interction with the space and (unexpectedly) the sculpture, the power of this intervention hides in the effect of presence and gathering of people without commercial purpose. {meeting point} Even though this intervention has no aim but pleasure and help people engaging with their city, I can here state that cheap and simple tools can have a big impact on our surroundings and on the citizens. This square is neutral, but in another socio-politic context, another place (in front of government buildings) its meaning would be less light and playful. {self-expression}

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(30) In a Corner of a Room, a Cedric Price by Mirko Zardini excerpt from A stroll through a fun palace, Swiss Pavilion, Biennale Architecttura 2014 (31) A Brief Genealogy of Social Sculpture by Alan W. Moore http://www.joaap.org/webonly/moore.htm (32) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument (33) Bradley, R. (1993). Altering the Earth: The Origins of Monuments in Britain and Continental Europe. The Rhind Lectures 1991-92. Edinburg: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph Series no. 8. (34) Culture and the city : On Content and Form by Matthias Sauerbruch, curator of the Culture:City exhibition at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. (35) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-monumentalism (36) Beaux-Arts magazine - Dreamlands. Architecture et Utopie by Antje Kramer p.21-22 (37) Participation is risky - by Liesbeth Huybrechts (ed.) p.34-35 (valiz antennae)