Artefact Festival 2013
A City Shaped
13–24 February 2013
STUK arts centre
Naamsestraat 96
B – 3000 Leuven
Every year, the Artefact festival for arts and media works on a central theme: in 2010—On Gaps and Silent Documents—on the complexity of archives and databases and the right for privacy, in 2011—The Emergence of Things—on (im)materiality and production processes, in 2012—The Social Contract—on contemporary view(s) on social contracts and democracy. For these programs we had the pleasure of working with, among many others, Jeanne van Heeswijk, irational.org, APG, Constant, Pedro Reyes, Jimmie Durham, YoHa, Simon Starling, Robert Morris, Joëlle Tuerlinckx, Morgan Fisher, Alfredo Jaar, Haris Epaminonda, Jonas Mekas, Elmgreen & Dragset, De Geuzen, and Antoni Muntadas.
Artefact 2013 – A City Shaped wants to critically examine, evaluate and question new aspects of contemporary and future city development. Sustainability and ecology seem to have become structural parameters in thinking about future urbanity. Do those concepts and focuses lead to a new fundamental view on the city and urbanism? And is its impact comparable with the integral visions of the likes of Le Corbusier, Haussmann, Ebenezer Howard, Walter Jonas, Archigram, Bauhaus? It is clear that the ecological approach puts new emphases in developing urbanity, and yet those sensitivities prove to appear already in early architectural projects and utopian visions of the city.
Above all, the city of the future will be shaped from several policies: international, national, urban, provincial; but during Artefact, we want to create a dialogue between those visions and the voices of artists, the individual citizen and activists. Quite often, they are responsible for testing and intervening with the ‘official’ urban texture.
The program consists of an exhibition, performances, lectures and concerts.
A City Shaped exhibition with Rotor, The Center for Land Use Interpretation, Agnes Denes, Luc Deleu, Marjetica Potrč, Dusica Drazic, Jean Comandon, Stephen Vitiello, Alicia Eggert & Mike Fleming, David Bergé & Elke Krasny, Jeanne van Heeswijk, Lee Mingwei, Tuur van Balen, Damien Chivialle, Pablo Valbuena, Experimental Interaction Unit, Vanessa Harden.
Artefact is initiated by Province Flemish-Brabant in collaboration with STUK arts centre and supported by the City of Leuven and the Flemish Community.
