Anonymous Comrade writes:

Park Fiction presents:
Unlikely Encounters in Urban Space

International Congress and Exhibition of Park Fiction's Documenta 11 Installation
Congress: June 26 - 29, 2003 Exhibition: June 19 - July 6, Reeperbahn 1, Hamburg

One year after Documenta 11, Park Fiction's installation returns to Hamburg. For the first time, the installation will be shown in its place of origin, St. Pauli, on the Reeperbahn. The exhibition will be accompanied by an international congress: Unlikely Encounters (in urban space), with groups from Delhi/India, Tijuana/Mexico, La Plata/Argentina, Milan/Italy and Berlin/Munich/Hamburg.

After an intensive seven-year process of wishing, planning and negotiating, culminating in its presentation at Documenta 11, Park Fiction, a long-term planned park project in Hamburg-St. Pauli, with and from a collective of its residents, is in the midst of realization. Just the right time to reflect on this successful process: With the Documenta installation, a precise form was created, making this exceptional process, where "Art and politics made each other wiser" (Czenki) accessible in its model-like state. The congress Unlikely Encounters (in urban space) will open up the view on the global horizon, and create direct connections between similarly laid-out projects in different countries.

Urbanism and the appropriation of cities have meanwhile become central questions in art discourse. What appeared to be a marginal theme skirting the outer limits of the art system has, with increasing dominance, settled down at biennials and international exhibitions, coming into its own as a separate, vivid branch in art. Especially now, at the end of the industrial age, new methods of urban practice are developing all over the world, which broaden the idea of the possibility for artist actions and interventions in the city space. These projects find their own space and areas of work, and cooperating with non-art fields, out of the perspective of daily life, intervene in economic, information and academic city planning systems. This network of local knowledge challenges the global power of the media, and the state and economic authorities. The congress Unlikely Encounters (in urban space) will give groups from various countries and fields of work the possibility to join discussions and establish connections and relationships between various practises and objectives. It is about nothing less than the research of the possibility on the horizon of an experimental urbanism of the multitude.(Negri/Hardt).

Congress from June 26 - 29, 2003, with:

Sarai Media Lab/Delhi

Ala Plastica/La Plata

Maclovio Rojas/Tijuana

Cantieri Isola+Office for Urban Transformation/Mailand

Expertbase/Germany

Galerie für Landschaftskunst,

Lignas Musicbox and the

Schwabinggrad Ballett from Hamburg

special projects from Park Fiction and contributions from individuals: Jochen Becker, Sabeth Buchmann, Margit Czenki, Stephan Dillemuth, Sarat Maharaj, Luis Humberto Rosales, Eva Sturm (more to come).

Curators:

Margit Czenki

Christiane Mennicke

Christoph Schäfer

Organization:

Bernadette Hengst

Publicity and Public Relations:

Wanda Wieczorek

Contact:

www.parkfiction.org

Info@parkfiction.org

Backed by:

Hafenrandverein für selbstbestimmtes Leben und Wohnen auf St. Pauli, e.V.

Sponsored by:

kulturstiftung des bundes