location: CSW ŁAŹNIA, ul. Jaskółcza 1, Gdańsk, 11 October 2019 10.00 - 18.00
ART AND THE CITY.
JUST WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES OUR CITIES SO DIFFERENT, SO APPEALING?
CONFERENCE: 11 OCTOBER 2019, 10.00 – 18.00
The conference organized by the ŁAŹNIA Centre for Contemporary Art is yet another event in the Art and the City series after July’s “Not another public art festival”. Summer is gone and so are our summertime actions – now is the time to reflect upon them and summarize this experience as well as define and plan future projects under the public art programme.
The subtitle of our conference, “Just what is it that makes our cities so different, so appealing?”, paraphrases the title of a famous collage by Richard Hamilton. During our meeting, we will attempt to find out whether art showcased in urban spaces could in fact be the factor making our cities so different, yet so appealing.
The conference will encompass talks by sixteen speakers and specialists from Poland as well as Denmark, Finland, Austria, Luxembourg and Germany. The event will be divided into two parts.
The first will cover prospects for the development of contemporary urban art. The opening lecture will be given by Prof. Bukdahl, who will talk about the liberty unleashed by public art. Then, over several presentations, we will get to know examples from Vienna, Helsinki, Lublin and Milan, and this segment will end with a debate on the Gdańsk Outdoor Gallery moderated by Prof. Paweł Leszkowicz.
The second part will focus on the role of the city in the context of art projects and creating shared spaces. This segment will begin with a lecture by Grzegorz Piątek, who will talk about the experience of Warsaw in organizing art and participation-based projects. The series of presentations will concern actions undertaken by cultural institutions based in Gdańsk: ŁAŹNIA Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdańsk City Gallery, City Culture Institute and the company operating the Pomeranian Metropolitan Railway (PKM). This part will conclude with a debate with representatives of cultural institutions and local administration units responsible for the implementation of municipal plans (e.g. Road and Green Areas Administration, Gdańsk Development Office, Mayor’s Bureau of Culture). The debate in part two will be moderated by Artur Celiński.
The two-part structure of the conference reflects the division contained in the title, which underlines the relationship between art and the city as two mutually influential entities. Each part ends with a debate, which will serve as a summary of sorts, hopefully bringing constructive solutions enabling further development of the discussed subject matter. Results derived from the conference, and lessons learned, will serve as a foundation for the planned online platform showcasing all art objects and art-related actions based in Gdańsk.