Art Line Gdansk 2013 | Conference

Art in the Public Space – Festival or Not?

The role of art in the public space is frequently discussed in the
Tri-City artistic circles. One thing that has recently stirred up the
discourse is the growing number of festival-like projects with a more or
less populist profile appearing in the urban space. The festivals vary
in form and purpose but what they all share is the common air of an
ephemeral event. Often dubbed interventions in the public space, their
aim is to familiarise the average viewer with art.

What about the responsibility to local communities involuntarily exposed
to and involved in such activities? What strategies, if any, could be
employed to initiate cooperation with all those locals who experience
thousands of strangers flooding their streets in a quest for artistic
projects? Should such interventions in the public domain be represented
by institutions? Isn’t it then a contradiction? And last but not least -
what is the public space as such, since it no longer embraces merely the
urban space?

The conference organised by the Gdansk City Gallery and the Baltic Sea
Culture Centre will address these and other issues. The invited curators
and artists will share their experience with projects in the public
space. However, it is the inhabitants invited by the organisers who will
remain at the centre of the discussion, both those accepting and
rejecting such projects.


Friday, 17th May 2013

9:45 - 10:00 registration

Contexts, spaces and commissioning

10:00 - 10:50
Martin Schibli
What is it with Public Art that Makes it so Hard to Love it?

10:50 - 11:40
Dominik Lejman
The Right to Space

11:40 - 12:30
Michał Bieniek
Curator-Orderer: from the Context and Medium to a Curatorial and
Organisational 'Failure'

12:30 - 13:30 LUNCH BREAK


Economy, funding and institutions

13:30 - 14:20
Kuba Szreder
The political Economy of Public Art Projects

14:20 - 15:10
Michaela Crimmin
Art for All? Observation, Participation, Collaboration and Opposition in
Contemporary Art Practice

15:10 - 16:00
Roundtable Discussion


Saturday, 18th May 2013

9:45 - 10:00 registration

Dialogue, conflict, site-specificity and the role of an artist

10:00 - 10:50
Julia Draganović
Note on Time Based Public Art

10:50 - 11:40
Julita Wójcik
Daily Life of a Festival

11:40 - 12:30
Agnieszka Wołodźko
Discuss, not Decorate!

12:30 - 13:30 LUNCH BREAK


Festival, regionalisation and the public

13:30 - 14:00
Torun Ekstrand
What and where is Art in the Public Domain?

14:00 - 14:50
Bettina Pelz
Visual Seismographs

14:50 - 16:00
Roundtable Discussion