Park Fiction presents: Umsonst & Draussen (engl.)

In Hamburg, artists have an additional field of activity: an ambitious art-in-public-space program potentially opens the whole city for the arts.

But the artistic practices and the theories to describe them change dramatically – as much as the claims that are staked out at art and the forces that shape urban life.

The avant-gardes of the 20th century asserted the claim of art for revolutionary change of the whole life, (a claim, whose administration-compatible expression the program might have been in it’s beginnings). Do we witness today the negative realization of such claims - as image-cities that are frozen into marketable, homogenous tableau’s, as event-art, as the total demand just recently formulated again at the world economic summit at Davos - as „Creative Imperative“?

But again and again artists, groups, collectives and interdisciplinary teams show resistant and emancipatory possibilities, flare new forms of cooperation and exchange, draw flight lines out of this postfordistic scenario.

In a big tent, right in the heart of the Park Fiction - and on the grounds of a now over 10 year practice, traversed by the current conflicts and possibilities, UMSONST & DRAUSSEN wants to give a chance to reflect on these developments.

Talks by Anne Querrien (sociologist, urbanist, editor of „multitudes“ and „chimaires“, publisher of the „Annales de la recherche urbaine“, Paris) and Grant Kester (Curator of „groundworks“, Carnegie Mellon University, author of „ Conversation Pieces“ and Associate Professor at the University of California, San Diego)

Impulse-talks by Dr. Brigitte Franzen (art historian and author of „Die 4. Natur“, curator of Sculpture-Projects Muenster 2007), Christiane Mennicke (director of Kunsthaus Dresden and curator of public art projects like postplatzDresden), Dr. Nina Möntmann (Curator of „Impossible India“ currently on show in Frankfurt Kunstverein, art scientist and author of „Kunst als Sozialer Raum“, editor of „Art and it’s Institutions“, Hamburg) and Wanda Wieczorek (art scientist currently part of the preparation team of Documenta 12)

Welcoming by Antje Mittelberg (Department for art in public space, Kulturbehörde Hamburg)

Visual Jockeys, Christoph Rauch and Monika Wucher (projektgruppe Hamburg, urban contact zone)

Sound Jockeys, Ted Gaier (musician, Les Robespierres, Schwabinggrad Ballett, Die Goldenen Zitronen and director of upcoming movie „Hölle Hamburg“) and
Nikola Duric (Showcase Beat Le Mot, Hamburg)

DVD Presentation: „Park Fiction presents: Unlikely Encounters in Urban Space“, with Ala Plastica (La Plata), Cantieri Isola (Milano), Stephan Dillemuth (Munich), expertbase (B, HH,M), Galerie für Landschaftskunst (HH), Ligna (HH), Maclovio Rojas (Tijuana), Jelka Plate (B), Sarai Media Lab (Delhi), Schwabinggrad Ballett (HH), by Peter Ott (Director, Hamburg)

Umsonst & Draussen is subcurated by Margit Czenki and Christoph Schäfer for Park Fiction

How to get there:
Park Fiction / Antonipark,
Between Golden Poodle Club / St. Pauli Fischmarkt / St. Pauli Hafenstraße,
S-Bahn Reeperbahn or Bus 112 to Hafentreppe