Art and Public Space
Art and Public Space is a collaboration between Primary and Maraa exploring artistic practice in public space. The project takes place across two intensive labs and follow-up public events, in both Nottingham and Bangalore, June - September 2017.
The lab in Bangalore, Art in Public Space: A critical reimagining (5 - 8 June), brings together collectives from across India who work creatively in public space to participate in reflection, critical conversation, and in-depth sharing of practice. Throughout the four-day lab, the artists will explore themes of imagination, inheritance, and borders and boundaries, and consider how art in public space can ‘reveal the contestations, acknowledge the resistances, and confront the omissions’ (Maraa). This is followed by a public forum (Saturday 10 June, 11am-1pm) to share what emerges from the lab and participate in a critical conversation around the politics of arts practice in public space, as well as the challenges and possibilities of working in this realm.
The lab in Nottingham, Art, Public + The Commons (20 - 21 September), brings together groups from India, the UK, and Europe, sharing outcomes and questions from the first lab and providing further space for reflection and critical conversation around public space, participation, and social change. This is followed by a public symposium (Friday 22 September, 10am - 4.30pm) to open up the conversation to others working in these areas, reflecting on collective structures and ideas of the commons, the role of arts practice and process in a public space, and tools and methods to work with diverse publics in different geographical communities.
Bangalore Lap participants: Art in Transit (Bangalore), Desire Machine Collective (Guwhati), Hamdasti (Kolkata), Jaaga (Bangalore), Manalmagudi Theatre Land (Chennai), Project Chaari (New Delhi), Sadak Chaap (Pune), 080 Collective (Bangalore), Shiv Ahuja (New Delhi), Jayasimha Chandrashekar (Bangalore), Bhagwati Prasad (New Delhi), Siddhant Shetty (Bangalore)
Nottingham Lab participants: Maraa (Bangalore), Forager Collective (Bangalore), ZK/U - Centre for Art and Urbanistics (Berlin), Idle Women (North West England), Public Works (London), Social Housing Arts Network (Manchester), Nina Edge (Liverpool), In Certain Places (Preston), CCA (Glasgow), Ian Nesbitt (Sheffield), and Nottingham-based Boseda Olawoye, Sam Metz, Jo Wheeler, Jagdish Patel, Anti Gallery
This research activity is part of Here, There and Everywhere, an artistic collaboration between India and the UK exploring contemporary art practices across these two different contexts, supported by funding from Arts Council England and British Council.
Research
