Share your inspirations!

[MOOC team – Camille]

Use this thread to share external links to videos or photos of art in public space projects that have left a mark on you. Add a short description of the content to your links. This thread will be accessible and open to contributions throughout the MOOC. Remember to come here regularly!

Topic

[mbudillon]

Some projects of art/performance in public space I like:

– DOM https://www.casadom.org/
camps, performances, rituals
-STALKER http://www.osservatorionomade.net/tarkowsky/manifesto/manifest.htm
walkings, settling, performances
– CUORE DI NAPOLI https://cuoredinapoli.net/
installation street
-Bianco Valente http://www.bianco-valente.com/images.html
writing installations
-postdisasterrooftops
curatorial platform
– OHT nomadic school
– Neutopica
residency and incursioni
– Urlo, Kinkaleri
street poster

festival
Danza Urbana, Bologna
Cantieri Culturali, Firenze
Ammutinamenti, Ravenna
Periferico, Modena http://www.perifericofestival.it/
Live Arts Week X
Cheap Festival
Iniziative II, ROma

• This reply was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by mbudillon.

[thainan]

Hello, I’m Thainan. I am a Brazilian theater artist, academic researcher and enterpreneur.

One of the most memorable public space performances I’ve seen is Diluvio MA, made by local collective of artists Coletivo EcoPoética, presented over the sewage cannal that cuts our capital. This piece has traveled a lot of cities in Brazil, and totally resignified some marginalized places for me. Here’s a trailer:

[Octavio Navarrete]

im not speake english. so i be sintetic

– im from chile im 31 years old
– i work in the public space as performer, director and producer

i think that we have de responsability to think about how de pubic space is an dispute place whit the establishment.

[SilviaPS]

Hi, my name is Silvia and I am an urban producer based in Bariloche.

Thank you for all of these great and inspirational links!
Beatiful inspiration!!!

[CleiGrott]

I’m Clei Grött. I’m a brazilian actor based in Barcelona. I have a degree in Performing Arts in my home country and I’ve acted mostly on stage and on screens. However, my participations in public space plays and performances have been very exciting and impactful. Right now I’m working a street theater play named “no hay citas disponibles.” This play/performance/urban intervetion raises the issues of the overwhelming bureaucracy inflicted on the immigration processes in the public administration, the visibility of the immigrant in the city, the exploration of work force under questionable conditions, the lack of opportunities etc. This a project of brazilian company ERRO Grupo which has a long and successful history in street theater and the use of public spaces for artistic and political purposes.
Apart from the projects I’ve been involved in I’d say that other pieces from ERRO Grupo and Roger Bernat are referential and inspirational to me.

I’m looking forward to getting to know more artists!

@cleigrott

• This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by CleiGrott.

[Kata_Balogh]

Hi!
I’m Kata Balogh, Hungarian interdisciplinary artist and cultural manager, based in Barcelona.
Right now I’m working on street performance which combines contemporary dance, site specific performance and mobile technologies and is moving around the issue of the social, spatial, sensory and bodily consequences of the excessive use of smartphones in our everyday life.
If I have to think of the words inspiration and public space, I can’t think of anything else but life of and in the street/specific space itself. I can spend hours and hours just sitting on a terrace, or switching on the observer mode while commuting and observe people, the rythims of a place, the sounds of it… Right now I can’t remember any specific project that inspired me, but I will share some whith you when the moment comes.

[CleiGrott]

Hi! I also live in Barcelona.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by CleiGrott.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by CleiGrott.

[Marit]

Bonjour,

I am Marit, coach, product manager and artist from Berlin, Germany. My experience with art actually quite limited, I try to recall something that absolutely stuck with me, but I am not recalling anything specific. Although I am sure there was many times otherwise I would not have ended up being interested in the subject in the first place!
One thing I definitely remember from the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 was this moment

.. and it inspired people all around the world for similar action.

[MeMalagon]

My name is Marcela Eunice and I am a transdisciplinary artist based in Bogotá, Colombia. For five years, I was a contemporary dancer.
I haven´t got much experience working on projects based outdoors spaces, but I’m looking forward to completing this course and to have more tools to encourage me to create in public space and generate new connections with the public.
I believe that this artist practice helps to broaden current discussions around democracy and the right to freedom of expression.

Here are links of public space performances which I loved:
https://vimeo.com/206424098 María Teresa Hincapié (Colombia)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTLJJnHMOKE (Performance Colombia)
http://www.lazouze.com/Page/Evelyne-House-of-Shame
http://www.royal-de-luxe.com/en/sticker/the-true-history-of-france#

• This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by MeMalagon.

[AmyDianaPoole]

Hi, my name’s Amy Diana Poole living/working in London, UK. My experience has been in arts marketing and front of house, I’m trying to move into arts producing.

I grew up going to see the outdoor art commissions at Brighton Festival, a memorable one was Figures Libre by KompleXKapharnaüM in 2013.
It was amazing to see the projections on all of the buildings, and how they managed to manoeuvre a large crowd through the small streets of Brighton, without it feeling crowded or chaotic.

https://www.kxkm.net/fr/projets/figures-libres-deambulation

[Lucy McNeill]

Hello, I’m Lucy and work with museums in the East of England. I have enjoyed public space art through the Norfolk & Norwich Festival for many years. I am now on a steering committee for an artist-run charity and want to know how to help artists create art in public spaces.

[Bor Bor]

Hey, hi, from Costa Rica, i´ll do my best to express my self in english the best i can. Thanks for all this wonderfull inspiration! This is a web where you can see a bit of my work https://www.hilvana.io/bor-bor-movimiento-y-mas-alla?fbclid=IwAR1c2oDkEtSH04fYDJTggRDBoR3b-ZhsNRzAK7zCptdBwZFqtZNT7qOauh4 and also i want to share a fan video of one of the biggest names in creation of public spaces, The Royal Deluxe with their show Miniatures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTMxFgR2g4k

[Kapil]

Hi, my name is kapil. I have completed my masters in performance studies in 2020. I am a theatre practitioner and puppeteer. I have done street theatre in the name of public performances.
Here is link of public space performance which I liked

https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2020/11/9/little-amal-a-giant-refugee-puppet-with-a-powerful-message

• This reply was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by Kapil.

[Francesco_]

Hello everyone!

I’m Francesco from Barcelona, Spain.
I’m an actor, I studied physical theatre in Barcelona’s School of Dramatic Arts (Institut del Teatre) and I’m willing to share my experience in the theatre performance field. I’d also like to discover new ways of thinking the Public Space as a new element in my way of creating. I recently start to work on a piece that questions the way we see and experience our cities, that tries to discover new perspectives and new ways of understanding the structure of it, trying to develop the relation between arts and citizenship. That’s why I’m here. To enrich my vision, to share experiences and to get some inspiration.
When i think about arts in public spaces, my first thought goes to Rimini Protokoll – https://www.rimini-protokoll.de/website/en/videos
Here a link to their webpage in which you can find trailers/documents/reportage about their work.

Hope to get in touch with you soon!

[CarolinaCaldeira]

Hi everyone! I’m Carolina, from Madeira – Portugal.
I’m a festival director, cultural manager, and also a writer and producer.
I’ve been organizing FRACTAL FUNCHAL FEST, an urban art festival, focused on the unexpected perspectives that cities can offer their citizens. Now my team and I have been focused on growing our range, we’ve been working mostly with local artists, but decided that now that Funchal is running for European Capital of Culture 2027, it’s time to expand our horizons.
I’m really inspired by what I’ve seen so far in this forum, can’t wait to meet you all.

[Ian Abbott]

Hello everyone, I’m Ian Abbott, a writer & producer who works in dance, theatre & performance and lives in Wales. Having been a programmer & director of a dance festival previously I have had the fortune to see a lot of work. These are some of the works & outdoor communal experiences that have stuck with me for their intimacy, exhilaration & asking us to look at the world differently:

Bodies in Urban Spaces (2009) in London by Cie Willi Dorner – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7Qv50sgrds
I programmed it four years later in 2013 in Bournemouth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yzcn3Avu2s

The Company of Wolves (2014) by Burn The Curtain in Totnes. It was an outdoor, night time adventure for runners and walkers inspired by the Angela Carter novel. https://burnthecurtain.co.uk/wolves/

Rider Spoke (2009) by Blast Theory in Liverpool. https://www.andfestival.org.uk/events/blast-theory-rider-spoke/

Is This A Wasteland (2017) by Charlotte Spencer Projects in Glasgow. https://charlottespencerprojects.org/projects/is-this-a-waste-land-2015/is-this-a-waste-land-2015-gallery/

[Sandra Bendelow]

I’m Sandra Bendelow and I’m an Arts Producer and Festival Manager at Beyond the Border Storytelling Festival, I’m also a scriptwriter and teach scriptwriting. At the festival we have been looking at how to work with our amazing new site at National Trust Dinefwr including the Wildlife trust woodland and Dinefwr Castle. generally I am interested in creating art in public spaces, based in Aberystwyth, the potential of creating work in the landscape is of huge interest to me. I have watched lots of site specific work through the years and been inspired by the scale of projects like Mark Rees Now the Hero to work with a community and build a project responsive to that community but on an epic scale, but also the impact of art installations like Alice Briggs A Place where one lies which has placed a Care Home Room in various public settings and also placed a Care Home Bed in the landscape, and effectively created something extremely powerful with an art installation in the landscape.
Alice Briggs A Plae where one Lies

[Mandy Dike]

Hello there,
Mandy Dike here,
i am an outdoor artist with a company called AndNow:
very many outdoor works have inspired me, all the work…. particularly the early work of Welfare State International… the Engineers of the imagination .https://www.unfinishedhistories.com/history/companies/welfare-state-international/

.Also in the past …. hugely inspiring The dutch company Dogtroep…..
The walkabout of Incubus theatre at the Albion Fairs back in the day
Theatre Titanic, and IOU…. i cant find links but will search and post .

more recently:
Walley Range Allstars http://www.wras.org.uk

Rosemary Lees dance in the tree catedral in Milton Keynes, it was not free, but beautiful///
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/dance-blog/2014/jul/11/rosemary-lee-under-the-vaulted-sky-milton-keynes-cathedral-of-trees
Some of IIliotpes imagery on water http://ilotopie.com/spectacles/leau-nouvelle-scene/fous-de-bassin/

There is so much inspiring work, long may it continue, all power to the collective creative elbow
.

[Zosia Jo]

Hi everyone

Im Zosia Jo, a choreographer / dance and movement artist based in Cardiff and working also in Pembrokeshire, West Wales.
I work with community dancers in Pembrokeshire and we started working outdoors in 2017: https://joondance.wixsite.com/joondance/spring-gather

I made my first work for public space/festivals last year thanks to Articulture: Talking to Horses

I am excited by the possibilities, potential democracy, and aliveness of performance in public space.

I am really inspired by Kitsch’n’Sync Collective.

[Camille Brueton]

Hi there!

I’m a new arrival at Common Wealth – a site specific theatre company based in Bradford and Cardiff that cocreates political theatre.

My background is rooted more in visual arts – Francis Alÿs’s: SEVEN WALKS made a big impressions on me when I first saw it – a different reading of a familiar city. http://www.artexchange.org.uk/exhibition/francis-alys-seven-walks/

[Mandy Dike]

Hello there, I am Mandy Dike, Outdoor artist and half of AndNow: see http://www.andnow.co.uk for our out of date website, I am based in Wiltshire but on the move to North Wales.
So much work has inspired and excited me, often from being involved in it, The early Albion Fayres in Suffolk England in the 70s were hugely inspiring, the direct humorous anarchic passionate work of Incubus Theatre… i dont have links but will search.. Then the work of Welfare State International .. I will try to find a good link and add it here too, they were true and brave engineers of the imagination, More recently the work of so many,
I am intrigued and interested to be involved in this learning experience… I do not lean towards digital experiences … so will hope that i can transition from solid to virtual and not trip myself up!

[DebAshby]

Hi

I am Deb, based near Manchester in the UK and I am currently a Freelance Arts Consultant/Manager & Producer. I have 28 years experience of working in the arts, largely in performing arts & in particular dance.

In a previous role, I set up Urban Moves International Dance Festival in 2005, which presented professional dance performances outdoors & in unusual spaces which ran till 2014 and had 5 full editions, presenting around 60 performances across a weekend. I have also commissioned & presented a number of performances for the outdoors and for public spaces such as libraries & galleries by both professionals & community participants. Some examples of the festival are at the following links:

Arts in outdoor and public spaces remains close to my heart due to its democracy & breadth of public engagement, the international market & its ability to transform a familiar landscape & bring our attention to things we have never noticed before.

At this moment of change in life, I am intrigued by what this course will offer in terms of new inspiration & direction

[cookiesjam]

Hello.
My name is Angela Andrew. The artform is Lindy Hop / African-American Vernacular Jazz Dance (AVJ).
Here is a bio page with other links. http://www.angelaandrew.com
Super interested in all of this as my artistic path is moving into a new realm.
Here’s a collaboration from March 2019.
<iframe src=”https://player.vimeo.com/video/346545059&#8243; width=”640″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″ allow=”autoplay; fullscreen” allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p>Yacht Club Swing from Silvia Cherneva on Vimeo.</p>
Looking forward to meeting you all soon.
Angela.

[polisemica]

Hi! My name is Aïda Gómez and I am an urban artist based in Madrid.

Here you can check my work http://www.aidagomez.info

Hope you enjoy it 🙂

[beckywooproduces]

Hi there,

My name is Becky and I’m a freelance Arts Producer based in Birmingham, England. I work with a variety of festivals and organisations on arts projects, mainly music based in the past, but have started more recently working on projects which are more installation based and utilise outdoors spaces. I’m interested to see how presenting works in more unusual ways can attract different audiences and reach a wider breadth of society. I’m looking forward to making my way through the many suggestions of projects that others have suggested.

I’m looking forward to completing this course to further widen my experience and role in creating works for outdoors / installation based works.

More info about projects I’ve worked on is available on my website: http://www.beckywoodcock.co.uk

[BryonyDixon]

Hello!

My name is Bryony Dixon, I am originally from the UK but now live and work on the traditional territories of the Snaw-Naw-As and Snuneymuxw First Nations (Vancouver Island, Canada). My academic interests primarily surround Drama and Film.

I have recently enjoyed diversifying my appreciation for performance arts offerings to include a more community based practice. I have been working for community focused arts organizations here for the past few years, and am motivated to explore opportunities for innovative artistic engagement in public spaces through digital and performance based initiatives. I’m interesting in blurring the boundaries between participation and spectatorship, encouraging active civic engagement through the arts.

I’d like to build upon the work of street performers/artists/site-specific performance works, and integrate accessible technological solutions that invite increased public participation in the arts. My inspirations include local arts festivals, large-scale public demonstrations, immersive installations and durational performances across multiple disciplines.

I am eager to see where this online course takes me, and how the knowledge gained can be applied to my work in the arts and culture sector.

[archie]

Hello, I’m Archie, I’m an artist. The concept of public space as I relate to it has drastically changed—especially during the pandemic and the upheaval, social insurgence, and poilical & social unrest in the US.

I am taking this mooc to challenge myself regarding learning about creating with a different approach that I am accustomed to, and especially under restrictions within what I would normally consider public space.

There have been a lot of public works that have inspired me. I don’t have an image of it, but before the covid19 lockdown, I saw a piece of sidewalk chalk art that creatively explained chemistry and DNA. This was a completely random encounter, unexpected, educational and unique. It was also ephemeral, washed away by the rain. I am intrigued by works that are subtle like this, seemingly anonymous, and offering many interpretations and purposes.

[Krystal]

Hello everyone,

My name is Krystal and I am an emerging dance/physical theatre artist.

I am interested in the “upper” space, which often gets neglected when choreographing, and I often envision bodies in this space when outside.

In 2017 I saw Urban Astronaut by Highly Sprung, and was so inspired and moved by it I took a video recording and stored it in a folder I labelled “file of dreams.”

Since then a promo video has been produced, which I have linked below for you to go and check out!

All the best with your journey!

Krystal

[inesc]

This is a huge forum! I feel motivated!
My interests are on participatory practices in the public space as I believe it being the best school-space to be in. These times we are in show to be of great challenges and I came here to try to challenge myself on artistic practices.
One artist that I carry with me in all my art thinking is Tania Bruguera. For her approach of inclusivity and social awareness.
Greetings
ines

[Mon]

Hey there, I’m Max. I’m interested in all forms of culture jamming and adbusting. I’ve recently done my first own projects and I really enjoyed replacing ads with my own artwork. I have no formal training whatsoever, I’m just a guy with a brush, a taste for action and keys for public ad displays.

I draw inspiration from @rocco_and_his_brothers and @dies_irae_adbust and if you haven’t already, check them out on insta.

[Kerynng]

At this moment, I associate public space performance to a performance held on the streets, where a lot of people are passing by on their every errands. And I remembered deeply, one particular performance done by a group breakdancers in Amsterdam. This group of men, has high levels of energy, humour and audience engagement that I was glued to their charisma for about 15 to 20 minutes.

I’m intrigued by the responses here, and is much more motivated to get on to knowing more! 🙂 Thank you very much.

[emmaogrady]

Emma
Twitter: @ogradyemma
Theatre-maker/Writer/performer/director/technician/production manager and I make work for indoor and outdoor theatre.
Based in Ireland.
I am interested in how people interact in rural communities and developing a way to create performances in public spaces in rural areas.

The companies I have worked with inspire me:
I regularly work with Macnas in Galway https://www.macnas.com/
I worked with Royal de Luxe on Le Grand-mére (Limerick 2014) and Le Scaphandrier (Le Havre, 2017) http://www.royal-de-luxe.com/en/
Turas Theatre https://www.turastheatre.com/

Like a lot of Irish people I was inspired by the work of Thom McGinty (The Diceman) who was a street performer in Dublin in the 1980s & 90s https://www.google.com/search?q=the+dice+man+thom+mcginty&sxsrf=ALeKk00wZX8yhHqoj21yQm_mU6mMvQMs9A:1589478231216&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjj7OXq87PpAhVwURUIHW9-AtsQ_AUoAXoECAsQAw&biw=1366&bih=625

[Natalia3193]

Hello everyone, my name is Natalia and I am from Lima-Perú. I would like to share with you a very lovely project that I am proud to be part of the last 4 years . This is a theater festival that is called FITECA – Festival Internacional de Teatro en Calles Abiertas (International theater festival at open streets), a participatory creative process that takes place in a slum neighbourhood here in Lima known as “La Balanza” at Comas district in the northside of Lima since 2001 and let me tell you it is outstanding. As most of latinamerican cities, Lima is very unequal and the urban marginality makes people live in poor conditions. However, FITECA motto is that poverty is not an excuse for a sad living, so let’s transform the slum into a creative neighbourhood: Hacer de la calle un verso y del barrio un hermoso poema, “to make each street a verse and our neighbourhood a beautiful poem”. So the aim is to combat sterotypes about the slums and demostrate that its people can be creative dreamers and art makers too, and this brings up a sense of social justice. The festival is a 7 day cultural programme that includes public presentations of theatrical performaces, circus, music, workshops, live mural painting etc, alll of these enhance concepts like community, andean identity, memory and art for social transformation.

Despite the lack of economic resourses, the organization of the festival had stablished a dynamic of solidarity trades with national and international scenic artists, mural artists, different cultural projects and even committed neighboors that all together get ahead the festival, along with so many volunteers from differents careers that offers their work selflessly (architects, musicians, painters, photographers, etc). It gathers nearly 700 artist for the inaugural parade and more than 200 international artists that arrives to stay here 24/7. For example, international artists are hosted in neighbour’ houses allowing a very interesting cultural exchange that wouldn’t be possible if the visitors stayed in a hotel.

Here some links about FITECA:
https://www.facebook.com/114176458618882/videos/235063501099027/

[Pawflo]

I started reading what you guys posted but I won’t be able to finish today hehe

My best experience so far with art in a public space was in 2017 at my home city in México where this awesome guys: http://plasticiensvolants.com/gb/compagnie.htm had a huge performance. I loved it!

I’m about to start a Master at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and I’m sure that all what I’ll from here will be so much useful for what’s coming.

All the best for everyone having a hard time. I’m hopeful that we’ll get the best out of it somehow.
Big hug.

Pau

[tedkillmer]

Many “hellos” to you all, and especially to those I recognize from my many visits, both professionally and informally, to the delicious worlds that I simply call Street. For more than forty years, I’ve been engaged as an arts consultant, specializing primarily in festival programming & theatrical publicity. Early on, I began my career in the arts as a puppeteer, and through the lens of one of the world’s oldest art forms, I avidly embraced the popular arts of circus, vaudeville, burlesque, magic, spectacle, and Street. I still do. Yes, I count Broadway among my fondest thoroughfares, as an enthusiastic promoter of Pulitzer Prize and Tony award winners. But my work with Obie winner En Garde Arts, a forerunner in site specific theater, propelled me forward to produce the Buskers Fare in lower Manhattan (1993-1197). The one square mile international spectacle of all things Street became swiftly acknowledged as a premier window into animating public spaces in the US and opened opportunities for the best international Street practitioners in both the visual and performing arts to be seen for the first time in my country. As an adherent of the concept of Commons – socially, politically, environmentally – I continue to explore more fully the twists and turns of avenues and alleyways. And the magic that comes with uncovery. So, at the moment I am reunited with France’s Caroline Amoros, Cie Princesses-Peluches http://www.carolinea-artist.com/, whom I presented at the Utah Arts Festival and the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts almost twenty years ago. Like fine wine, our dialog has improved with age and experience. I have joined you here by happenstance and with this mooc, look forward to reinvigorating my continued faith in the creative blood flow that courses through our mutual arteries and those we share as Street.

[GianMarco]

Hi everyone,

My name is Gian Marco Russo and I’m a post-graduate History of Art student at the University of Bologna, Italy.
Despite my main interests are related to visual arts and material culture in Early Modern Europe, I also like to keep up with the contemporary discourse. My main interests in this regard are the relationships between the body and the arts (in particular how artists represent the body in order to investigate their relations to gender and identity), the relationships between the arts and the post-colonial discourse and of course the creation of art in the public space.
Some relatively recent examples of art created in the public space which inspired me are William Kentridge’s ensemble at via Toledo in Naples, Olu Oguibe’s “Monument for strangers and refugees” (created for documenta 14 in Kassel), last but not least the collective project on Naoshima island in Japan.

Thank you all for this journey,
Gian Marco.

[_evieprice]

Hi everyone,

My name is Evie Price and I’m a fine art student at Central Saint Martins in London.

I think I was first properly immersed and completely inspired by participatory public art/community-based art during a workshop at university. The artist teaching lead us on silent walks around the area my uni is in and took us to many different public spaces all over London where we explored what it meant to us to be public and how we can use these spaces as studio/gallery/artworks. I now work with this artist as part of a collective called The Dazzle Club. We explore surveillance in public space through silent walks https://www.instagram.com/thedazzleclub/.

Art Works/artists of interest:
Anne Imhof, Faust. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCF3buPU670
Tania Bruguera, Tatlin’s Whisper #5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCF3buPU670
AiR, Packington. https://airstudio.org/places/packington/
Spencer Tunick, Naked World. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH4nS-WJf0w
Miranda Shall, Crossed Paths – Sheep. http://www.mirandawhall.space/?page_id=3465

[aaronbowman]

Hi everyone,

my name is Aaron Bowman (ajdbowman on twitter) and I work for Hartlepool Borough Council in the North East of England. As part of my rule, I am the programmer, producer and events manager for a range of Civic events, as well as two emerging festivals –

Hartlepool Waterfront Festival – https://www.facebook.com/HartlepoolWaterfrontFestival/
as well as a Hartlepool Halloween Parade –

I am interested in the places where contemporary outdoor arts meets ‘community’ art, for want of a better phrase, and am passionate about works that celebrate, develop and encourage our audiences to imagine a better future for themselves.

There are too many artists and companies to name them all, but my absolute favourite are Periplum, who we commisioned alongside our colleagues in the Tees Valley, to celebrate 100 years since the first women were granted the right to vote with a large-scale outdoor piece called ‘The Glass Ceiling’.

[_evieprice]

Hi everyone,

My name is Evie Price and I’m a fine art student at Central Saint Martins in London.

The first time I really acknowledged participatory public art/community-based art and was completely inspired was in a workshop ran by a tutor from my uni. We silently walked through the area around the university and met in public spaces all around London and just experienced the city in a completely different way. I now work with her as part of a collective called The Dazzle Club; we explore surveillance through silent walks in public space (https://www.instagram.com/thedazzleclub/).

Art works/artists I’m interested in:
Miranda Whall, Crossed Paths – Sheep. http://www.mirandawhall.space/?page_id=3465
Spencer Tunick, Naked World. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH4nS-WJf0w
AiR, Packington. https://airstudio.org/places/packington/
Tonia Bruguera, Tatlin’s Whisper #5. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bruguera-tatlins-whisper-5-t12989
Anne Imhof, Faust. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCF3buPU670

[Alynzl]

Kia ora, I am Ally I was born in England and raised in Aotearoa New Zealand.
I was lucky to spend time travelling around the UK a couple of years ago experiencing and working in community/art projects and the UK participatory arts sector, particularly in the North East/West. This left a profound impact on me as a community based arts facilitator. Participatory arts seem to be woven into the fabric of society there and there were so many amazing arts organisations doing inspirational and extraordinary things every where I went.
Also there seems to be a lot of support for and understanding of this sector which is not the case here, although things have been slowly improving.

I also remain completely inspired by an Irish organisation Macnas https://www.macnas.com/ who create incredible street theatre parades involving hundreds of people in the community. My goal/dream is to create something similar here in NZ.

I am also really inspired by all the great projects I am reading about here in this forum, well done and keep up the good work, it will be needed more than ever after this crisis is over, kia kaha .

[Tanya]

Hi. My name is Tanya and I am into theater, photography and museum work. We have a group called The Performance Laboratory which explores the use of space to explore different ways of engaging with an audiences through performances and multidisciplinary art. One of long running projects was an annual halloween interactive performance which utilizes the museum space after work hours.

I am inspired by the work of Marina Abramovic and her Method Space process.

I would like to learn more about performance and art in public spaces and being in this workshop encourages inspiration and possibilities towards the development of exciting and innovative projects..

Thank you!

[Debbie Cowley]

Hi My name s Debbie and I work for Cheshire Dance based in Cheshire, which is the North West of England, UK. For the last two years (2018 & 2019) Cheshire Dance have produced Now Northwich Dance and Street Arts Festival working with local, national and international artists as well as local community groups to support the regeneration of Northwich Town Centre and bring great art into the heart of the community.

I have been hugely inspired by the opportunities that this type of work brings to artists and audiences alike and the ability it has to connect local communities and artists with international companies whose work provides spectacle and a sense of awe. Through these festivals, and by visiting Stockton International Riverside Festival in 2019, I have been inspired by the creativity and artistic integrity of large scale acts. At Now Northwich we had the pleasure of working with Saruga and Close Act two inspiring companies. At SIRF, a more established festival I witnessed how the programming could challenge audiences and how the important role of audience development informed curation and programming.

[MarPB]

My first contact with public space creation was catalan company La Fura dels Baus. They have worked in the field of public space creation in many occasions, specially in the past, since they are not as active these days as they used to be. It is nice the way in which they can create extensive pieces that can be enjoyed by crowds and that always maintain the spirit of the company: rudimemntary machines, giant figures, extreme performances, etc.

[jana_dim]

Hello,

I am Jana from Serbia.

I am musicologist with reach performing experience as choir singer.

I performed in concert halls as well as in public spaces. The last performance I participated was in Italy, Matera, European Capital of Culture 2019, where I was improving my skills for two months. The name of project was Abitare l’Opera where I was part of choir of citizens that sang songs in dialect. Matera is known as city in stone so performers (actors and choir) walked through the city accompanied by audience.

This is one virtual project I participated during this COVID time.

In my country I work at national Radio Belgrade and as manager assistant of ArtLink Festival of young talented musicians. That gives me a different perspectives on performance art. I am involved in managerial side of music performances, but also as someone who makes reviews of concerts.

I hope this course will give me a new and different perspectives, but also an experience that I would like to share with other colleagues. This is also an opportunity for gaining new knowledge, tools and skills. I hope I will finde an inspiration for developing and implementing new and inovative projects.

Greetings

[Matt Addicott]

Hello everybody!

My name is Matt, I am an artist and cultural programmer based in Glasgow, Scotland.

As an artist I direct theatre and make live performances, often in public spaces.

A work that springs to mind is Rosanna Irvine’s beautiful ‘Ah Kissing’ which I experienced as part of the Buzzcut Festival in Glasgow in 2017.

http://www.rosannairvine.com/projects/ah-kissing/

This ‘deceptively simple’ saw two large groups of individuals moving across a public space, from one side to another before meeting in the middle to kiss and then part and move off again.

Feels as though the work captures a lot of what I relish about making work in public spaces; the way it mounts creative actions in conversation with their surroundings. I enjoyed the accessibility of the work. Staged outside of a subway station in Govan there were plenty of us there specifically to see the work but many more members of the public were present that were not expecting to encounter it and it was great to see their surprise and enjoyment of the work too.

Really enjoying reading and watching some of the work that has inspired others – best wishes to you all,

Matt

[robert89yu]

Hi everyone, I’m Tai-Jung from Taiwan, currently working with a circus company – Formosa Circus Art.

This is a short video that documents the work-in-progress presentation of our work “Disappearing Island” in Taipei Arts Festival in 2019, in collaboration with Filipino artist Leeroy New.

Enjoy and will be thrilled to receive your opinions!

Tai-Jung

[traptwins]

Hello to all! My name is Elsie Smith and I am a circus artist and show producer and circus educator in the United States. I work mainly in rural town, and have tried to develop works that require little tech and little rigging, and are accessible to as many as possible. I’m curious how our interactions with the audience will change in the future.

I have worked with and been inspired by Double Edge Theater in Massachusetts. The have a farm where they create site specific work in with the audience moves from stage to stage, and have also developed work that they re-create in other communities, on other outdoor sites.

https://doubleedgetheatre.org/performance-archive

Looking forward to more inspiration!

Best,
Elsie

[paquette]

Hello beautiful and inspiration people,
Greeting from Montreal!

My name is Anne-Marie and I am a creator and producer of installation art that is light-based and interactive. My entire practice is routed in making people and places smile.

I have already learned so much from reading your posts and discovering fascinating performances. A piece that is incredibly inspirational to me is Ice Watch by Olafur Eliasson and Minik Rosing where block of ice from floating icebergs were installed in the urban landscape and left to melt. This work made climate change feel tangible.

If I recall correctly it was premiered in Paris for COP 21, but has since been recreated in other cities including London.

The installation’s capability to transform something so familiar, yet also foreign at the same time, into something so emotional is was really captured my attention and my imagination.

Blessed to be a part of this community!
Anne-Marie
@l4studio

[Ruth Hogg]

Hello Everyone,
My name is Ruth Hogg and I’m a multidisciplinary artist, poet and performer.
I live in Aberystwyth and also get about to as many festivals as possible. Its lovely to see Olga Kaleta and Kitty O here in the community who I had the pleasure of working with/assisting previously at Meeting Lab and Cauldron Tales.
The main themes that run through my practice are probably fun and magic. I like creating group mandalas out of natural materials to focus and amplify an intention. I have a tea leaf or tarot reading alter-ego called Madame Fari who can sometimes be found at events, and a naughty witch who grants wishes with her wand and goes around offering people love potion! I also love working collaboratively, and am really into immersive site-specific performance.
Circus, especially aerial I just adore watching and participating in. One of the shows that really blew my mind was Immortal 2 by No Fit State. Here is a link.

[yiruchen1997]

Dear artist friends, my name is Yiru Chen and I’m very glad to join the community through MOOC. Born in Shanghai and currently based in New York City, I’m a filmmaker, interdisciplinary artist, poet, and a sign language advocate. As a performer/dancer myself, I have studied with multiple artists whose fields range from dance to physical theatre. My involvement with public-space creations originated from learning with Danielle Russo and her original works really encourage me to go deeper into performance arts in public. I’ve also been the student of Eiko Otake, an early Butoh dancer and now a performance artist who inspires me so much with her public performances, to devote myself and my works more to nature and humanity, social issues, and universal emotions among people. Currently, I wish to go deeper with sign language education but I’m also hoping to find methods and inspirations for how to perform in public and bring sign language arts into public spheres.

Regards,
Yiru (yiru.visualarts@gmail.com)

[Kitty O]

HI I’m cath, a performer and creator, all my fave arts work has been outdoors…I love walkabout, whether riding pedal-powered creations (with the marvellous Jess Rost, or with Festive Road) or conducting consultations at the GoblinDoctor Surgery (Earthlings), or mayhem-ing it up with Ailsa Mair Hughes and a maypole at the Machynlleth comedyfest. I love low-level fun, where I can really interact with people, allow at least brief conversations to develop – as such I also do pop-up performnce poetry, when relevant. For me, it’s becoming, often, about creating a temporary community, and I explored this last year with Milly Jackdaw in ‘Cauldron Tales’, an interactive promenade storytelling performance held in the woods in West Wales and ending with a fireside sharing of popcorn, stories, chats and musical jamming. Especially at the moment, it feels important to develop spaces where we can all share a common language – even if it is just gobledeygook! – laugh and talk, and occasionally encourage people to have pockets sewn onto their garments (‘Pockets of Resistance’ – Jess Rost productions). I am hoping this course inspires me to maybe think bigger and get inspired, and to question (or at least think about) the methodology and potentiality of public art…. but I am useless at technology and at creating/keeping records (too busy being in the moment!) so sorry, no links to anything here. Not yet, anyway!

[Evantw13]

My name is Evan, I am an American circus artist currently living in Montreal, Canada. I am a graduate from the National Circus School and have since performed with companies like Cirque du Soleil and Cirque Eloize.

My exposure to public/ “open air” works is limited as the work I do comes with very technical requirements. However, I have been fortunate enough to participate as an acrobat and as an assistant director for shows that were able to include a high level of acrobatics in site-specific locations.

I was able to perform in Les Minutes Complètement Cirque at the Festival Montréal Complètement Cirque. Each year, the festival provides a 30-minute, open air, ambulatory show free to the public at and around a very central square in Downtown Montreal. It includes an installation of a gigantic metal structure on which artists perform acrobatics and is performed at night. Director Anthony Venisse has been creating these shows since the festival’s inception and over the years has proven very creative with his use of space, that being the surrounding streets and buildings of Montreal. Les Minutes Complètement Cirque Promo

Second, I was able to work as assistant to the Artistic Director for a show with Zaccho Dance Theater, a dance and aerial performance company based in San Francisco. The show I helped create, under the direction of Johanna Haigood, was called “Il Pozzo di Songo” or “Into the Well of Dreams”. Located in Wine Country, audience members followed acrobats and actors around a vineyard watching them tell a story of lovers. The public was driven in buses, taken on about a mile walk and were asked to climb a tower around a well where the final performance on an aerial ladder was given as audiences members climbed the tower to the view at the top. Excerpt “Il Pozzo di Songo”

[Olga Kaleta]

Hello everyone,

My name is Olga and I’m an artist based in South West of UK at the brick of England and Wales.

I’m very inspired by Cornwall based company Wild Works Theatre.They work is always profoundly rooted in the place, its history, the people and their individual stories, the architecture and the landscape. Through this approach they create work that carries a value to the communities they work with. I’m inspired by their ability to create work that so beautifully brings the past and the future into the celebration of the present.

I’m also inspired by a Compagnie N* 8 for their ability to balance beautifully between entertainment and provocation. Absolutely brilliant!

xxx

[kristinmarting]

Hi everyone

I am a director and creative producer based in NYC. I co-founded HERE Art Center where I am Artistic Director and Prototype Festival where I am a co-founding director. I have been involved with creating and/or producing a number of events in public space. Here’s a recent one we did at Prototype in Times Square:
Partita for 8 Voices

Also inspired by Spain’s Las Fallas festival and Robert Le Page 400 anniversary work for Quebec City: https://vimeo.com/57492020

Looking forward to the conversation

[LulaCost]

Hello, everybody! 🙂
I’m so glad to be part of this amazing group!
Just a few words about me: actress, playwright, developing projects based on the current social issues and needs. Our last theatre performance is about the relationship between environment, technology and society.
A short teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6PeqEUNeR0
I chose to share with you a performance by Aida Miro. Butoh . Dance of darkness

Strong, powerful, meaningfull.
I hope you enjoy it.
Best regards, Veronica.

[nimbus]

Hello, I’m Raquel, Portuguese currently living in Bordeaux, France. I studied sculpture and multimedia in the School of Fine Arts in Porto.
I would love to share the work from an artist from my home town Porto. Miguel Januario, His artwork is a stimulator of critical thinking and he is an action motivator through subversive interventions. With the tools learned in the Design of Communication course, he appeals to the critical though. Creating a logo of anti-brand and using the streets of Porto as a laboratory experimenting through different projects on how advertizing and publicity can be used to question society, economy, politics, and culture.
http://www.wunderkammern.net/artists/exhibited-artist/miguel-januario-

http://upmagazine-tap.com/en/pt_artigos/miguel-januario-the-power-of-art/

http://maismenos.net/portugal/cap-iv.php

[Plamen Fire Theatre]

I was about to propose this performance as one of my inspirations from the last year and now you can watch 🙂 So cool

Date for your diaries – next Sunday evening (April 19), a chance to watch Zara, Mind the Gap Theatre’s co-production with Walk the Plank ( Jollie Rodger) and Emergency Exit Arts that tells the story of one mother’s challenge in trying to bring up her giant baby…

https://www.facebook.com/events/147599720016523

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by Plamen Fire Theatre.

[rosiestrang]

Hello, Rosie here from Articulture, working with Annie G (see below) and others. We support the development of innovative, high quality outdoor arts and diverse engaged audiences in Wales.

The movement of pervasive or alternative reality gaming in recent years completely inspired me – the powerful way it draws creatives and participants from all corners of communities to re-imagine their public spaces and how we interact.

In the words of leading game designer Jane McGonigal games challenge players to tackle real-world problems at a planetary-scale: hunger, poverty, climate change, or global peace. Others are simply designed to make players happier in their everyday lives — by dancing more, say, or by being kind to strangers. And some have specific positive health impacts in mind – increasing physical activity.

Playing her game Cruel 2 B Kind and others at the UK’s first pervasive gaming festival in the heart of London in 2008 across the whole of the Southbank with 250 other people changed forever the way I experienced and interacted with others in public space – it opened up a whole new world of possibilities. Cruel 2 B Kind is game of benevolent assassination where your secret weapon is a random act of kindness. As assassins team up scenes such as groups of 50+ people kneeling and saying ‘I really love your shoes!’ to 75+ other people running away across Hungerford Bridge saying ‘I would love to buy your flowers!’ was beautiful, bewildering, and life changing. And withnessing all the envitable acts of kindness that get made to random members of the public in the process – resulting in a collective glow of love and appreciation across the whole of the Southbank.

Closer to home one of my favourite Articulture commissions with the Wales Outdoor Arts Consortium was ‘Electioneering’ by Mr & Mrs Clark. Through street performance they explore the body postures, facial expressions and hand gestures of those promising to hand back control and make their countries great, again. It culminates in members of the public being roped into to a ‘general election’. Vital work in the UK where political discourse is often distorted and divisive – its total timeless gold.

[annie grundy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWxcmxxeOng The Flying Buttresses with Sally Forth and Hodman Dodmanot

I generally love the random nature of walkabout – the chance encounters, the combination of the everyday with the surreal and I have many many favourites! But I have especially fond memories of Sally and Hodman as they sought the help of people on Lewisham High street in their quest for somewhere to stay. I cannot think of them as puppets – to me they feel like old friends.

On a completely different scale – the best holiday I have ever had was going to Le Havre for 5 whole days to be part of the massive audience following the story from start to finish of The Sultan’s Elephant. This was the most gripping, most momentous, most joyous communal experience I have ever had.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vxpyGo0ejE Royale De Luxe with the Sultan’s Elephant

[Ishyo]

Hi everyone,

I do love the French company Opera Pagaï and I’m always blown away by their propositions. Here is one of them:

They are not “only” propose a performance but at the same time a new way at looking at our daily life and open new possibilities to live and imagine together with the audience.

Enjoy!

[MOOC team – Laureline]

Hello Ishyo and welcome to the MOOC Create in public space,
Thank you for sharing the Opéra Pagaï’s work.
You may notice that Guillaume Grisel, the actor who presents the lessons of the MOOC in French, was a collaborator of this company on “Cinerama” project : https://www.operapagai.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=31&catid=10&Itemid=139
Best regards,
Lauréline for the MOOC team

[Jack Bright]

Hi everyone,

My names Jack and I currently work at XTRAX based in Manchester, we also manage the Without Walls consortium.

I have a few pieces that I think have left a mark on me and shaped my desire to continue working in outdoor arts, in general I love the rawness of performances outside to people that don’t necessarily engage with the arts and hadn’t set out that day to experience any. I love this ‘guerilla’ aspect to outdoor arts and love seeing people’s mind blown by stumbling across the weird and wonderful works that take place in their towns and cities!

Coming from a more practical background I am keen to find out more about the creative process and the way work is developed, particularly any areas that engage audiences in a unique way.

Thanks

Jack

[jecourtney1]

Hi all,

My name is Jess and I work for the National Trust in Wales. We’re looking at how we can develop our creative practice across Wales from within the National Trust, and I also have a personal interest with a background in theatre. I’m particularly interested in how site-specific performance can be used as a heritage interpretation tool.

Thank you so much for all your posts! I’ll have to take some time to take a look through them.

For me, a couple of pieces come to mind (a coincidence that they have the same subject matter – it was interesting that the UK saw a huge increase in creative practice in the public sphere, particularly cities, during the 1914-1918 commemorations).

I have loved Slung Low’s work for a long time – they are a theatre company based in the North of England who make incredible work (https://www.slunglow.org/slung-low/) and have a brilliant ethos. In 2014 they co-produced ‘Blood + Chocolate’, a huge performance that took place in York. You can watch the whole show on Youtube here..

The second was ‘We’re Here Because We’re Here’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDyqax78Z_M), mainly because they came to where I was working at the time and it was an incredible moving moment to witness.

Jess

[Physical Fool]

I’ve loved seeing the work of the Red Rebel Brigade this year during the Climate Protests : http://redrebelbrigade.com/

I really love the work of The Desperate Men- they have 40years of archives and are still creating but one brilliant thing they do is “deep hanging out” with communities. They curated a story-walk through a small town that does not have much cultural life to it. The Desperate Men spent time in the town, meeting the people who live there and are part of the fabric of that space. They then devised a story and a route to take the audiences to meet/see/experience these ‘ordinary’ people who all had something extraordinary to share. https://www.desperatemen.com/souvenir-walk/

[Amy Benzie]

Hi all,
I am an artist practitioner based in Scotland. I work within hospital settings. I work with a range of materials, though my primary is ceramics. A piece of public art that inspires me is part of a local festival here in the city of Aberdeen which included spoken word and sculpture: https://lookagainaberdeen.co.uk/archive

[Tricia]

Hello from Canada! My name is Tricia and I promote, produce, and program festivals and events and festivals that encourage sustainable development of the arts and culture. I have a passion for creative placemaking and for creating interactive, immersive events which inspire residents to be part of the change they want to see in their community.

I am the Artistic Director of Calliope Collective, based in Kingston Ontario. I’ve been dreaming this collective for a decade and for the past 3 years have been blessed to produce events in a park which was being threatened to have a road paved through it. (We helped save the park). Much of what inspires conceptually is a sense of connectivity with nature, environmental issues, and the seasonal cycles. I am also a performer (dance/stiltwalking) and so our events are mutli-disciplinary combining music, theatre, wearable art, interactive visual art installations, dance… and always an element of circus.

Calliope Collective is a not-for-profit arts collective dedicated to:
Creative Placemaking: Producing experiential theatrical events that transform familiar spaces, and the ways in which people interact with each other within and in relation to those spaces.
Fostering Development: Providing a platform for underrepresented arts in under-utilized spaces in Kingston in order to broaden the scope of the arts and culture in our community.
Professionalism: Establishing a standard of excellence in the quality of the work produced and how it’s presented; enforcing industry standards of remuneration.
Cultivating a sense of wonder: Encouraging the letting go of preconception; to allow for the possibility of being transported to a world of enchantment, spectacle and surprise.

Major sources of inspiration for me would be the Bosch Parade (inspiration for our current project Hydra) in the Netherlands, Beltane Fire Festival in Edinburg and the art of Ann Hirsch and Jeremy Angier of A+J Art+Design. Entitled SOS (Safety Orange Swimmers),

[Amy Benzie]

Hi all,
I am an artist practitioner based in Scotland. I work within hospital settings. I work with a range of materials, though my primary is ceramics. A piece of public art that inspires me is part of a local festival here is the city of Aberdeen which included spoken word and sculpture: https://lookagainaberdeen.co.uk/archive

[Plamen Fire Theatre]

Hello everyone, please welcome the newcomer 😉 My name is Plamen (in Bulgarian it means “flame”) and it’s kind of destiny, because I’m keen of blending fire flow arts with Mime (which is my basic field of experience – I’ve graduated a Bulgarian National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts as theatre director, expert in non-verbal theatre). Currently I’m doing a PhD in the same Academy – my topic is “Outdoor Theatre – contemporary trends” – and for the Bulgarian theatre sector this is a break-through, because never before the outdoor theatre was recognized as a serious and worthy to explore type of art in my country. For me it is a personal cause and dedication. Together with my partner Elena (“torch” from ancient Greek) we are running since 1993 a theatre company called “FIRE THEATRE”. We are based in Sofia, Bulgaria. Last 11 years we are trying to develop something that we call “fire drama”. We do also a lot of different kind street shows without fire mime-dramas, performances for kids etc. 🙂 Here is a link: FIRE THEATRE Mime Company – Bulgaria . I’ll be glad to meet you, to share experiences and to learn from all of you. In the next post I’ll share also my personal inspirations 🙂 BEST and Keep the Fire burning <3

[teresaeca]

Hello , I am Teresa , from Portugal . I work in visual art education. And I belong to a collective of art educators and researchers called C3, we explore art as a way of learning and connecting people.
about – C3

[MOOC team – Camille]

Dears,

many thanks for all the links and inspirations shared on this thread; it is really amazing to see this gathering of references on such different topics and approaches, all representing varied ways of working with the public space.
It’s hard to answer to each one of you, however what i can say is that in the upcoming days and weeks, we’ll think about the best ways of sharing all these projects and inspirations, so that yo can get access to it after the closure of this session.

In this view it could be great to detail, when possible , the countries where are based the company and projects quoted/

thanks again, and keep sharing projects!!

Best regards,

Camille for the MOOC team.

[edna.peza]

Hello, everyone!
My name is Ed and I am an architect currently doing a PhD on public spaces and feelings of insecurity.
I founded a startup called city-cité-ciudad in France focusing on helping create safe and inclusive public spaces through creative processes. Here’s a bit of my previous and current work: https://cityciteciudad.wordpress.com/our-projects/
Some projects that have inspired me:
https://beautifultrouble.org/case/parking-day/

Cheers!

[Ellieark]

Hello!

Ellea here from Berkeley, CA. I’m interested in the intersection of public art practice, dance, ecological design, de-colonial thinking, and public pedagogy. I spend the last 8 years living in Vancouver, BC, where I co-founded frida&frank, a public space ping-pong/civic arts project. You can find our past work here: https://eleanor-arkin.com/fridafrank

Currently inspired by this group: https://www.leadtolife.org/

Lead to life is an organization transforming guns into shovels and practicing reconciliation through public ritual and conversation. They also hold space, and create ceremony around those whose lives have been lost to police violence, racial segregation, and look to nature to connect and heal us.

Also, the work of FutureFarmers has always been an ongoing inspiration, from public soil testing, to flatbread making, they really push the boundaries of where art meets public, meets political, as well as ecological.
http://www.futurefarmers.com/

and for fun! The artist Judit Navratil, who summersalts across cities: https://www.works.io/95228/old-to-the-new

Thank you for all the amazing recommendations!

[Ellieark]

Hello!

Ellea here from Berkeley, CA. I’m interested in the intersection of public art practice, dance, ecological design, de-colonial thinking, and public pedagogy. I spend the last 8 years living in Vancouver, BC, where I co-founded frida&frank, a public space ping-pong/civic arts project. You can find our past work here: https://eleanor-arkin.com/fridafrank

Currently inspired by this group: https://www.leadtolife.org/

Lead to life is an organization transforming guns into shovels and practicing reconciliation through public ritual and conversation. They also hold space, and create ceremony around those whose lives have been lost to police violence, racial segregation, and look to nature to connect and heal us.

Also, the work of FutureFarmers has always been an ongoing inspiration, from public soil testing, to flatbread making, they really push the boundaries of where art meets public, meets political, as well as ecological.
http://www.futurefarmers.com/

and for fun! The artist Judit Navratil, who summersalts across cities: https://www.works.io/95228/old-to-the-new

Thank you for all the amazing recommendations!

[Ward Be Flat]

Hello

I am Ward Mortier, Co-founder of Be Flat vzw ( A belgian circuscompagnie based in Ghent).
Our first creation is called ‘Follow Me’. A acrobatic journey trough public space for 100 followers. Each follower gets a foldable stool and gets invited to join the performance.
Video: https://www.be-flat.be/follow-me

We premiered this deambulatory performance in july 2018.
We are now preparing our 3rd succesfull season. https://www.be-flat.be/kopie-van-calendar-2

More to read (article in circusmagazine (flanders) : https://www.circuscentrum.be/en/artikels/liberty-fraternity-and-folding-camp-stools-be-flat-former-street-punks-take-the-festivals-by-storm/

A huge inspiration before and during creation for us was compagnie Kamchatka with it’s performance Fugit. Such a great experience!!!!

FUGIT

Also Johannes Bellinckx with Reverse opened up a lot of imagination.
http://www.johannesbellinkx.com/website/reverse

Enjoy and always welcome to contact us for more questions / exchange
mail: info@be-flat.be or wardmortier@gmail.com

[MOOC team – Camille]

hello Ward,

thanks for sharing these links of your work and your inspirations! There are still few circus companies really working with public space so far, so you probably know French collective protocole?
http://collectifprotocole.com/

Best regards,

Camille

[ARNAU]

Some inspirational project with landscape and sunset of the company Col·lectiu Free’t. https://www.cfreet.com/ based in Catalonia, and working with improvisation and public spaces.
the project is called DIÀLEG INFINIT. and is always takeing the sunset as a light design of the performance.
two vol.of the project.
first one in a countryside wine cellar
https://www.cfreet.com/dialeg-infinit-vol-1
second one in a open museum
https://www.cfreet.com/dialeg-infinit-vol-2

[marilu]

http://www.lottevandenberg.nu/english/events/index/?page=werk&evt_id=19
lotte van den berg – agoraphobia
The performance is held in open air, on a large city centre square. From a distance spectators follow, by means of their mobile phones, a man who appears to be talking to himself.

http://www.casastrasse.org/produzioni/solo/
SOLO is a site-specific project created by the artistic collective Strasse and realized each time in different locations. These sites can be public spaces or locations characterized by their specific function, such train stations. They are complex spaces, crossroads, circulation points that produce a particular form of human presence, always determined by rhythms and commuting times inherent to the space itself.

[Teatro al Vacio]

This page that we share is from the Lagartixa na janela Company, from Sao Paulo, Brazil. It is a company of dancers who have investigated the language of the body in the public space, with the specific objective of reaching all childhoods. We have had the opportunity to collaborate with them and it is a benchmark for us because we are interested in subtle and poetic language.
https://www.lagartixanajanela.com.br/

[PCLau]

One of my favourite projects is the ‘Green Chair’ by the Newfoundland artist Will Gill. The artwork not only interacted with the audience but with nature.

Will Gill

[lizavetamatveeva]

Hi everyone,

My name is Lizaveta Matveeva, I’m a curator based in St. Petersburg, Russia. Public art has been one of my field interests since 2015, when I joined the team of American-Russian organization CEC ArtsLink, which runs an annual international public art festival Art Prospect. Since then I’ve taken part in 3 editions of the festival, and now we are working on the next one, which due to the coronavirus spread is postponed at least until September 2020. Besides that CEC ArtsLink also initiates exchanges as well as on-time projects, focused on socially engaged and public art. Additionally we have a residency program in St. Petersburg which hosts artists and curators preferably working in the field of socially engaged and public art.

Although I work a lot in this field, I feel that I need to constantly upgrade my knowledge, network and experience. I feel inspired by the colleagues, among them Creative Time, A Blade of Grass, No Longer Empty, V-A-C Foundation etc.

Looking forward to get to know more!

[Camiel]

Hello,

My name is Camiel and I live in the Netherlands.
I studied Visual Arts in the University here in Utrecht and after that I studied Circus in Rotterdam.
For a long time now I am performing with streettheater companies on festivals and I did some performance art projects in the public space.
At the moment I came to realise it was time for me to combine my expertise within the visual arts and the performing arts. Intrueged by the concept of the “Super Human” I do physical and inspirational research.

One of my al time favourite artist and huge inspirator is Johan Lorbeer.
I had the luck to bump into one of his performances a few years ago. It still gives me shivers.
http://johanlorbeer.com/still-life-performances/

I enjoy finding out all of your inspirations!

[fraukef]

Hi My name is Frauke and i have been working as a dramaturg in London for the last 20 years creating work for all sorts of spaces.
The projects posted here are such an amazing resource. There are so many many inspiring projects, so I will post the last one I came across. What I loved about it was that I didn’t seek it out, we just happened upon it during a family outing and it made us follow a new path, discover an area we don’t usually visit often and have a little adventure:

New art installation guides visitors along Culture Mile

Another one that stayed with me is Elizabeth Streb’s “One Extraordinary Day in London” as part of the Olympics 2012:

Her dancers were doing different performances around the city of London. Participants would get a twitter notice shortly before where the next performance would take place. You could take in as little or as many performances as you liked. One highlight was definitely dancers abseiling vertically from London’s City Hall.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by fraukef.

[Enruifoo]

Hi everyone, I am En Rui – born and raised in Singapore, currently based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. I work in the Curatorial team at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC) and have a tremendous interest in supporting independent artists as well as their works, particularly within (physical) public spaces. A large focus for me in my line of work revolves around public engagement and learning.

Here are a couple of interesting works by Queensland artists (Brisbane and Gold Coast):

1. Throttle by The Farm
The work takes place on an expansive place, a showground. Audience would watch the performance in their cars and access the audio by tuning into a specific radio channel. The performers also enhance the experience by getting up close with each audience member’s vehicle

2. The Stance by Liesel Zink
This is a sound and dance durational performance which channels the history of public protest and recent acts of global action, activism and intervention. It questions what it means to put your body on the line in the fight for freedom.

Hope you enjoy and feel free to connect with these independent artists!

[Apinto]

Hi, I’m Alejandra from Ecuador, I’m an architect. I got really inspired from a project created in 2017 in Quito called MusicaOcupa, which is a festival that organizes classical music concerts in unusual spaces such as public space. I actually started working for the festival since 2018 since I loved so much the project.
You can check it out here: https://www.musicaocupa.com/

[MOOC team – Laureline]

Hola Alejandra,
Gracias por compartir este proyecto original.
Tiene algo similar con la obra “Grand Ensemble” de Pierre Sauvageot que encontraras mencionada en el MOOC :
https://www.lieuxpublics.com/en/grand-ensemble_1

Bienvenida!
Lauréline – Mooc Team

[Nanna]

Hi all!
I’m a circus student in Europe and also most of the public space art projects are from circus and street circus. I am having an incredibly hard time remembering any companies or specific shows/projects that I saw live that left a mark on me, but I’ll pop by later to add things.

One project I remember is Olohuone 306,4km2 as in “Livingroom 306,4km2” – a city art festival organised in Finland every year. The festival is turning 15 this year and even though I have never attended as a performer and truthfully kind of missed it many times, one of my favorite participatory projects is from this festival. Each year they organise a “Föri dance”, föri being a small ferry taking cyclists and pedestrians accross the river on the norhtern end of the city. On this ferry they have a band playing dance music and all travelers are encouraged to join in. I remember going back and forth about 5 times the first time I happened accross this event. For a space loving socially awkward finn dancing publicly might be terrifying, but each year they manage to make the event exciting and friendly for all.
Unfortunately all information is in finnish, but there’s a small info package of the whole festival IN HERE
and a video of the “Föri” with not so many dancers HERE

[Apinto]

Here’s the english versión https://www.musicaocupa.com/english

[Praxis]

Hi everyone,

thanks for all the shared material, we’re creating a very precious archive here!

I’m a performer based in Milan, Italy. My work is deeply influenced by -DOM (Leonardo Delogu / Valerio Sirna), with whom I worked in GARTEN and L’uomo che cammina (literally: The man who walks) – Milan version. Here you can read about the project: https://www.casadom.org/luomo-che-cammina.html

From this show was made a movie, collectivly directed by Studio Azzurro ( https://www.studioazzurro.comm ), here a trailer: https://vimeo.com/361096501

Together with a bunch of friends I’m active in Tempi diVersi collective, which is mainly about poetry; we offer open mic in public places, we like to bring poetry and art in general (we are two actors and there are some musicians in the collective too) in the streets. We all share strong political beliefs. We do things following the pleasure of sharing experiences, staying together.

Moreover, I recently founded my collective, Praxis: we make urban performances together with inhabitants of the suburbs, trying to change the narrative journalists and politicians usually make about the neighbourhood. The public is invited to walk with us, discover the history mixed with personal stories of buildings, doors, streets, corners, shops,etc.. Here a very short trailer: https://youtu.be/NZex_FYhcsY

I’m also a social and community theatre operator and in the last 3 years I worked with social and community theatre centre of Turin ( http://www.socialcommunitytheatre.com ) in two international cooperation projects based in 1) Hayk and 2) Hawassa, Ethiopia. Theatre has been an effective pratice to increase awareness about different topics, such as illegal migration and plastic pollution. My actions, shortly, were leading workshops, creating shows and community events – together with local staff, local artists, with and for the local community.

Hope to share more in the future ans very happy to have some time to read all your inspirational messages!

thank you,

Paola Galassi

[em#creative]

Good Evening all from the UK!

I was a Community Arts Manager based at a High School for almost 12 years, responsible for coordinating and delivering an intergenerational art project (also registered as a charity).
I recruited Pupil Volunteers and prepared them to work as art assistants for older people in various settings in the community. The role also included providing a range of arts interventions for local primary schools – working as an artist in resdience, delivering multi-disciplinary Art Days, Summer Art Weeks and a Saturday Art Class.

In December 2018, this role came to an end and I began to delve deeper into the realm of ‘socially engaged practice / art in the public realm’ and have since initiated a umber of art interventions in response to socio-economic issues in the town where I live.

The following are just a small selection of organisations, artists and collaboratives who have inspired me to date on my journey. Thanks for sharing your stories and creative influences – looking forward to seeing how the course develops and meeting you for chats in the forum!

Stay safe, Take Care and Bye for now, Emma

https://www.in-situ.org.uk/our-story/
http://www.cartwheelarts.org.uk/

https://theportlandinnproject.tumblr.com/
http://annafrancis.blogspot.com/
https://rebecca-davies.tumblr.com/
https://cargocollective.com/rebeccadavies

http://eleanorshipman.com/

https://www.annahortoncremin.com/
https://sophiebullock.net/
https://onefivewest.com/

[danidan]

hello to everyone!!!
many years ago, travelling to South America i found in Valparaiso, Chile, TUGA, an incredible mime that has inspired me since then.
here you have it as a video promo

[Kevzog]

Hi! I’m Kevin Herzog from Argentina and i’m an art student and a sound artist.
I have many inspirations but i want to show you a little about my country.
One of my inspiration is one artwork from Leandro Tartaglia, who puts you in a car and tells you a story. You will travel alongside him in different places and listening to a story about those places. Beautiful!

Link: https://youtu.be/ujuDYcn9DbI

I like the way he reconstructs the places with this site specific stories.
Well, that’s for now!

Hope you have a great performance!
Cheers,
Kevin

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by Kevzog.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by Kevzog.

[MOOC team – Laureline]

Hola Kevin,
Gracias por compartir el trabajo de Leandro Tartaglia.
Escoger el coche y su parabrisas como pantalla hacia la ciudad es especielamente original!
El colectivo francès La Folie Kilomètre tambien exploro las posibilidades de un tal escenario intimo y mobil navegando por la ciudad, con el proyecto Rivage :

Rivages 1ère étape en vidéo

Rivages

Bienvenido en el MOOC Create in public space!
Atentamente
Lauréline – Mooc team

[iuliaionesi]

Hey hey – glad to take this course and get some inspiration from all of you! I’m currently studying arts, with a focus on theatre, and will soon graduate my BA, which makes me hop on this ride and gain some new insights into unexplored grounds. I will attach here one of my favourite examples of public space performances/site-specific theatre, that I have attended myself in and hope you’ll enjoy it!

https://www.ciewoest.com/portfolios/leaving-normal-2/?lang=en (I have seen this at Sibiu International Theatre Festival, as they have a big focus on street theatre)

[Magi]

Halo,

I’m Magí Serra. Dancer from Barcelona.
Nature and intuiton are one’s of my inspirations when I creat and play.
I see art as another quotidian moment in life. When I walk inside a supermarket, many times I find myself dancing or getting amazed for a littel shape of art.
Currently, I’m creating an outdoor piece next to another dancer, Anamaria Klajnscek. Also, I have other past projects and future ideas related to creat in public space (or nature), so glad to be part of this course.

There you have a link recommendation from an Artist I get always very tauch and inspired.

[mthrussl]

Hello everyone!
Looking forward to the course – my name is Marie-Therese, and I’m a museum curator in the UK, working at Durham Cathedral – a living, active church; a visitor attraction, and part of a World Heritage Site! We’re exploring introducing public artwork within the historical spaces, and a recent example I saw of this that worked really well was at Canterbury Cathedral. It was a sound and light installation in the Chapter House by artist Howard Griffin called ‘Liminality’, and it really transformed the space itself and how visitors interacted with it – which is exactly the sort of thing we want to do!

The Chapter House Light Show

[pikipikiuniverse]

dear all,
so excited about this opportunity to engage in this course.
I am from Latvia, and currently living in Berlin.
here is one of the many art projects in public space that have inspired me:
https://www.berliner-herbstsalon.de/dritter-berliner-herbstsalon/kuenstlerinnen/grada-kilomba
In general, I am very curious and interested and grateful for art in public spaces that challenges the historical and current oppressive status quos, calls for imagining other ways of being and relating towards another, calls for justice, etc.

With our creative collective Library of People, we have also done some experiments in public spaces, inviting to have intimate conversations around the topic of death and dying.

[Paulo Campos dos Reis]

Hello, I’m Paulo from Portugal. I belong to a theatrer group called MUSGO Produção Cultural. A few years ago we did this show “Ou Quixote”, in a beautiful historical farm, in Sintra. It was an intense experience for us (and we hope, for the public) of art in public space. See the link below.

[CarlosPastor]

Since 2008, ‘tardeo’ has transferred nightlife in the afternoon of the weekends reconfiguring the spatial and temporal flows of the center of Alicante. Ten years later, the Mediterranean Aquarium, located around the Tardeo, closed due to low sustainability and the death of dozens of fish.

Three ephemeral actions built a new Interpretation Center from which to explore the relationships and tensions between the afternoon and the aquarium, based on testimonies and realities of agents involved in these two ecosystems linked to leisure.

If nature observation centers are usually landed huts as a UFO in natural ecosystems, the Tardeo Interpretation Center is a mobile brunette fish transported by a dozen people. Between the Central Market – the origin of the Tardeo – and the Aquarium of the Plaça Nova, ALLIBERADES traveled with an audio guide to the Tardeo festive landscapes.

One of the main characteristics of Tardeo is that it ensures a quiet and festive atmosphere. The introduction of a disruptive element such as the moray eel-a piece of cardboard of eight meters long drawn with parametric design by Salva Serrano-generated a new alteration. If the fish were observed in the Aquarium, now the afternoons are studied from the inside of the moray eel.

[regderozario]

Hello everyone, thank you for all the links. My name is Regina and I’m an artist from Singapore. I work with various media (text, photography, video) and recently began making art in public space. These are text-based installations done collaboratively under the moniker Perception3. Our most recent work was for our city’s Bicentennial.

I like all forms of art in public space but I tend to lean towards works that use text and narratives that provoke reflection, questioning, and redefinitions of power structures; what we may or may not do in public; how our personal sense of identity and belonging may collide with a larger community, etc.

Examples:

Jenny Holzer’s ‘Truisms’ and ‘Inflammatory Essays’
Janet Cardiff’s ‘City of Forking Paths’

[Sara Baigorri]

Hello,
I began to be interested in art in public space following a festival that takes place in our city. The performances got me hooked, although after seeing the various interventions shown in this course, I recognize that they stay on another level.

Well here you are a resume of last edition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa731ze7eFw

[Philip Parr]

Hi everyone. Parrabbola – the company that I run – make theatre with communities all round the world and usually within public space. We usually tell the stories of the community where we are working – but also use the community play form as a way of democratising other work, usually Shakespeare, and creating elements of placemaking. Here’s a link to a video about a production of Shakespeare in Gdansk in Poland

[pedropereiraleite]

Hello everyone. Since 2016 I have been following the urban art project in Padre Cruz neighborhood in Lisbon.
https://youtu.be/LInvZBiSB8Y.
I have tried to work with special attention the social inclusion projects that use the public space as a cultural intervention scenario.

[Zozo-e]

Hello everyone,

Thank you to your inspirations because I discover a lot of artist, performer and compagny.
I realize that my inspiration comes from France and there are only french artist… It is necessary to change it !
So this is a professor, a choreographer who works on the authentic movement. Her name is Nadia Vadori-Gauthier, look at this : https://youtu.be/IxAfVGJMj_A
And after I really inspired by one dance compagny named Ex Nihilo who works in public space. There are lowly people, just look at this : https://youtu.be/3Hbrwk-V_M8

Zo-é

[ClaraGiraud]

Hi! I’m Clara Giraud, and I work as an arts producer and project manager in London, part time with Mayor of London on the Borough of Culture project.

Mapaton is a game invented by Laboratorio Para La Ciudad in Mexico City, to involve citizens in mapping the bus routes of the massive capital:
An article about it: https://g0v.news/laboratorio-para-la-ciudad-re-imagining-mexico-city-through-civic-tech-84272ce8619c

The website in Spanish: https://www.mapatoncd.mx/

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by ClaraGiraud.

[connien]

Greetings all from here in Chicago. Thank you for all of the inspirational material! I have been inspired by Ernesto Pujol, performance artist and social choreographer. Here is a video of him explaining his process for engaging with communities to empower them as collaborators while gaining a greater understanding of the place he is performing in/with.
https://www.pewcenterarts.org/post/questions-practice-ernesto-pujol-reciprocal-relationships-communities

Also Sara Zalek, Butoh inspired performance artist & instigator of festivals and socially engaged performances.. So much goodness on her website https://www.saratonin.com/

Enjoy!!
Connie

[Dany]

I watched “déserts” and I found it interesting: The slow path of lonely beings attempting to climb up the mountain made me think of SYSYPHUS and our lonely attempts in life, then the gradual removal of humans followed by the massive entry of sheep following each other in typical sheep manner helped draw a comparaison between humans and animals. It grew into a fascinating vicious circle… an apparent endless and hopeless run of the sheep in the paddock. I thought there was a lot of symbolic value to this short presentation.

[Jay]

Hello all
I’m a Creative Producer/Catalyst and often find myself working in the public realm supporting outdoor artists to present their work. I’m particularly interested in engagement strategies – the quality of engagement, keeping people ‘safe’ whilst challenging them to move beyond their everyday comfort zones.

It is exciting to see such a rich resource of inspirational projects here.
I’d like to offer these pieces of work/companies that have stayed with me

http://entelechyarts.org/projects/bed/
https://andnow.co.uk/
https://www.commandospercu.com

Best wishes from Jay in the UK

[mitzikl]

Dear All,

thank you for all of these great and inspirational links!

My current interest is somewhere between site-specific theatre, (built) heritage and immersive experiences.

I will try not to repeat already shared links, so my choice for inspiration would be
http://invisiblecitiesopera.com/experience/ and
https://www.thehighline.org/photos-videos/programs-community/mile-long-opera/

Coming from fields of spatial design /stage/production/etc. and architecture, I am also keen on what https://www.punchdrunk.org.uk/punchdrunk/ is doing.

wish you great discoveries and journey through this course,
best,
miljena from novi sad, serbia

[Lissy]

Hi, I’m Lissy from Mimbre, a UK female-led acrobatic theatre company. Thanks for all the links.

My contribution is the Diamond Street app which takes users on an audio journey through the Hatton Gardens area in London. I found it a really compelling experience when I did it a few years back. Simple but effective!

https://rachellichtenstein.com/diamond-street-app/

[noor]

Hi all,

I am from the San Francisco Bay Area and currently live in Berkeley, CA.

Earlier this year I read the book How to Do Nothing by the artist Jenny Odell. I highly recommend it as a modern anthropological exploration of the ecological and indigenous history of the Bay Area, the attention economy, social media, mindfulness, and birdwatching. She changed my understanding of the relationship between capitalism, technology, and art. Throughout the book she brings in examples of performance art and public art, and here is one from the beginning of the book. In 1973 the filmmaker Eleanor Coppola created a project called Windows, which consists of a map and a list of locations in SF. The holder of the map is implicitly invited to travel to the locations listed and in their own unique way experience the city. Every day I experience a sense of awe toward the ordinary, and I feel a strong urge to share it with others in a systematic way. I think that public art is the most accessible path toward this, and I feel motivated to create an object or experience like Coppola and other artists have done.

With love,
Noor

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by noor.

[Recobe]

Hello everyone,

We are ReCompulsive Behaviours, an artist collective based in Athens, Greece. We create public space performances and interventions, using new technologies, that focus on dialogue and public participation. You can find out more details on our work here: http://www.recobe.net.

Concerning the most inspirational work in public space, only one comes to mind: Transborder Immigrant Tool by Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT) 2.0/B.A.N.G. Lab. ( https://www.arte-util.org/projects/transborder-immigrant-tool/ ). Its a work that influenced us deeply and affected the way we thing about artistic creation in general.

Cheers to you all !

[imkhonig]

Heyhey!

I am Imke, based in Eberswalde and Berlin, where I grew up. I am studying regional development and am interested in cities and regions, how to engage people with using art.

In Berlin, street art is everywhere. This is a hommage:

homelessness, sadly too.
Chapter 1 http://www.roccoundseinebrueder.com/outdoor-detail/schluessel-zur-stadt/

I would love to hear your feedback

[Teresa.Sparviero]

Hi everybody. I share with you two different projects I have in my mind.
The first designs a different idea about archives: it’s pennsound: http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/, an archive of voices. Contemporary poets from all over the world are asked to perform their poems, that are recorded and uploaded to a total open-access archive.

The second is the italian theatre festival of Santarcangelo di Romagna. Year after year the Festival (the last summer edition was called Slow and Gentle, https://www.santarcangelofestival.com/santarcangelo-festival-2019/) aims to develop experiences throughout different forms of theatre and performance, involving site-specific artworks, parties, seminars, disco-clubs, workshops, etc.

[Fitore]

Hello everybody, I am a mural artist and I am new in creating in public space.

I have participated in pubic space at HAPU Festival, which in Albanian means OPEN UP and at the same time represents abbreviation for “HApësirë PUblike”, in English:
is a unique festival of art work in public space presenting innovative work developed in Kosovo and wider, undiscovered to public.
HAPU using the power of art gives a different, transformable dimension to the Public Space.

I am sharing one of my favorite mapping 3d projection on the streets of Reykjavik, Iceland, every winter light festival breathtaking installation of an artist Marcos Zotes.
Mapping Light Festival

[Paco]

Hi everybody, company Royale de Luxe has some proposals that have been my inspiration for several years. Not only because of their fabulous matherials, but because for the dinamic and emotions that they awake in the audiences. They invade streets with huge archetypical figures.
Here you are their website: http://www.royal-de-luxe.com/es/
Enjoy it, and if you have the chance to find them at the streets, flow with emotions coming to you.

[Arianna F. Grossocordon]

Hi everybody,

All yours suggestions are very interesting and we share some of them: Rimini Protokol, Willi Dorner and Steven Coven.

Other gold contribution to creation en Public Space:

When theater meets cinema with the audience hide in the terrasse of a french bistrot and magic comes : Cinèrama by Opera Pagaï.

When the Public Space is taken as a malleable material to twist the reality: Ici-Même.

[Irina]

Hello from Milan,
I am a designer and researcher, currently I teach in a fine arts university and I am in charge with r&d for Non Riservato a network of 20 cultural associations based in Milan.

One of the projects which inspired me the most and in which I participated since 2013 is Stormo by Effetto Larsen:

http://www.effettolarsen.it/Stormo_revolution_eng.html

I am also inspired by all the work of Rimini Protokol: https://www.rimini-protokoll.de/website/en/ ; Roadsworth: http://www.roadsworth.com, the installations of Florian Rivière and Jeppe Hein: http://www.jeppehein.net.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by Irina.

[yusiliu]

The most recent one I saw and participated is a community project produced by an artist duo in residence. It took place in Athens in summer 2019. The project is called “Chieh Chi with Ching-Yu Cheng and Yi-Ling Hung”. Two artists from Taiwan stayed in Athens and studied local food ingredients, and then they created a set of Chinese dinner dishes which correlate with Chinese traditional seasonal calendar. The fusion of Chinese food and Greek cuisine ingredients are very interesting. The best part of this project was the final dinner which any people who signed up brought their own plates and utensils. It was a very social event, we had food, talked about food, learned about food, and made new friends. It offered new perspectives to see Athens and especially that specific neighborhood which has a considerable amount of immigrants.

Event: https://www.latest.facebook.com/events/2116984691932015/

Image

[Cintia de Luis]

Sorry!
Don’t let me correct the link. Willie Dorner is everywhere!!!!!!!!!

http://www.parallelensamble.com

[Cintia de Luis]

Hi there!
I want to share with you some of my references

1. Cie. Willie Dorner
http://www.ciewdorner.at/index.php?page=start

2. Rimini Protokoll
https://www.rimini-protokoll.de/

I want to present my last work in public space with the cia. Paral.lel Ensamble. It’s a radio performance with actions in urban space. Called Paparazzi.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by Cintia de Luis.

[marketa.tokova]

The most recent event that left a mark ad that I was lucky enough to be part of is called “Dusk Dances“, an outdoor contemporary dance festival that brings high quality dancing into urban park in Ontario and Québec, Canada. A theatrical host guides the audience through the park to watch 5 dance works. It is a magical experience to watch the dancing in the nature.

http://duskdances.ca

[nszemin]

I am Sze Min, a Sound Artist from Artwave Studio, Singapore.
Here are some works engaging with public spaces through audio/sound that have inspired me:

1. Interactive audio tour rediscovering familiar surroundings of the supermarket – http://silviamercuriali.com/projects/autoteatro/wondermart/

2. Underwater Listening Experience in Public Pools – https://www.wetsounds.co.uk/

3. Interactive sound field, and installation allowing people to discover a game of sound and physical play – http://madeleineandtim.net/portfolio/the-megaphone-project/

4. Guided walk, exploring connection to place through auditory perception and deep listening – https://www.horizonfestival.com.au/event/walk-talk

Enjoy!

[KrAmer]

I can always get inspired by the work of BBB Johannes Deimling, a german performance artist. Often he works inside, but this is a great work he did in 2005:

http://bbbjohannesdeimling.de/index.php?/hidden/taxi-libre–2005/

[SaraCoelho]

I am not convince that he rejected his privileges as a white men. Is nice to say it, it can sell to the art market, but is not true. He still being a white man to eyes of the local people and having his privilegies in the meeting.Thats my personal opinion…

[ikariaenviro]

[ikariaenviro]

strike by actors and musicians

[ClogsInSpace]

My interest in public art started at Oerol, https://www.oerol.nl/nl/
If at all possible, I’ll go and see any performance from Royal de Luxe http://www.royal-de-luxe.com/en/company/
And love the work from many other artists and organisations that make this world look a bit more attractive, for example

http://www.jessieandkatey.com/
https://www.instagram.com/_cryptik_/
https://www.quintessenz.art/flickering-lights

Home

[Suzanne]

I’m super interested in public art that makes us think about issues and how they impact us. About a month or so ago, there was a flurry of sharing on social media about a seesaw that was installed on the border of Mexico and the USA. It was such a playful commentary on very serious human rights issues (global borders, systemic racism, and human inequities). I thought it was brilliant! It’s interactive public art as I see it, and an incredible tool that can inspire people to think about the world we live in, and maybe make positive change to create a world where we support everyone to have a better life. The links below provide some information:

https://www.democracynow.org/2019/7/31/headlines/seesaw_installation_on_us_mexico_border_highlights_human_toll_of_immigration_policies

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by Suzanne.

[Auriane Blanc]

This is very stimulating see all of these project, I recently discovered this performance by Anna Raimundo that moved me a lot, Mi porti al mare, I could find any video but the work of this italien artist is very sensible and subtile, I think a visit on her portfolio worse the cost : http://annaraimondo.com/watch/

[paquette]

Oooops, posted in the wrong place.

Blessed to be a part of this community!
Anne-Marie
@l4studio

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by paquette.

[guionromain]

https://olafureliasson.net/archive/artwork/WEK100345/the-new-york-city-waterfalls

Commissioned by Public Art Fund, The New York City Waterfalls was a temporary installation, running from 3 months in 2008. The four Waterfalls were located in the East River, New York, USA: one on the Brooklyn anchorage under Brooklyn Bridge; one between Piers 4 and 5 in Brooklyn; one in Lower Manhattan at Pier 35; and one on Governors Island. The 30-40 m waterfalls were high structures, consisting of scaffolding, pumps, and hoses. By taking the form of a natural element while being man-made waterfalls, an ecological theme emerged calling for reflection on the power of and relation between man and nature.

[NeutralNick]

Growing up there was often graffiti that put a nice spin on a beachside town, some not so well execute but others were great. They now have a 3 day festival and commission street artists to creative from around the world.http://thebigpicturefest.com/frankston-2019/
Once they built the new freeway they put in some art features along the side https://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/south-east/which-of-these-seven-freeway-artworks-sparks-the-most-discussion-in-your-car/news-story

I lived in Far North Queensland for a few years and amongst quite a few things that I saw whilst there, I was actually inspired by a publicity stunt. Some of you may know of the 10 m tall and 10 tonne mango that is on display in Bowen Qld, Australia. It went missing ????? Creative marketing! https://www.whitsundaytimes.com.au/news/if-you-see-big-mango-back-truck-call-bowen
Mostly though I have always liked photography and although there isn’t any actually sites for it, there was a family friend who was a photographer. He always inspired me.

[KristaDalby]

I had never really thought about art in public space until I started working at Clay & Paper Theatre in Toronto in 2006. After four formative years with the company, I now do some of my own public space work in a rural environment with my company The Department of Illumination.

There are so many inspiring examples that come to mind, but one performance that struck me as particularly magical was Les Girafes by Compagnie Off.

Living in a rural place can sometimes feel very isolating, like I am cut off from my peers and exposure to art outside the mainstream, and I am so looking forward to learning more!

[mirandalaurence]

Hello everyone.
As a dance dramaturg, I am inspired by how people can be choreographed in moving through public spaces by art interventions.

Two things that I have been part of recently have been programmed by Reading : International, a three year commissioning project in Reading, UK. The first was a piece by Israeli company Public Movement, called Emergency Routine. It was a 20 minute performance, with one audience member and one performer. I was taken through a lecture about how security services are trained to deal with potential terrorist attacks. The piece moved around campus buildings of the University where I work. I was shown the kinds of movements that security forces might make; I was then physically guided to take the position of a soldier with a gun entering a building; I had to draw the layout of my own home and image soldiers entering it to clear it; finally I helped to ‘clear’ a room which had a ‘terrorist’ planted in it. A short experience that has provided a layer of meaning to the spaces I am in every day at work and at home.

Performance – PUBLIC MOVEMENT – Emergency Routine (2019)

Another commission by Reading : International was Nightwalks with Teenagers by Canadian company Mammalian Diving Reflex. The artists worked with a group of teenagers to create a ‘nightwalk’ in Reading town centre. We gathered in the cold and were taken on a walk by a group of teens; at various points we stopped and did things like playing the game ‘British Bulldog’ or learning some martial arts, or running a race. It was wild and joyous and a bit naked. For the most part, I went to spaces which I had not been to before in the town where I live, and where I have not often been again, but I note when I pass close by and so the experience has added a layer of understanding of the places I move in.

‘Nightwalks with Teenagers’ by Mammalian Diving Reflex

[dianacoca]

Hi all!

This is Diana Coca from Mallorca (living in Cataluña), great meeting you online! Here is a bit more about myself if you are curious about it, https://vimeo.com/user48975560, https://diana-coca.com But anyway, some of my favorite works on public space are done by Mexican artists, I admire them a lot by working in a difficult context of violence, they are a big and intense inspiration for my work.

1) Mónica Mayer, ‘El tendedero (The clothesline)’, reenacted many times over the years in different cities across America. This work is about women harassment in public space and transport in Mexico City. The micro-stories of street harassment are collected in the ‘clothesline’. Each person writes their experience on paper, hanging them as if they were clothes. After living in Mexico for many years, I can relate and feel total empathy for this work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfozNMw971Q

2) Rocío Bolíver / La Conjelada De Uva (2012), Tijuana / San Diego. The Frozen Grape swung with a 10 m crane, flying over the border to the USA, showing them their asses and farting. It’s just hilarious and really funny way of dealing with this huge humanitarian problem with borders between the northern and southern hemisphere:
https://youtu.be/HR7VXhMMFMk

3) Lorena Wolffer, Soy totalmente de hierro (I’m totally iron)’ (2000), Mexico City, in collaboration with Martín Vargas & Mónica Martínez. Through ten billboards placed in different parts of the city, this counter campaign sought to question and answer the female stereotypical representations adopted by the advertising campaign ‘I am Totally Palacio (I am Totally Palace)’ – from the departmental store ‘El Palacio de Hierro (The Iron Palace’)’ – and by many others that break into the urban environment. The works used antagonistic rhetoric and opposed to those used in ‘Soy Totally Palacio (Soy Totally Palace)’, thus generating an alternate “advertising” space that invited the analysis of the intricate ways in which society — through one of its most forceful and revealing means – build and manipulate our notions of femininity. Text by Lorena Wolffer in her web: https://www.lorenawolffer.net/01obra/08sth/sth_frames.html

/Users/dianacoca/Desktop/el problema es que pienses que mi cuerpo te pertecene lorena wolffer.jpg

/Users/dianacoca/Desktop/ninguna-campac3b1a-publicitariaes-capaz-de-silenciar-mi-voz-lorena-wolffer.jpg

/Users/dianacoca/Desktop/lo curioso es que creas que puedes controlar mi imagen lorena wolffer.jpg

/Users/dianacoca/Desktop/quien te enseña como ser mujer lorena wolffer.jpg

This images are from the original campaign from ‘Palacio de Hierro’:

/Users/dianacoca/Desktop/Blogg 1.jpg

/Users/dianacoca/Desktop/Blogg 5.jpg

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by dianacoca. Reason: I don't know how to update images and videos properly

[M]

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by M.

[joseprocacanal]

Kamchàtka Theatre Company · itinerant street theatre / site specific: is an artist collective of diverse nationalities and disciplines who’s members first met in Barcelona, Spain, in 2006.

From public outdoor space in Kamchàtka to the intimate interior space in Habitaculum, the third show, Fugit, represents the summing up of its investigation on space.

Fugit blends the commonly shared and the most intimate personal: the public and the private. A show in movement, a street show, itinerant, rewritten on location, be it rural or urban. With three parallel itineraries and a joint beginning and ending.

Using the same characters as always, the same timeless immigrants, the group focus its artistic investigation on the idea of flight / running away. A suggestive and evocative flight where to exist, we will need solidarity from our neighbours and travel mates and to get rid of the excess and the absurdity which nowadays seems fundamental in our life.

Fugit | Kamchàtka Theatre Company | ‘Oficial Video’

[jennagreen87]

Hi from Australia!

The Australian Art Collective, Field Theory has done a couple of different versions of this work at different places, but 9000 minutes was the one staged at the Victoria Markets in Melbourne, Australia.

Also, I second Elizabeth’s comments about Kaldor Public Art Projects. – That Jonathan Jones work drew together so much research and brought to life so many stories hidden from sight.

[eilishmc]

Spiral Jetty
Robert Smithson
Great Salt Lake, Utah | 1970

Performances in public spaces are wonderful, and in a way I guess the making of Spiral Jetty would have been a public performance, but I am particularly taken with the process of making this earthwork.

[Amy McCarthy]

I have been making art myself in public spaces for over a decade and there is so many inspirational works it is hard to know what to choose – as all of your suggestions show too!
However, I first visited Parc Gruel in Barcelona when I at Art College and the flow of the forms and structures of the park and the colourful mosaic really inspired me. The way Gaudi created a magical space away from the pressures of the city, although in the heart of Barcelona and the scale of the work have always struck a cord with me and I have returned to the city and the park several times since.

At the other end of the scale, I visited Athens for the first time this year and I was blown away by the graffiti art all over the city. Large scale, beautifully executed, often political, but never dogmatic and on every wall space. I hope my instagram link with work to some images https://www.instagram.com/p/BpXGRygCg2C/

Looking forward to the course

[MirkaLoiselle]

Clay and Paper Theatre is a wonderful Toronto-based company that creates large scale puppet shows in Toronto parks.

Their annual “Night of Dread”, which takes place close to Halloween, invites the public to join them in a puppet procession around the neighborhood. Various puppets are worn by community members, each depicting a different fear. At the end of the parade, the public mocks and banishes their fears.

https://clayandpapertheatre.org/our-work/night-of-dread-2017/

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by MirkaLoiselle.

[tegan.peacock]

My initial interest for art in public spaces was sparked by a public intervention performance by Steven Cohen in 2001 entitled, ‘Chandelier’. The work is meant to contrast opulence and squalor, and highlight what was happening to the people of South Africa post Apartheid where they weren’t getting the jobs and homes they had been promised.

The second work is by Bouchra Ouizguen (from Morocco) called Corbeaux. The large group of women were not all dancers and members of the public were allowed to attend a workshop prior to the performance if they wanted to take part. For me the work was hugely powerful to watch and had the power to hypnotise with its use of rhythm, the body and voice. I watched this performance in a public square in Switzerland. I don’t have a video of that performance, hopefully the below gives you some idea…

[Schalker]

Hello all,

I must mention Janet Cardiff who, I’m sure, most of you will be familiar with. I am an artist and have been making site specific work since 2007 (not all public space work, but of varying degrees), but it was this particular work that got me really interested in the public/private potential of creating works in public.

http://cardiffmiller.com/artworks/walks/missing_voice.html

Looking forward to what this MOOC has to offer in the coming weeks

[SaraCoelho]

I didnt know about her work. Love it.

[Ida_Leone]

I work for the Matera 2019 foundation. The work I attended and that most marked me was “Abitare l’Opera” in collaboration with the San Carlo theater in Naples. I had the task of coordinating the work of the citizens who performed the prologue choirs in the Sassi. I also coordinated the relationship between the citizens of the choir and the young professional artists. Despite this, I am not an expert and I am here to learn more,

https://www.facebook.com/MateraBasilicata2019/videos/485043618940159/

[VictorArce]

I am Víctor Arce Scenic Artist from Mexico and this is one of my favorites woks in Public Space, i hope you can enjoy it too.

[Elizabeth]

Kaldor Public Art Projects is a pioneering Australian organisation that has been investing in the development of major public artworks for 50 years. The first project they comissioned in 1969 was Christo and Jean-Claude’s “Wrapped Coast”, or as many people within broad audiences recall the “Wrapping of Little Bay”. This work is iconic in Australia and I use it as a reference point for public art, especially when talking to audiences from beyond the artworld. It’s an artwork that resides in the pysches of a couple of generations of Australians. What many people don’t realise is that the work was facilitated by Kaldor Public Art Projects, highlighting that to broader audiences the collaboration, support and pathways for the creation of public art are often overlooked or invisible.

The first Kaldor Public Art Project that I recall encountering was by Tatzu Nishi in 2009. I wasn’t aware of the program and on a rainy day had just decided to spend the afternoon at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Approaching the building I was immediately fascinated by the construction-like structures that were dominating the facade of the building. I assumed that perhaps restoration work was being undertaken on the bronze sculptures that resided there. I only knew that there was an artwork because I was stopped by an invigilator as I walked up the stairs to the gallery.

This work activated for me an awareness of scale and spatial qualities that had never been of interest to me before. At the time I had only ever wanted to be a painter, something I still pursued for a few years after. Though I can that this public artwork planted the seeds for wanting to work with public space and perspective, both perceptual and conceptual.

Barrangal Dyara (skin and bones) by Jonathan Jones in 2017 is another Kaldor Public Art Project that has shifted so many things for me. Unfortunately I didn’t see the work as it was realised, though have researched it heavily. It is an artwork that I believe should be included in the Australian education syllabus. The intricacy and complexity with which this project addresses post-colonialism through a site-responsive and site-specific work is truly inspirational. I feel grateful to be able to share this work here in an international forum as friends from many countries outside Australia have always been shocked at how little is known internationally of the Indigenous experience in Australia. This artwork addresses that gap with reverence, sensitivity, recognition and hope. For me it is an exemplar public art project and has driven me to want to commit more deeply to my practice.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by Elizabeth.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by Elizabeth.

[ruth.spitzer]

http://mediaincanada.com/2013/10/03/scotiabank-nuit-blanche-reveals-sponsor-lineup/

x-static clown factory

participatory street art project I was involved with some time ago. nuit blanche toronto 2013.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by ruth.spitzer.

[dan.bartha]

Sibiu International Theatre Festival is trying each year to invite also an important number of artists who can transform the public space in an open stage. Here you can find a brief presentation of the festival, with an accent on the Outdoor events between 04’45” – 06’25”. Enjoy!:)

[jacobzimmer]

In Canada –
Public Dreams – a now closed public art company in Vancouver. Big puppets / community spectacle inspired by Welfare State International and the like

ATSA – https://www.atsa.qc.ca/en

[errogrupo]

We forgot to add our latest work:

Enjoy!

[errogrupo]

Here we are:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8KJ2awAlGiWGx8X5AbIdmA

http://www.errogrupo.com.br/v4/pt/

Cheers!

[martin.aranda]

SEFT-1 Abandoned Railways Exploration Probe

Ivan Puig and Andrés Padilla Domene (Los Ferronautas) built their striking silver road-rail SEFT-1 vehicle to explore the abandoned passenger railways of Mexico and Ecuador, capturing their journeys in videos, photographs and collected objects.

In their first London exhibition,: Modern Ruins 1:220, commissioned by The Arts Catalyst and presented in partnership with Furtherfield Gallery, in the heart of Finsbury Park, the artists explore how the ideology of progress is imprinted onto historic landscapes and reflect on the two poles of the social experience of technology – use and obsolescence.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by martin.aranda.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by martin.aranda.

[ValentinaST]

Dèsert, a performance created by the walking artist Leonardo Delogu

Born from a reflection on the desert as a milieu: the minimum degree for the survival of life forms and their relations with the environment, but also a place for profound adaptation experiences. The performance looks at the forms of migrations of the nomadic people of the desert: their actions being the field of study on which the audience is invited to assume a distant perspective.

[SaraCoelho]

Hello Agus,
Do you know where can i downlowed the manifiesto? Grazie (L)

[dianacoca]

Great manifesto!! thanks for sharing!!!
Oooooo mistake, this reply was for the message before! sorry for caos, I will get used to it!

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by dianacoca.

[AgusVP]

I did not see an “original” vivodito but I believe that it is a beautiful way of appreciation of the extra-ordinary in public spaces. Here a manifesto
https://post.at.moma.org/sources/8/publications/127

[erminapostolaki]

What is home? Our birthplace, the place where our beloved ones live, or merely the space we inhabit? Is it a shelter or rather a place of danger? Every home has a story to tell. In this performance, visitors will be admitted into people’s houses and will be given an excuse to explore the histories of others. They will be encouraged to visit seemingly different lives hiding behind walls. Maybe these lives are not so different after all.

http://greekfestival.gr/festival_events/irini-margariti-2017/?lang=en

[lalettrice]

These are my old but gold. Enjoy them.

http://streetwalker.si/
Through a funny and suggestive visit on the ‘open-source’ art gallery that everyone can enjoy in the Public Space, the slovenian group Kud Ljud inspire every citizen to cross their town with a fresh look, and to see it from a different daily perspective.

HOME

Strictly connected to the contemporary view on the theme of the migration, the interactive performances of Kamchatka stimulate deep changes in the audience. They inspire to move from the narrative of the conflict, to discover the resources of interactions.

https://olivier-grossetete.com/monumental-constructions
To build is a participatory process, a collective effort and a joyful play. It starts with a monument, goes on as a way of life.

[SaraCoelho]

Waw! So many information and new creations pop up! Thank you community, i felt inspired.

I will take some time to take a look to all the companies and work you recommend and try to hink in some ideas to share!
Again, thx you
Sara

[Marie Rose Venneman]

Wow there is really a lot of interesting, funny and inspiring work happening in public spaces. I just discovered http://streetwalker.si/ that was the first post. Great. Looking forward to make time to discover your other inspirations.
I was in Copenhagen this summer and discovered the work ‘Studio Cité’ of Benjamin Vandewalle.
It was so nice to feel how the way of sensing the square where it was happening shifted through experiencing his work.
Here a link to a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3PKKnQm32E

[Author]

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