22-24 OCTOBER 2010, LONDON

HANBURY HALL, 22 HANBURY STREET, E1 6QR

 ** For a 'quick view' of the schedule & time-table by day, click here **

 

ARMCHAIR SESSIONS 

 These sessions provide the opportunity for emerging urbanists to have an intimate conversation (small group) with an eminent urbanist. Come ready with questions for someone who has valuable insight, experience and knowledge to share. Also be prepared for them to explore some of their latest questions with you.

Stefano Harney: The Business End of the Business School

How does the business school propose to validate its own professionalism, and at the same time claim management as a profession?  The answer is ethics, as implausible as this seems to some.  Other professions combine ethics with knowledge and regulation.  In business it stands alone, and in some ways becomes all.  Business is viewed by the business school essentially as a ethical system and indeed an ethical practice, one of hard work, wealth generation for the good of society, individualism, thrift, productivity, and corporate social responsibility.  These ethical practices are contrasted with the unethical collective, unproductive, excessive, and irresponsible, who are of course classed, raced, and gendered.  How do we combat the ethical business school? 22 October / 16:00-17:00 / Suffragettes Galleries and Tea Room 

 

Julian Dobson: Regeneration: Have we really learned anything? 10:30-11:30 / 23 October   / Suffragettes Galleries and Tea Room 

 

Judith Ryser: 1968 to Now: Can we ever progress?
Why does it seem as though we are always drawn back into the same political and economic system? Ryser reflects on the cultural-political movements of 1968 to the present sharing her experience in the fields of journalism, urbanism, organising - and also from living in Berlin, Paris and London. 68' gives a stimulating backcloth to a discussion of how a social movement would be possible at present and what it would take to get it off the ground as an alternative to neo-liberal austerity. What are ways that we can resist a 'return' to the same? How can we make apparent the subtext of the Tory Big Society before we plunge back to a pre-welfare/compassionate society?   15:00-16:00 / 24 October / Suffragettes Galleries and Tea Room

 

DISCUSSIONS  

Jonathan Rokem: The Emergence of a New Urban Typology? Re-visiting the "Divided Cities Discourse"  Questioning the emergence of a new city typology in European Cities, Rokem argues for a need to re-visit the "ethno-national divided cities discourse" to improve planning policy and practice in the intensifying ethnically divided cities across Europe. His presentation is a comparative study of urban division in Stockholm, Berlin and Jerusalem. Friday 22 / 12:00-13:00 / Eleanor Marx-Aveling Galleries 

Nick Blomstrand, Ben Campkin: All of This has Happened Before... on The Phenomenon of Perpetual Empty Office Spaces in London. This discussion is part-expose and part criticism of continuing trends and practices resulting in a near-constant 10% of the City's rentable office spaces lying vacant. The work focuses on the phenomenon of perpetual empty office spaces in London 13:00-14:00 / Saturday 23  / Rosa Luxemburg Hall 

Eileen Woods, Michael Woods, Dolan Cummings, Tom Mower: The Bye Laws Project The Bye Laws project has developed in response to the rapid increase in legislation governing the use of public open spaces and buildings, and how this affects our civil liberties and our quality of life. How are these laws created, publicised and enforced?  How do they consider cultural differences? What is the identity of the citizen these laws address? And how will bye laws impact on the use of our public spaces for the arts? These are some of the questions this international project will address, through research, dialogues and interventions.  Friday 22 / 13:30-15:30  / Eleanor Marx-Aveling Galleries

 

Judith Ryser, Michael Edwards, Bob Colenutt: ‘Urban Renaissance’: For Whom? Reflections on ‘failure’ and the attempts to rewrite ‘resistance’. This discussion we will offer insight into the community campaigns in the Docklands, Kings Cross and the Olympic site. Looking at the idea of failure - of community planning and resistance movements – the session will ask 'what are the lessons learned' and 'how do we plan for the next stages' (for example, with plans for Canary Wharf to increase in size within the next 10 years). How has it come to be that the work and history of the community movements that fought to resist the developments have almost been rewritten? What lessons can learnt in time for the proposed 2012 Olympic Games legacy? Friday 22, 14:00-15:30 / Rosa Luxemburg Hall

 

Public Works  Chora PWC: London Reflections  Since geographically – or otherwise- no coherent financial district can be located on the island of Cyprus, in this manifestation of PWC the focus will be the Church’s role in shaping financial institutions and subsequently political  and cultural conditions on the island. The 1st October 2010 is the official 50th anniversary of independence of Cyprus from the British Empire. This process was lead by the first president of the island, and leader of the autocephalous Church of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios III. Through a variety of gestures, archival material and visual references PWC aim to trace the possible –even conjectural- relationships the Church of Cyprus has with market forces, master- planning, land distribution, issues of ownership, taxation, charity and other vis-a-vis the idiosyncratic presence of social engagement on the island. Also, as part of this specific installment two presentations will contextualise the economic history and development of the island and the role, presence and understanding of the public art commissioned by the Church. Friday 22 / 13:30-15:30 / The Suffragettes Galleries and Tea Room

 

 Critical Practice Research Cluster: Money / Space / Art A mixed economy of invited contributors, drop-in participants and members of Critical Practice will discuss the ways in which international money circulates through specific socio-cultural practices (namely art produced by heterogeneous artworlds) that are constructed via geographical frames. Friday 22 / 15:30-17:00 / Match Stick Hall

 

 Anisa Johnny: Community: What Is It Good For? An informal discussion.. Prepare to grapple with key questions regarding conceptulisations of ‘community’ in the urban context. Friday 22 / 18:00-19:00 / Suffragettes Galleries and Tea Room

 

Julie Bacon, John Newling, Victoria Lane, James Geurts, Fran Cottell: The Clearing Traditionally associated with a forest, ‘a clearing’ is a space in which there is a potent relationship between our senses and surroundings in which we both feel our being fully and become aware of ideas and things beyond it. How do installation art, performance and creative ways of looking at archiving draw attention to the interplay of forces that shape the city and open up the economy of urban space? How does sensitivity to the aesthetics of place, and new ways of looking at knowledge, free up our understanding of what it makes sense to do in the city? Friday 22 / 18:00-20:00 / Rosa Luxemburg Hall

 Marisol Garcia, Krista Canellakis: Istanbul: City of Islands A presentationof work by students at UCL who studied the influences, processes and outcomes of urban transformation in the proposed CBD in the Kartal district in Istanbul, with a particular focus on socio-spatial dimensions. What are the relations between different processes and roles in the production of urban form and functions in Istanbul? To what extent do the different actors (including communities, local and national government, corporations, academics and NGOs) exercise forms of power in decision making processes? What is the interaction involving different actors at different scales (e.g., community-level, regional, national, international) within a process of urban change? Saturday 23 / 17:30-19:00  / Eleanor Marx-Aveling Galleries

Paul Dobraszczyk: Into the Belly of the Beast: Exploring London's Sewers This talk will consider the allure of London's sewers, past and present, from Victorian explorations of these secretive spaces to the contemporary activity of 'draining'. Richly illustrated with the speaker's own photographs, this talk will appeal to all those fascinated with London's underbelly. Saturday 23 / 18:00-19:00  / Suffragettes Galleries and Tea Room

 

Lahary Pittmann: The Shifting Boundaries of Lower Manhattan  An artist talk about a project that attempts to re-dialogue street photography and urban muralism from downtown New York city to re-examine capitalist democracy -vs- socialist democracy. The Wall Street scandal and bailout exposes socialised government for the wealthy, wherein "affluence supercedes community and capitalism trumps patriotism".   Saturday 23 / 16:30-17:30  / Suffragettes Galleries and Tea Room

 Marianna Liosi, Catalina Niculescu, Gerald Nestler, Charlotte Ginsborg: The workplace in the Financial districts This pilot project, addresses the relationships established among labour, place, worker, finance, architecture and visible effects in marking the community at a social, aesthetic and infrastructural level. Charlotte Ginsborg’s film traces the life of a large construction site in London, from demolition to the completion of new office space. Gerald Nestler will apply his concept of ‘Human Derivative’ to consider the realm of finance and its influence on society, communities and individuals. Catalina Niculescu’s video offers an oversight of the architectural organisation of one town, Marseilles, and traces the urban path that links living, working, and industrial environments. Saturday 23 / 10:30-11:30  / Rosa Luxemburg Hall

 Phil Gusack: Stoned in Jerusalem On building in new countries. A slide-show about the political, cultural, and practical challenges of designing new buildings in new countries.  It is based on the author's own experiences and explorations in the West Indies, East Europe, South Africa, Israel and Palestine from1988. What can an architect do as a stranger in a strange land? What is the burden of history and how does it help or hinder when the local expectation is high but resources scarce? Saturday 23 /12:00-13:00   / Match Stick Hall

Bojan Mucko:  Zagreb's Winter Stores Voices Critical insight into Croatian postsocialist urban planning policies. Introduction to Mucko’s art practice which reflects on the problems of denationalisation of public space in Zagreb and the non-transparent policies of the Zagreb City Council. The example for discussion is the case of massive closures and deterioration of private business offices in the centre of Croatia's capital - Zagreb. Saturday 23 / 12:00-13:00   / Suffragettes Galleries and Tea Room

 

 Discuplen Las Molestias (Raquel, Nuria Guell, and Cristina Garrido Sanchez): Creativity, Resistance, and the City Opening a debate on how creativity can challenge dominant realities in urban spaces, through the presentation of the work produced by our collective "Discuplen las Molestias". The collective name means 'apologies for the inconvenience', and refers to the typical sentence used by the Council and other major institutions for apologising for alterations in public spaces. By means of tactic interventions, the collective creates situations for pointing out the indiscernible conflicts of urban life, and the capitalistic system. The presentation will be focused on two projects: Barcelona Off Screen and The City of the Spectacle. Saturday 23 / 12:30-13:30 / Eleanor Marx-Aveling Galleries

 Hassan Mahamdallie: William Morris - Street revolutionary and urban visionary The common perception of William Morris is as a stuffy Victorian, a man who designed expensive wallpaper, a utopian who sought refuge from industrialism in a world of medieval fantasy. It is true that he designed wallpaper; along with furniture, ceramics, stained-glass windows, tapestries, carpets and houses. He also wrote novels, poetry and translated Icelandic sagas. The ravages of industrial capitalism; its attendant imperialism and war, its destruction of the environment, and above all the enslavement of human labour to the machine appalled Morris.  As the nineteenth century progressed he become more political, and realised that a return to the arts and craft of the Middle Ages could not end the exploitation and oppression of the mass of people, so he took the giant step across the "river of fire" and became a socialist. Saturday 23 / 15:30-16:30   / Rosa Luxemburg Hall

Gillian McIver:  Art, Finance and Collective Action  How can artists operate in the reality of the financial downturn and funding cuts? How can artists, especially video and media artists, operate in the absence of a viable “art market” for their work? How do we make sure we get paid for what we do? How can we self organise and self distribute? How do we get our work seen by our potential audiences? The symposium will feature presentations by Luna Nera (London) and Namastic Collective (Helsinki) along with independent artist Nazir Tanbouli, and special guests. It will also be an open forum for discussion and networking. Saturday 23 / 13:30-14:30  / Suffragettes Galleries and Tea Room 

               
Pernille Maria Barheim, Christian von Wissel, Arturo Ortiz Struck: Your Best Investment. The socio-spatial impact of economic strategies on urban development’s reaching far beyond The City itself. As with any other big city, Mexico City is in competition of attracting international businesses. One strategy employed has been to open the social housing market to private developers and international banks. This is not only shaping the city of today but will exert great implications on the city yet to come. The presentation will be focusing on the new social and economic potentiality these housing developments offer the city, as well as problematise how the current policies facilitate an activation of the potentials.  Saturday 23 / 13:30-15:00 /    Match Stick Hall

Tijana Stevanovic: New Belgrade after 2000 - Right to the Alternative Development of the Collective Space Free market economy brought one-dimensional change to New Belgrade: absence of city planning and private investors competing for the ever bigger filling up of previously "empty" modernist blocks with office buildings (reducing the public space in that way). Can its modernist legacy be re-evaluated without a total resort to the political ideology accompanying it? Saturday 23 / 15:00-16:00   / Suffragettes Galleries and Tea Room

  Raycho Stanev, Sandra Hall: The Great Excursion  Starting point for discussion is the interactive installation about the memories of Bulgarian Turks, hundreds of thousands of who were expelled from Bulgaria in 1989. A hidden chapter of European history, almost unknown in West Europe, it is a reminder of what happens when DNA, rather than our shared humanity, is the focus of attention. The Great Excursion is an interactive media exhibit examining a period in recent Bulgarian history when over 400,000 Bulgarian Turks were expelled from the country during what the government called an ‘excursion’ – which normally means you can return – but not in this case. Saturday 23 / 15:00-16:30  / Eleanor Marx-Aveling Galleries

 

 Tim Strahlendorf:  On Assemblage Theory, Airport Security, Mimicry and 'Home-bred Terrorism' Using the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Strahlendorf begins by exploring the futility of 'nouvelle vague' airport security, including biometrics and psychological profiling. I then argue that taking recourse to postcolonial/queer theory might aid in understanding the problem of the 'false negative'. The underlying aim is to foster reconciliation between critical security/anti-terrorism studies and critical (anti-)globalisation literatures. Sunday 24 /10:30-11:30 / Suffragettes Galleries and Tea Room 
 

Fiona Davies, Levent Kerimol: Inside The City: An Anthropology of the Financial District This project examines the social and cultural life of professionals in the financial services sector, as a way of understanding the abstraction of modern finance systems. The research has been carried out through a series of interviews with professionals working in financial corporations. Their responses will be augmented with an analysis of statistical data, and drawing on references and portrayal in popular culture that seek to reveal the social and cultural life of the financial corporation. The project will analyse financial districts from within. The social relationships and cultural norms present in the financial corporation. The spaces of the modern office are often considered to be somewhat generic, however Davies and Kerimol are interested to learn what makes unique cultures within offices. Sunday 24 / 10:30-11:30 / Eleanor Marx-Aveling Hall
       
 

Siraj Izhar:  Parliament Square and the Democracy Village Encampment The discussion will firstly examine the specific forms of human action or agency both institutionalised through the law courts and through contested public space, through the mosaic of subjects encamped on the grass within a traffic island, the contradictions between life-sphere and political spheres in the Square, how they enrich or diffuse the political agendas. The discussion will explore the lessons to be learnt for ‘extralegal’ forms of political agency from the Democracy village encampment, what lies beyond protest and penetration into media space through disruption (activists as solely negative subjects), issues of sustainability and representation, and what processes may incubate or give rise to the new politics. Sunday 24 / 12-13:30 / Match Stick Hall

 

Orsalia Dimitriou: Squatted squares of downtown Athens: Anarchy, Democracy and other ways of political participation The project investigates a number of squatted public spaces in downtown Athens that emerged after the urban riots of December 2008. The project would be based on PhD research which uses a theoretical approach and a video investigation.  Sunday 24 / 12:00-13:00  / Suffragettes Galleries and Tea Room

Local Base for Culture Refreshment (BLOK): The Crisis of Urban Planning in Post Socialist Context – The Sava and Upper Town in Zagreb UrbanFestival is an international, multimedia festival of contemporary with the intention to infiltrate contemporary art production in everyday urban life. Last two editions were focused on specific city neighbourhoods connected with specific urbanistic issues. What are those two urban stories telling us on power relations in Zagreb urbanism today? Sunday 24 / 12-13:30 / Rosa Luxemburg Hall

Martin Robinson: Is the Douglas Corporation on the Isle of Man a rival to the Corporation of London? The story of Skandia   Sunday 24 / 12:00-13:00 / Eleanor Marx-Aveling Hall
 

 

Maren Harnack, Martin Kohler: Why Does British Housing Come from Mars? Newly built British housing is providing minimal value for money. Instead of examining the financial, political or planning frameworks leading to this, we visited the head offices of the ten largest house builders in Britain. Our project brings together the documentation of these buildings and statistical data about the business activities of the firms. Sunday 24 / 13:30-14:30 / Suffragettes Galleries and Tea Room

Partha Banerjee: Malice in Wonderland A systemic and individual look at the psychology of the city and it's workers[bankers etc] in the aftermath of the economic crisis. The talk will look at a number of aspects of city life, social and financial, to try and produce a number of paradigms of understanding of what it must be like to rely upon and be part of the financial sector. Sunday 24 / 13:30-14:30 / Eleanor Marx-Aveling Hall
 

 

Andrea Gibbons, Gilda Haas, Celine Kuklowsky, Gary Phillips: What Inspires Urban Change? Join four L.A. activists who combine passion, politics and creativity with many years of grassroots organising experience. This interactive workshop will explore responses to L.A.'s corporatization, inspiring examples of what it takes to mobilize people's collective creativity in a city, and then ‘apply’ the results to some of London's toughest problems. Sunday 24 / 14:00-15:30 / Rosa Luxemburg Hall

 

Martin Reid: Buildings Are Merely Machines for Making Land Work Harder; An Economists View on Urban Development   Sunday 24 / 15:00-16:00 / Eleanor Marx-Aveling Galleries 

 

Tom Wolseley, Mark Jackson: Cabin-et The discussion will have several points of urban departure: Yiwu,China, a small commodity city in Zhejiang Province; Kalmar, a small port city on the Baltic Sea, in Eastern Sweden, specific maps of, and estates in, London, and future imaginary urbanities. These nodes will act as vectors for our consideration of how generalised urban imaginaries emerge from specific, and immanent, material practices. How do cities materialise our thoughts and feelings? What does it mean to create a gallery of images in a recycled nomadic container architecture in the city? Orientation maps often found at the boundaries of social housing complexes signify territories that are both globally geographical and cultural/psychological insulating. How can thinking about these maps and their material relationships inform our complex expectations of the city? Sunday 24 / 16:30-18  / Eleanor Marx-Aveling Galleries

 

Joanna Erbel, Krzysztof Nawratek: How Do We Get To Utopian Thinking on Urban Space? The aim will be to discuss the source of critical knowledge, asking the question about the source of the impulse to think in a different way about urban space. Is it enrooted in bodily experience or it comes from readings of other critical texts? 18:00-20:00 24 October /  Rosa Luxemburg Hall

 

 EXHIBITIONS

 

Anna Znaenok: City's Litter New Life. Use of newspapers, wallpapers, napkins, magazines, etc. in art; useless trash and glamorous sheets of magazines that finally, sooner or later, turn to dust under our feet. It is a philosophy of living in the city - no trifling thing should die traceless.  Match Stick Hall

 

Charlie Koolhas: True Cities A visual comparison of four global cities: London, Guangzhou, Dubai and Lagos - major global, industrial and financial centres that are critical to the workings of a global market - creating a multi-layered picture of an intricately connected world.  Match Stick Hall

 

David Boulogne: Confessions From The City.  Images from "Make It A Good Experience" in the City book released in 2010. Is the City a temple and ultra-capitalsim a faith? Visitors are asked to write their confessions and dispose of them in a box.  Rosa Luxemburg Hall 

 

Marisa Gonsalez: Female (Open) Space Invaders In Hong Kong, China, 120,000 –200,000 Filipino women works as domestic help. On their only day off, Sundays, they all invade the downtown Financial District. They transform and occupy the streets meeting their friends and relatives anywhere; on the streets, bridges, parks, plazas, shopping centre, and also under the HSBC Hong Kong Bank.  Match Stick Hall

 

Emma Burland: April 21st 2009.  Photographs in the media are (often mistakenly) thought of as being factual due to their documentary nature. When drawn by hand however, the appearance of the photograph is transformed, allowing space for the viewer to question the reality of both what we are seeing on the canvas and what may have been there in real life, therefore undermining all certainty about the events. Despite major developments in photography, there is still an opportunity for artistic representation of current events, without them becoming false historical documents. Match Stick Hall

 

Josefin Rasmuson: Waiting / Space. Drawings that depict public spaces of waiting (including bus stops, metro stations, waiting rooms, etc.).  Match Stick Hall

 

Sachiyo Nishimura: Urban Spaces: Landscapes and Fictions. A re-composition of the cityscape, focusing on those spaces that coexist with the relentlessness of the city, better described as non-places. Match Stick Hall

 

Michael Itkoff: Street Portraits. A collection of portraits made in the streets of downtown London, Sydney, Hanoi, Bangkok and New York. Match Stick Hall

 

 Stefan Syrowatka: Northern Grace. Documentary photographs of Scottish life in an urban environment.  Suffragettes Galleries and Tea Room

 

Lahary Pittman: The Shifting Boundaries of Lower Manhattan. This project re-dialogues street photography and urban muralism from downtown New York city to re-examine capitalist democracy -vs- socialist democracy. The Wall Street scandal and bailout exposes socialised government for the wealthy, wherein "affluence supercedes community and capitalism trumps patriotism". Annie Besant Cinema 

 

Public Works  Chora PWC: London Reflections Through a variety of gestures, archival material and visual references PWC aim to trace the possible relationships the Church of Cyprus has with market forces, master- planning, land distribution, issues of ownership, taxation, charity and other vis-a-vis the idiosyncratic presence of social engagement on the island. Friday 22 / 13:30-15:30 / The Suffragettes Galleries and Tea Room

Sophio Medoidze: Laboratory For The Future. Photographs that explore the architectural heritage of the former soviet republic of Georgia concentrating on the disused factories and their inhabitants. Suffragettes Galleries and Tea Room

Helen Couchman: Cloud Series: Yellow Lining. A series of lino-cut, woodblock and etched prints that explore what an ‘ideal city’ might be. Suffragettes Galleries and Tea Room

Regina Parra:  Mise-en-scène. Created from CCTV footage; this is an exhibition about people watching people. In Sao Paulo, as in other big cities, it is now impossible to move without being recorded. This project aims to provide a critical account of the growth of camera-based surveillance through paintings and illustrations. Suffragettes Galleries and Tea Room

 

Ignacio Acosta: Mapping The Zone: Reflections on Global Capital. Investigating the architectural configurations at Canary Wharf. The project operates as a cognitive map of the urban landscape of Canary Wharf, it consists of a series of large format photographs taken from rooftops, reception areas and at street level. These fragments become an exploration of the buildings’ surface and simultaneously a reflection of the city itself. Rosa Luxemburg Hall 

 

Nanna Nielson, Trenton Olfield: City Pink.  In the Summer of 2006 there was an abundance of men in The City wearing pink shirts under their suits, which seemed to play heavily against the idea, be it a cliche, of these chaps being bullish in character, working without emotion, that money and numbers predominated their ethics. Instead, does The City run entirely on emotion, as 'confidence' still dominates decision making? City Pink explores the idea that these men in pink shirts are not 'the emotionally barren' but perhaps highly emotionally intelligent and that their everyday work requires and demands an acute emotional awareness. Rosa Luxemburg Hall

 

Rebecca Anderson, James Field, Rachael Davidson, Samir Patel, Judith Ryser, Deepa Naik, Trenton Oldfield: Sign of the Times: On Sunday 03 May 2010, every vacancy sign in The City was documented – what emerged is an archive of over 600 unique ‘To Let’ signs. The title is in reference to a conversation we had with a senior planner in The Corporation who used the phrase ‘It’s a sign of the times’ when discussing the proliferation of signs in recent times. Rosa Luxemburg Hall 

 

 Raycho Stanev: The Great Excursion is an interactive installation about the memories of Bulgarian Turks who were expelled from Bulgaria in 1989. A hidden chapter of European history, almost unknown in western Europe, it is a reminder of what happens when DNA, rather than our shared humanity, is the focus of attention. ** Discussion Saturday 23 / 15:00-16:30  / Eleanor Marx-Aveling Galleries

 

Sergio Cruz: Outside is a work from the "simple" experience of observing Chinese life, a document of outdoor performances in Beijing 24-hour street life. It documents the day-to-day process or act of filmmaking. Perhaps it can be best described as an observer's view of Beijing as it is today.

 

 Juan Delgado: The Flickering Darkness A 3-channel video that offers unique insight into Corabastos – one of Bogotá’s largest food market and distribution centres. The installation provides extraordinary views into an area of the city that most urban inhabitants have never seen before, and yet are inextricably linked to. The project raises imperative questions about labour, food production/consumption and capital. It will be accompanied by cross-disciplinary discussion with theorists, artists, city-workers and activists. Celia Sanchez Manduley Gallery ** Discussion: 23 October, 16:00-18:00

 

Jhon Arias: Portraits from Corabastos
A series of portraits of the laborers from Corabastos - the largest food marketplace in South America- to explore the diversity and plurality that populates a country with one of the highest indexes of biodiversity in the planet. Through a simple setting, Arias captures the dignity of those women and men that every night unload the goods brought from over the country. Criollo potatoes, spring onions, papaya, pineapples, carrots...in their thousands come raw to start a process of being classified, identified, labeled as finest, first, second class...to be upload back into the trucks that would deliver them to the city.  Celia Sanchez Manduley Gallery

 

Henrietta Williams, George Gingell: Ring of Steel: Entering the Panopticon  The so-called ‘Ring of Steel’ is a security installation that carefully guards the City of London. Ushering in a new phase of fortress urbanism the ‘Ring of Steel’ creates a digitally hermetically sealed security installation. A system of CCTV, narrowed streets, sentry boxes and bollards preventing access is used to carefully monitor the square mile. Through maps and photographs this project aims to make visible the function, nature and effect of the Ring of Steel, its role as a Panopticon, demonstrating how it follows an ancient line of city defense whilst generating a very 21st century approach to control.  Rosa Luxemburg Hall

 

FILMS 

 

Ashley Wong and Nicolas Sauret:  NønSpace: The Elusive Haze of Space/Place of Hong Kong

Through its unique history, geography and politics, Hong Kong has sprouted from a small Chinese fishing village to a globalized financial city. From British influence of Western capitalism to a return to long lost Chinese reality, Hong Kong has formed into a place of in-betweenness. Through interwoven voice interviews with artists, academics, architects, NønSpace approaches notions of space to reveal aspects of a city and culture that is difficult (and perhaps impossible) to underpin. 11:00-12:30 & 15:00-16:30 / 22-24 October / Annie Besant Cinema 

 

Christina Hazell: Cohabitation  A hand drawn stop motion animation that portrays the current ecological instability resulting from the heavy demands man makes on the environment. 11:00-12:30 & 15:00-16:30 / 22-24 October / Annie Besant Cinema 

 

Winstan Whitter: Herbal Spirit Documentary about the life a spiritual herbal doctor in Ghana. His father a Chief Fetish Priest of his village Botianor teaches is son how to heal and protect people using spiritual and natural medicines within the dark world. After meeting his second wife who’s ambition is to change all Fetish Priests into Christians, she faces the ultimate challenge, her husband.

11:00-12:30 & 15:00-16:30 / 22-24 October / Annie Besant Cinema 

 

Zafer Topaloglu: Aisha In Wonderland  looks at one of the most challenging ramifications of Israel-Palestine conflict; the state of individuals being exposed to emotional violence in a refugee camp . The film focuses on ‘Mar Elias’ camp in Lebanon in which various organizations, communities and groups rightfully manifest, via various means of representation to struggle against Israel. Individuals, especially minors, being exposed to emotional violence everyday, are naturally not only forced to internalize that over time, but also are forced to adapt themselves to emotional moods constituted by various representations and the unsystematic, uncanny, and unsanitary physical transformation of the camp over time.  11:00-12:30 & 15:00-16:30 / 22-24 October / Annie Besant Cinema 

 

Chelsea Knight:  The End Of All Resistance Two US army interrogators are invited to teach and role play "emotional interrogation techniques" according to 2006 US Army Field Manual 22-2-3. Their performance is transposed into extended improvisation with two female actors and a married couple in a domestic setting, enacting scenarios based on the interrogators' demonstrations. The work explores interrogation as recognisable and similar to the interactions we engage in every day, and the kinds of performances we use to communicate power. 11:00-12:30 & 15:00-16:30 / 22-24 October / Annie Besant Cinema 

 

David Wheeler: J18: Stop The City Documenting the London Carnival Against Capitalism. June 18^th 1999  13:00-14:30 & 17:00-18:30/ 22-24 October / Annie Besant Cinema 

 

Lara Navarro: The Beat of Africa. Portrait of the contemporary reality of Gabon (Africa) through the voice of 3 hip-hop lovers. This powerful cultural movement allows them to express their ideas and keep on fighting for an opportunity in life. 13:00-14:30 & 17:00-18:30/ 22-24 October / Annie Besant Cinema 

 

Wether Germondari:  Panca Popolare Italiana. Over 6 years, images of a single 'Italian Popular Bench' (in Finanze Square, Rome) have been brought together. Since the beginning of the new millennium this bench has given rest and shelter to hundreds of people, becoming a witness to the passage and meeting of people of all ethnicities. 13:00-14:30 & 17:00-18:30/ 22-24 October / Annie Besant Cinema 

 

Eva Weber: The Solitary Life of Cranes. Explores the invisible life of a city, its patterns and hidden secrets, seen through the eyes of crane drivers working high above its streets. 13:00-14:30 & 17:00-18:30/ 22-24 October / Annie Besant Cinema 

 

Esther Johnson: Elevation. Portrait of Sheffield's (in)famous Park Hill estate. The work is a poignant memento of a turning point in the estate's history, as the last embers of its communal ideal flicker out, and the first glimmers of its coming second life can be sensed.: 1300-14:30 & 17:00-18:30/ 22-24 October / Annie Besant Cinema   

 

Andres Torca: Il superuomo. The video documents an installation in the centre of Rome, taking a desecrated space to purpose a spiritual recycling of the society patterns. 1300-14:30 & 17:00-18:30/ 22-24 October / Annie Besant Cinema   

Luna Nera, Namastic: Creative Capitals: London / Helsinki Moving Images A screening by two artist/curator collectives working with moving images. Each work in a capital city that has a different artistic culture and population mix, a different attitude to the economic structures that support it, and a different way of living in the northern climate.  This screening features short films and video art. Friday 22 / 18:30-20:00 / Eleanor Marx-Aveling Galleries / FILM PROGRAMME CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE

 

 Marc Isaacs: Men of The City People who work in the city either make money out of money, or from the proximity of money. But what do they feel about their jobs? In Men of the City, filmmaker Marc Isaacs goes behind the headlines to examine the state of mind and motivation of men in the city. Shot during the earliest beginnings of current financial crisis, this film explores the life in the dog eat dog world of London's Square Mile. ** Followed by a Q&A Saturday 23 / 20:00-22:00 / Match Stick Hall              

 

 Marisa Gonzalez: Ellas Filipinas A documentary film about the use of the financial district in Hong Kong, China by the 120,000 –200,000 Filipino domestic workers each Sunday. The film traces their families in the Philippines and examines the legacy of generations of women who leave their children and partners to work in foreign countries. The project seeks to understand the current crisis of capitalism and looks at the re-use and potential re-understandings of central business districts, the corporation, and downtown in Hong Kong; as well as the impact of Hong Kongs ‘boom’ on the lives and economies of women from the Philippines. ** Followed by Q&A with Marisa Gonzalez & Nerea Calvillo ** Friday 22 / 17:30-19:00 / Match Stick Hall

 

 
Gabriel Mascaro: Um Lugar ao Sol (Highrise) What does it mean to have a penthouse in poverty-filled Brazil?  Interweaving resident interviews and vistas from above, the film is a hypnotic and revealing examination of the real view from the top. This feature length documentary presents an analysis of the dominant Brazilian classes through a dialogue with the inhabitants of nine penthouse apartments in the cities of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Recife. Penthouse residents open up their homes to reveal their thoughts on social inequality, politics, and the world that surrounds them, as well as discussing more intimate subjects such as their desires, fears, insecurities, prejudices and personal histories. The documentary provides insight into the ‘verticalization’ of the Brazilian cityscape and deepens our understanding of what drives people to live in penthouses. High-rise is a film about height, status and power that questions the elite in a way that has never been done before in Brazilian cinema.

Friday 22 / 20:00-22:00  / Match Stick Hall

 

 Fiona Whitty, David Wheeler, Jason Waite, Sergio Cruz: Sunday Chill Film Session   A selection of short films talks and discussions from selected up and coming filmmakers whose work deals with contemporary aspects of migration, culture, identity and economy. Each of the artist's films uses the documentary form in a variety of ways. An event not to be missed! Sunday 24 / 15:30-17:00   / Match Stick Hall

 

 Fiona Whitty, Jenny Gordon: Soon Come  This is the 1st edition of many films to come. For this project, both artists took themselves out of context, into unknown territory and culture of Jamaica, to investigate different aspects of contemporary Jamaican life and culture. Topics covered include Jamaican contemporary art, aspiring Jamaican musicians and the role and influences of music in Jamaican contemporary culture, regeneration and urban living, redevelopment and corruption, identity of the new Irish community in Jamaica, returnees and newcomers who have decided to settle in Jamaica. Sunday 24 / 17:00 -17:30/ Match Stick Hall

 

 Steve Martin (Irish Film Group) presents:  In Search of The Pope's Children by David Mc Williams

David McWilliams’ film In Search of the Pope’s Children was made in 2006, when Ireland’s economic Celtic Tiger still seemed a powerful force. In this documentary, McWilliams foresees the collapse that the Irish economy would suffer and exposes particular fragilities in the system. McWilliams, a former financial diplomat, connects Ireland's inflated consumerism with German savings banks, and joins the dots between Dublin property values and Bulgarian holiday homes. In demystifying a dense subject with colour, wit and style, McWilliams shows that financial power is often a shell with a hollow centre. Sunday 24 / 19:30-22:00 / Match Stick Hall

LAUNCHES 

Wards Corner Community Coalition: Who's City Is It Anyway? An investigation into a new paradigm of community planning that has emerged from growing resistance in communities to developments that do not benefit the people who live in the city. Following this will be the launch of an architecture competition that seeks to provide an open ideas forum for provocative, even revolutionary, re-conceptualizations of the urban fabric of the Wards Corner Site and will challenge the current development hegemonies by actively engaging and empowering the local community, both complimenting the current local milieu and, via the use of high quality architectural approaches, offering a sustainable development of long lasting architectural quality. 22 Friday / 10:30-12:00 / Rosa Luxemburg Hall ** Followed by a walk **

 

Manuel Appert, Martine Drozdz: CBD of the World: Standardisation, Differentiation and Instrumentation Launch of a project that investigates the processes of standardisation and differentiation between CBD in Europe, America and Asia and within each of the selected cities (mainly London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, NYC, Chicago, Boston, Tokyo, Osaka, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore and Bangkok). The critical exploration consists of photographs and captions on skyline views, architectural details, space utilisation and integration of the CBD in their wider urban environment. Saturday 23 / 14:30-15:30 / Rosa Luxemburg Hall

Fadi Shayya: At the Edge of the City: Reinhabiting Public Space Toward the Recovery of Beirut’s Horsh Al-Sanawbar. This publication aspires to chart an alternative discourse from that which produces the exclusion from public spaces in Beirut. Through exploring issues of advocacy and politics, the book provides a platform to contest the existing governance of Beirut’s park and to advocate a well-informed public space policy agenda. At the Edge of the City is a contemporary critique of urban governance and spatial production in Beirut. The book is an edited volume that hosts the original textual and visual works of scholars, professionals, journalists, activists, and artists. Saturday 23 / 17:00-18:00 / Rosa Luxemburg Hall

Fugitive Images: Estate Estate is a book that approaches the issue public housing by setting up a dialogue between photography, archaeology of the recent past, autobiography and critical theory. The launch event will reflect this hybrid approach. Thus we will start off with a visual engagement, by screening three short films about housing and more importantly the people living in them. Before the debate is opened up to the floor, members of the panel will briefly expand on the following questions: Public or Affordable Housing – does it matter? In order to create dynamic & safe affordable housing environments, should we prioritize the formation of a more equal society through social reform or prioritize the construction of ‘estates’ designed in a manner aimed at controlling behaviour through surveillance and gated style of communities etc?  Sunday 24 / 16:00-18:00 / Rosa Luxemburg Hall 

 

PERFORMANCES

Sophio Medoidze: Laboratory For The Future A spoken word performance against a backdrop of photographs. This is part of an ongoing exploration into the architectural heritage of the former soviet republic of Georgia concentrating on the disused factories and their inhabitants. Saturday 23 /  18:30-19:00 / Rosa Luxemburg Hall

Sinead McCann: Absent From The State The piece explores the domestic lives of marginal groups living in regenerative urban areas. The title particularly references the idea of 'being absent from the state', a turn of phrase used in Irish legislation which describes people who are unemployed as being 'absent from the state'. Sunday 24 / 18:00-19:00 / Match Stick Hall

 

READING GROUP 

Spatial Fix: The Right to the City. Do our cities reflect common needs and requirements? Or are they shaped by narrower political economic agendas? But what approaches can generate a more equal and democratic form of urban society? To address these questions Spatial Fix are inviting festival goers to take part in a small reading group for David Harvey's essay 'The Right to the City'. (http://davidharvey.org/media/righttothecity.pdf) The group is open to all, but as it requires input from participants it would be helpful if readers come along with a few questions about the essay to fuel the debate. To register please contact lmoreno@ucl.ac.uk. Friday 22 / 16:00-18:00 / Eleanor Marx-Aveling Galleries

 

SALON 

Island Projects (Marco Cali,  David Berridge, Jane Madell, Pippa Koszerek,  Cally Trench, Jonathan Trayner, Mary Yacoob): Games of Money and Death A salon that will combine themes of Dickens’ satirical writing about the absurdities of bureaucracy, the seduction of greed and consumerism, betting livelihoods on the intangibles of the stockmarket (or ‘nothing’), with the theme of deconstructing the City, corporations, financial speculation. Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend is the starting point - a tale of social facades, dark secrets and manipulative schemes. Characters speculate on the notional assets of the market, bet on appearances, get seduced by veneers of sociable respectability and conspicuous consumption, and make money out of heaps of dust heaps. Saturday 23 / 17:30-19:30 / Match Stick Hall              

 

Soapbox, Oh that's interesting! 

One of London's important soapbox sites was situated on the corner of Brick Lane and Old Montague Street. It was used by Jewish socialists to combat fascism in the 1930's. 'Oh, That's Interesting!' is a 21st century reinterpretation of the soapbox tradition. Join urbanists as they reveal their questions, provocations and research. Friday 22 / 10:30-11:30 & 16:00-17:00; Saturday 23 10:30-11:30; Sunday 24 10:30-11:30 & 14:00-15:00

 

Agnieska Wrzeniak, Beatty Hallas, Denitza Toteva, Michal Joworski, Sophie Hoyle, Anna Ricciardi , Robert Ekhol Friday 22 / 10:30-11:30 / Match Stick Gallery

 

Maria Lisogorskaya, Elly Ward, Rolando Andreou, Zhan Wan (Studio 2) Friday 22 / 16:00-17:00 / Rosa Luxemburg Hall

 

Olivier Ruellet, Hyemin Park, Rachel Jones, Simon Pennec, Mara-Dara Cojocaru, Marthe Sophie, Celina Teague Saturday 23 10:30-11:30 / Match Stick Hall

 

Miranda Iossifidis, Francis Farmer, Yoongsook Choi, Alvaro Urbano, Mikkel Hansen (Urban Green Line), Jody Boehnert Sunday 24 10:30-11:30  / Match Stick Hall

 

Clare Barnett, Benjamin Mason, Gian Luca Amadei, Florence Mulvey, Agnieszka Mlicka, Rachel Hill  Sunday 24 /  14:00-15:00 / Match Stick Gallery

 

WALKS:

 

Jennifer Gabrys: Moss-eye View: An urban ecological tour of bryophytes in the City of London.  A tour of mosses in the City of London. Mosses are effective 'biomonitors' and can be studied as indicators of urban environmental health. This tour will investigate mosses as nonhuman exchangers of urban energies and ecologies. Friday 22 / 12-14:00 (followed by tea 14:00-15:00)  Meeting point: Outside Hanbury Hall

 

Wards Corner Community Coalition: See ‘Launches’ for more information. Friday 22 / 12:30-14:30 Meeting point: Outside Hanbury Hall

 

Robin  Bale: Last Call A performance/circumnavigation of Shoreditch/Dalston's recently created 'alcohol exclusion zones', taking note of other recent developments/regeneration along the route and considering what may have necessitated them - class warfare and protecting property values or concerns about anti-social behavior? Bring booze. Friday 22 / 16:00-18:00 Meeting point: Outside Hanbury Hall

 

Henrietta Williams, George Gingell: Ring of Steel: Entering the Panopticon A tour of the system of CCTV, narrowed streets, sentry boxes and bollards that prevent access to and carefully monitor the square mile. An extension of the map and photographic exhibition, the aim of the walk is to make visible the function, nature and effect of the Ring of Steel, its role as a Panopticon, demonstrating how it follows an ancient line of city defense whilst generating a very 21^st century approach to control. Saturday 23 / 12:00-14:00  / Meeting point: Outside Hanbury Hall 

 

David Rosenberg: Anti-Fascist Footprints On October 4th 1936 some 3,000 fascists, waiting to be inspected by their leader, Sir Oswald Mosley, assembled in Royal Mint Street in the City of London determined to march in four uniformed columns into the "alien territory" of the East End. The confrontation that took place that day has been called the "Battle of Cable Street". On this two hour walk, David describes the events of that day and the back story and highlights what it reveals about relations between the City and its next door neighbour, the East End. Sunday 24 / 15:00-17:00 ** Meeting point Outside The Whitechapel Gallery

 

WORKSHOPS 

 

Susan Parham, Sue Walsh; Katharine Burgess, Gill Rathjen: The Future of Hanbury Hall  What is the future of this building with its remarkable social and political history? Could it become a 21^st Century Community Centre? What would they mean, who could make it happen and how might it be done? The Centre for Sustainable Communities at the University of Hertfordshire is excited about running a ‘mini’ charrette, as a festival session from 10am on the morning of Friday 22nd October, to answer these exact questions. The ‘mini’ charrette session will showcase charrette principles and methods for community design, planning and engagement - and work through a highly pertinent planning, design, economic and management issue at the same time – the future use of the festival venue Hanbury Hall as a 21st Century Community Centre. Its now or never, so bring your skills and knowledge. The mini charrette is limited to 20 people so please register. Friday 22 / 10:00-13:00 / Match Stick Hall

 

Sophie Risner: The Bureaucracy Project The Bureaucracy Project (working title) asks what is bureaucracy and how do we begin to consider such a dense and contemporary concern within the current political climate and within art and written practice. Instead of deciding that the answer could be aggressively conclusive The Bureaucracy Project looks towards breaking down and picking up the pieces, in a bid to re-cast the representative net of what bureaucracy could be time and time again. If through this it is possible to suggest what the crux of bureaucracy is - could it then be possible to suggest something akin to an alternative. Saturday 23 / 15:30-17:00 / Match Stick Hall              

 

 

& OTHER ACTIVITIES... 

 

Projections

Peter Cleary: As The Majority Sleeps

Highlighting the conflicting ideology of urban space in relation to day and night.

 

Priya Goswami, Sudhanshu Malhotra: In the by-lanes of Old Delhi

Being one of the oldest pockets and pulsating business districts in the capital of the nation, India, one is thrown by the reckless chaos of the 'Bazaar' as much as one is lost in its labyrinthine lanes. These lanes afford livelihoods and shelter to the countless since generations. And yet this space retains the spoils, heritage and abundance.

Open Studio

Anna Ricciardi, Roberto Ekhol: Contamination. A studio is turned into a viewing space for examining the city and the perceived threat of contamination inherent within its social spaces, finding connections between the physical body and the social body of London's cityscapes. Orpheus Street, Denmark Hill, SE5 8RR. By appointment between 12-6pm. 07957 444 473 or 07951 845 468  

 

Outdoor installation

Tom Wosley: ATLAS

69, Hackney Rd, London, E2 8ET. Shoreditch.