Participatory City: 100 Urban Trends from the BMW Guggenheim Lab
October 11, 2013–January 5, 2014
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
5th Ave at 89th St
New York City
www.guggenheim.org/BGLprograms
Exploring architecture, urbanism, and the ways in which people interact with cities and use public space, the following public programs (including in-gallery talks and a book launch, as well as weekly film screenings) are presented in conjunction with Participatory City: 100 Urban Trends from the BMW Guggenheim Lab, on view at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum from October 11, 2013 to January 5, 2014. Participatory City is curated by Maria Nicanor, Curator, BMW Guggenheim Lab, and Associate Curator, Architecture and Urbanism, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
Talk
Urban Data: Michael Flowers and Mayor Bloomberg’s Office of Policy and Strategic Planning
Friday, October 11, 6:30pm
Michael Flowers, Director of Analytics for Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Office of Policy and Strategic Planning, talks about the role of urban data in New York. Learn how the city’s troves of untapped information and data sets can be harnessed to improve the way the city runs. From fighting crime to improving mobility and identifying fire hazards, Flower’s analytics team has revolutionized the way New York operates.
Talk and book launch
The Happy City: Charles Montgomery
Saturday, November 2, 8:30pm
Can architecture and design maximize happiness? Join author and former BMW Guggenheim Lab Team member Charles Montgomery for a night of fun experiments in trust and play, exploring the striking relationship between the design of our minds and the design of our cities. Then celebrate the launch of Montgomery’s book, Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013), which explores how cities can be turned into machines for happiness using new insights from neuroscience, psychology, and design activism. The exhibition gallery will be transformed into a laboratory for testing the effect that design has on the way we feel. Prepare to feel surprised––and surprisingly happy. Happy City will be available for purchase at the event. Cash bar.
Talk
Rainwater Harvesting: Neville Mars
Sunday, December 1, 6:30pm
Architect, founder of Dynamic City Foundation, and former BMW Guggenheim Lab Team member Neville Mars discusses his interest in design solutions that conserve water and how this led to the creation of the Water Bench, an urban bench that collects rainwater. Learn how smarter design solutions can help improve not only the look, but also the health and livability of our cities. Mars will share the science behind his design, his process for creating the prototype, and his vision for installing the Water Bench in cities worldwide.
Urban Film Series
Cinematic Sites
Fridays, October 11, 2013–January 3, 2014 (except November 29), 3pm
Selected by Paul Dallas, organizer of the BMW Guggenheim Lab’s film program in New York in 2011, this series explores the relationship between the urban environment and cinematic storytelling and includes films set in the Lab venues of New York, Berlin, and Mumbai, as well as other cities around the world, including Cairo, Chengdu, Los Angeles, Recife, San Francisco, Tehran, and Vienna. Films are screened in the Sackler Center for Arts Education and are free with museum admission. For the complete schedule, visit guggenheim.org/filmscreenings.
October 11
New York: Variety (Bette Gordon, 1983, 100 minutes)
Square Times (Rudy Burckhardt, 1967, 6 minutes)
October 18
Berlin: People on Sunday (Curt Siodmak and Robert Siodmak, 1930, 73 minutes)
October 25
Mumbai: Salaam Bombay! (Mira Nair, 1988, 113 minutes)
November 1
Vienna: Museum Hours (Jem Cohen, 2012, 107 minutes)
November 8
Chengdu: People’s Park (Libbie D. Cohen and J. P. Sniadeki, 2012, 78 minutes)
November 15
San Francisco: Side/Walk/Shuttle (Ernie Gehr, 1991, 41 minutes)
Los Angeles: Get Out of the Car (Thom Andersen, 2010, 34 minutes)
November 22 and January 3
Los Angeles: Wildness (Wu Tsang, 2012, 74 minutes)
December 6
Tehran: This is Not a Film (Mojtaba Mirtahmasb and Jafar Panahi, 2011, 76 minutes)
December 13 and 27
Recife: Neighboring Sounds (Kleber Mendonça Filho, 2012, 131 minutes)
December 20
Cairo: Cairo Station (Youssef Chahine, 1958, 95 minutes)
Information and tickets
To learn more or to purchase tickets, visit guggenheim.org/BGLprograms or call the box office at 212 423 3587.
To learn more about the Lab, visit bmwguggenheimlab.org and 100urbantrends.org.
Join the conversation by following the Lab on Facebook and Twitter.
