Ephemere Räume der Stadt I
What curatorial possibilities arise from existing structures in urban space?
This work attempts to explore the aesthetic potential of dust nets.
Can temporary (artistic) interventions in the urban landscape open up visual spaces* that reveal transformative potential and allow us to imagine alternative ways of planning and using cities? The concept of ‘site specificity,’ established in contemporary art, stands for an artistic practice that takes place in public space as a temporary intervention and constructs that very space as a site, i.e., as the setting for something. If we understand space not as a measurable dimension – as an open area extending between architectural features – but as a space of perception that arises in relation to the human body, it can also refer to perceived sizes. The fleeting, ephemeral space is composed of visual and auditory stimuli in which we can also position ourselves and take up perspectives.
At the same time, spaces have always been politically determined: they are subject to processes of design, conquest and control, and they can encourage interaction and participation, especially in public spaces.
When temporary interventions appear in urban landscapes, they have the potential to suddenly confront people passing by with a new spatial situation. With this temporary, special attention, the space that's been taken over is defined as a conceptual or discursive place whose possibilities are tested or put up for discussion. Social and political references are created that enable a structural reflection on the location and whose temporary significance needs to be negotiated. Against this backdrop, the focus is on the façade, which has always been understood as a medium of representation with a display function. And in particular on the construction site and its scaffolding, which forms a temporary structure in the cityscape and a double façade. As a vertical surface, it has the ability to open up visual spaces.
*Visual space describes the space that is not determined by the characteristics of three-dimensionality, etc., but also includes the interplay of visual perception of lighting conditions, colours, materialities, forms, individual recognition and interpretation, etc.
This project was developed as part of the Master's programme in Exhibition Design at HSD Düsseldorf. Supervised by Prof. Mareike Foecking.