Apolonija Šušteršič
Opening:
Hustadt Festival
23–24 September 2011
Press Conference:
23 September 2011 at 11:00
Public opening at Hustadtteilfest
24 September 2011, 14:00–23:00
HU_stadt Project
Community Pavilion
Brunnenplatz 1
Hustadt, Bochum
www.hustadtproject.blogspot.com
Apolonija Šušteršič was invited in 2008 by the city of Bochum to make a project for Hustadt, a suburban area with an interesting beginning and a turbulent recent history.
The project, which was planned for 9 months, turned into a 3-year process of negotiations, discussions, and actions. First commissioned by the city of Bochum as a conventional public art project it became a self-organized initiative by the artist and local activists (Aktionsteam). Together with inhabitants and local NGOs she developed different activities for the community to test the place and use the results as arguments for the project in political discussions. She also moved to Hustadt to be able to carry out her research and pursue the project more closely.
The Hustadt Project became the case study for her Doctorate dissertation at Lund University, Malmö Art Academy. The project composes several parts and will end with the opening of the Community Pavilion, which has been built as a result of the process. The opening will take place at the neighbourhood festival (Hustadtteilfest) on 23 and 24 September and will present the whole project by a special programme that reflects and comments on the entire 3-year artistic process, including a lecture by Barbara Steiner, curator and director of the Museum for Contemporary Art in Leipzig, which will be followed by an interesting film/video programme by international video artists.
The Hustadt Project questions the current condition of the social utopias built in the 1960s and 1970s; over time, such projects have developed into very vivid international environments usually perceived as problematic and dangerous. Forgotten places, such as Hustadt, have formed their own climates and ways of life. But what happens when the city suddenly discovers the place again and starts to perform its duty and take care? What could be the role of the artist in such a situation? Is she allowed to act politically and influence the process of re-generation? What methods might be used to inform, engage, and stimulate the local population to think and act out their possible future? Is participation really the ultimate form leading towards democratic decision-making: who decides about what and when? How does one perform sustainable participation? How to support the socially engaged actors who have proved during the project to be extremely important for the public life of the neighbourhood?
The Hustadt Project has become a platform that generates the imagination about the future of the place and its inhabitants.
The Community Pavilion – Brunnenplatz 1 will be a self-organized mini cultural institution that will continue in the future to work closely together with its inhabitants. The Pavilion is meant to be a place for meetings, a venue for performances and an open-air cinema, an outdoor workshop space, as well as a place for various community activities. The custodian for the Community Pavilion has become the UmQ e.V. – University meets Querenburg, Association for Street Culture, which will also care for it in the future.
Café HU is a direct derivative of the Hustadt Project conceptualized by social activist Matthias Köllmann, and designed by Apolonija Šušteršič and Mari Rantanen. It is a complementary indoor space to the Community Pavilion and serves several communities within the neighbourhood.
Apolonija Šušteršičis an architect and visual artist. Her work is related to a critical analysis of space; usually focused on the processes and relationships between institutions, cultural politics, urban planning, and architecture. She usually makes extensive research into specific situations found on location, which she uses as a starting point of her project. The result isn’t only presented as analytical criticism but already produces within itself a suggestion for the future. She pursues new possibilities and makes proposals from a hybrid point of view that ranges beyond art and architecture, making socially committed works naturally taking the form of everyday life activity. Her practice is embedded within transdisciplinary discourse and usually includes collaborations with other professionals such as architects, urban planners, curators, sociologists, as well as the local population.
For more information please contact: galerie [at] m-bochum.de
The project is supported by: European Union, Federal Republic of Germany, State of North Rhine-Westphalia, City of Bochum, Slovenian Ministry of Culture, Fonds voor Beeldende Kunsten, Ikea Foundation and very many hours of voluntary work.
Opening Community Pavilion – Brunnenplatz 1
Programme for September, 23rd and 24th 2011
Friday, 23.09.2011
11–12 Press Conference
Round table discussion:
Moderation: Ria Jansenberger (producer: Twins Projects, Ruhr 2010)
Participants:
Alexander Kutsch, head of SUB – Stadtumbaubüro Hustadt
Apolonija Šušteršič, artist and architect
Christine Wolf, landscape architect, Wbp – landscape architecture Office
Claudia Buning, head of IFAK – Immigration Office, Hustadt
Dr. Kratzsch, Chief Administrative, City Council Bochum
Dr. Kraemer, director, Housing Corporation VBW
Matthias Köllmann, social activist, Café HU
Philipp Unger, head of UmQ e.V.- University meets Querenburg, Association for Street Culture
17.00 Philipp Unger: HUMU ILLUMINARE, performance
20.00 Film Program in Open Air Cinema – Community Pavilion
Lasse Ernlund Lorentzen: Freeway, Iran, 2009, 12:16 min.
Dario Azzellini & Oliver Ressler: Comuna – under Construction, 2010, 94 min.
Saturday, 24.09.2011
14.00 Opening of the Hustadt Festival
15.00 Choir “Integral”
15.30 Afrolight, African drum music and dances
16.00 Singing duo Sema & Cumhur
16.30 Blackboard drawing action by Apolonija Šušteršič
17.00 Dance Group Own Stylez
17.15 Folklore Group Dile Kurdistan
17.30 Kurdish folksinger Gulistan Subari
18.00 “Gegenstromprojekt”- Hip_hop_HU_stadt
18.30 Fashion – show: HU_stadt brand presented by Matthis Köllmann, social activits
19.00 Lecture by Dr. Barbara Steiner, director, Museum of Contemporary Art – GfZK, Leipzig
20.00 Film Program in Open Air Cinema – Community Pavilion
Apolonija Šušteršič: HU_stadt Trailer, 2011, 3:20 min.
Mischa Kuball: NEW POTT/100 Lichter/100 Gesichter, 12 min.
Pia Rönicke: Facing – An usual Story from a Nameless Country,2008, 52:18 min.
Discussion with Zeynel Abidin Kizilyaprak (Screenwriter from Facing – An usual Story from a Nameless Country)
Gitte Villesen: JuJu (White Magic), 2008, 37:56 min.
Melanie Manchot: Celebration (Cyprus Street), 2010, 10:20 min.
Text editor: Jana Renee Wilcoxen, Assistant: Annika Becker