The increasing demand for security, privatization, commercialization and virtual platforms like Google Maps, Twitter and Facebook have led to a fundamental change in the nature of the public sphere and public space. Every last corner of the city is monitored by CCTV cameras, every public gathering requires an official permit, former public squares are being converted into outdoor cafés and beer gardens and the state would like nothing more than “transparent people”, posting private information about themselves and making it accessible to the general public. The exhibition project „Inside the City“ highlights the changed configurations in and around public space and investigates how they are now perceived, what mechanisms are at play here and what strategies are have emerged within art in response to these developments.
In keeping with their respective profiles, the three institutions of GAK Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Künstlerhaus Bremen and Zentrum für Künstlerpublikationen focus on different aspects of public space and public sphere in contemporary art. GAK Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, in „Inside the City. Public Space and Free Space“, addresses the ambivalent nature of public space, caught between democratic spirit and restrictive reality. Künstlerhaus Bremen, in „Inside the City. The Impact of the Digital Sphere on Public Space“, focuses on how digital space creates a new dimension of public space, while the Centre for Artists’ Publications, in „Inside the City. Artists’ Publications as Art in Public Space“, presents art since the 1960s, with all the opportunities and media of the public.
The artistic positions represented as part of „Inside the City“ are thus not confined solely to institutional spaces. They also extend in subject matter and location to form a network of art across Bremen. However, they do not become fixtures in the usual manner of art in public space – like street furniture that owes its location and public reception to bureaucratic permits. Instead, approaches are taken that can rather be perceived at the subliminal level and new forms of articulation are sought, to the point where public space – within the three institutions and within public space itself – becomes the exhibition.
Arno Auer
Eva Berendes
Bouillon Group
Anetta Mona Chisa & Lucia Tkacova
dilettantin produktionsbüro
FORT
Kasia Fudakowski
Knut Henrik Henriksen
Marcel Hiller
Tobias Hübel
Till Krause
Kate Newby
Ahmet Ögut
Tim Reinecke
Julika Rudelius
Max Schaffer
Z. Schmidt
Maya Schweizer
Curated by Fanny Gonella, Anne Thurmann-Jajes, Janneke de Vries
A collaboration of GAK Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Künstlerhaus Bremen and Centre for Artists’ Publications.
Publication
In preparation
Annual editions
Kasia Fudakowksi: Blinking Bonkers, 2016
Marcel Hiller: jig one – jig twenty-three, 2014
Tim Reinecke: xero 1 – xero 5, 2015
Events
Sat 18.07.15
4 pm: Joint opening
Location: court of the Künstlerhaus
5.30 pm: Guided tour to exemplary outdoor projects in the surroundings
6-10 pm: Summer party at Karton (Am Deich 86)
Wed 22.07.15, 7 pm
OX: Public Posters
Book presentation
Location: Weserburg – Centre for Artists’ Publications
Sat 25.07.15
3 pm: Janneke de Vries, Anne Thurmann-Jajes
City walk to selected stations of the exhibition
Start: Forecourt of the Weserburg
7 pm: Selda Asal, Iver Ohm and Anne Thurmann-Jajes: stay with me
Opening of the artist project
Location: Lloydhof, Hanseatenhof 3-9
Sun 02.08.15, 3 pm
Anne Thurmann-Jajes
Bicycle tour to selected venues of the exhibition
Start: forecourt of the Weserburg
Sat 08.08.15, 1-3 pm
Regine Beyer and Anne Thurmann-Jajes
Picnic with radio
Location: Waller Park
Sat 15.08.15, 9 pm
Peter Sämann: Everybody Street by Cheryl Dunn
Open air film screening
Location: forecourt of the Weserburg
Tue 25.08.15, 11 am – 3 pm
Workshop for children
Location: GAK Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst
Thu 27.08.15, 7 pm
Curator’s tour through the exhibitions
Start: GAK Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst
Fri 28.08.15, 9 pm
Peter Sämann: Short films
Open air film screening
Location: forecourt of the Weserburg
Sat 05.09.15, 3 pm
Janneke de Vries and Anne Thurmann-Jajes
City walk to selected venues of the exhibition
Start: forecourt of the Weserburg
Sat 12.09.15, 1 – 3 pm
Regine Beyer and Anne Thurmann-Jajes
Picnic with radio
Location: Sebaldsbrück Castle Park
Wed 16.09.15, 7 pm
Auto Italia South East: Corporate Creativity and Economies of Culture
Conversation (en)
Location: Künstlerhaus Bremen
Fri 25.09.15, 7 pm
Johan Hartle: On the Original Accumulation of the Public
Lecture
Location: Weserburg – Centre for Artists’ Publications
Thu 08.10.15, 7 pm
Curator’s tour through the exhibitions
Start: Künstlerhaus Bremen
Support
The Senator for Culture, Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, Bremen bike it, The Senator for Environment, Construction and Transport
The project by Z. Schmidt is supported by: German Factoring Bank
The project by Bouillon Group is supported by: Goethe Institute
Special Thanks to:
Bremen Police, BremenPorts, Bremer Touristik Zentrale, Hal över, Kante, Karton, cooperation partners of dilettantin produktionsbüro, State Office for the Preservation of Monuments, Office for Public Order, PC Clinic, Radio Weser TV / Bremen, C. Rockefeller Center for the Contemporary Arts, Dresden, Schlachteverband, stickma, Dresden, Road Traffic Office, Umweltbetrieb Bremen, Weserburg Museum of Modern Art