Image: Marjetica Potrč is an artist and architect based in Ljubljana, Slovenia, (pictured left is Prishtina House, 2006, Installation view at Portikus Temporary public art installations by artists from Eastern Europe and Wales will transform interior and external spaces in Cardiff in a series of events echoing Constant Nieuwenhuys’ situationist theory as part of the Urban Legacies II: Another New Babylon conference to be held in the city from October 5-6.
To provide a wider European context, experiences from the emerging and new European states will be an important part of the conference and Marjetica Potrč from Slovenia and artist/architect Veronica Valk from Tallinn, Estonia, will exhibit especially commissioned artworks alongside work by Welsh artist, Anthony Shapland.
The artist’s projects will range from an urban farm in Cardiff Bay to an installation in the impressive former banking hall of the Nat West bank in Bute Street. The artworks will be used as a means of exploring the role of temporary artistic works and creative practice in the regeneration of modern post industrial cities.
Born in Tallinn, architect and artist Veronika Valk has made an impact on the Estonian cultural landscape. As one half of the in-demand architecture and events duo ZiZi & YoYo, she has won commissions for public and private buildings, interiors and landscapes. Veronika will also speak at the conference as part of the New Europe: New Cities session which will focus on the current developments in art and architecture in Estonia.
In her work, she investigates spatial issues and the aspirations of buildings, spaces and cities to the people inhabiting and using them. Since 1998, she has won around 30 awards in architectural competitions. Veronika’s completed projects include Suure-Jaani High School Sports Centre (with Kavakava Architects), the urban renewal of Rakvere city centre (with Kosmos office), and a memorial to the composer Eduard Tubin, in collaboration with sculptor Aili Vahtrapuu.
Frankfurt/Main 2006) whose work has been featured in exhibitions throughout Europe and the Americas. Venues for her solo shows have included the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin.
Her work is the product of wide-ranging research into communities across the world, taking the form of sculptural, photographic or online projects that explore temporary solutions for permanent problems such as overcrowding, poverty and pollution.
For Urban Legacies II, Marjetica will be constructing an urban farm made up of a vertical garden where people will be able to pass through and purchase fresh vegetables grown right there in Cardiff Bay. Consisting of a simple steel structure, which extends along vertical planes, allowing the ground floor to remain an open public space, the Urban Farm has been designed to bring together the best of two worlds, urban and rural.
The art of Anthony Shapland documents moments of transition in daily city life that are usually overlooked or thought invisible. Through their capture and editing on film, these mundane, everyday events – the lighting of a street lamp, the daytime sleep of night shift workers, drunken encounters after a nightclub has shut – assume an unexpected character and significance. In his explorations of the city at sunset and sunrise, he reveals the private uses to which public spaces are put.
Anthony is also the co-founder of g39, an artist-run network and gallery in Cardiff. Of his series of short films to be projected in the city centre, he says, “If the New Babylon is a place to play, a flexible place where rules no longer apply and we can be even more creative, then it is the city at night that most demonstrates this capacity for play.”
Other keynote speakers at the conference include Reinier de Graaf, partner in Rem Koolhaas’ controversial architectural practice OMA, as well as Lebanese architect Bernard Khoury, Filip de Boeck, anthropologist, University of Leuven and Tom van Gestel, Creative Director, SKOR, The Netherlands.
Urban Legacies II: Another Babylon aims to bring some of the world’s leading artists and architects to Cardiff to explore opportunities for greater collaborative opportunities between artistic practice and the real world of architecture in delivering successful urban regeneration projects the world over.
ENDSFor further information please contact Rhodri Ellis Owen, Cambrensis Communications on 029 20 257075.
More information on the conference can be found on the dedicated website www.urbanlegacies.co.uk
Editor’s NotesMarjetica PotrčThe Slovenian artist Marjetica Potrč originally trained as an architect. She is known for her 'case studies' of improvised buildings all over the world. Using analytical drawings and self-constructed buildings, Potrč shows how local inhabitants come up with and realise solutions that sometimes function better than the plans originating from the urban developer's drawing board. Potrč's projects are intended to suggest concrete possibilities for improving the relation between the individual and society. Her projects have strong social, political and economic dimensions.
For Urban Legacies, Potrč has built an Urban Farm, an elevated living structure where the walls and roof are used to grow a variety of seasonal vegetables, herbs and flowers, tended to by the in-house gardener. This produce is then available to buy downstairs from a market stand built into the structure.
Veronika ValkBorn in Tallinn, architect and artist Veronika Valk has made an impact on the Estonian cultural landscape that belies her youth. A one half of the in-demand architecture and events duo ZiZi & YoYo, she has won commissions for public and private buildings, interiors and landscapes. In her work, she investigates spatial issues and the aspirations of buildings, spaces and cities to the people inhabiting and using them.
For Urban Legacies, Valk will be installing a temporary inflatable hotel into the former Nat West Bank in Cardiff Bay. Built from basic materials and inflated by simple desk fans, this ‘Black Box Hotel’ will also host discussion, a 3D cinema, video art, performances and experimental work by artists from Wales and Estonia. 12 guests will be accommodated every night over the conference in a unique hotel experience.
Anthony ShaplandThe art of Anthony Shapland documents moments of transition in daily city life that are usually overlooked or thought invisible. Through their capture and editing on film, these mundane, everyday events – the lighting of a street lamp, the daytime sleep of night shift workers, drunken encounters after a nightclub has shut – assume an unexpected character and significance. In his explorations of the city at sunset and sunrise, he reveals the private uses to which public spaces are put.
Shapland has been documenting Cardiff’s nightlife during the small hours over the summer. For Urban Legacies, Shapland has edited this footage into mini-dramas, complete with subtitles of the drunken conversations, laughs and abuse. These will be shown at various locations 12 hours later than the time they were originally filmed, giving a brutal, humourous and often crude insight into how city spaces are inhabited throughout a 24hr period.
