Initiating or accompanying transformation

A collaborative project between the City of Zürich’s specialist Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (Art and Public Space, KiöR) working group and Kunsthalle Zürich.

One of the tasks of KiöR is to accompany and document urban transformation. From 2010 to 2019, the Zurich district of Schwamendingen was the focus of the ‘Lokaltermin Schwamendingen’ project series. Here, in a neighbourhood undergoing major change, the foreseeable social and urban changes became the starting point for artistic reflection. A central work that emerged from this context is Ruth Erdt's long-term photographic study, which began at that time. The Kunsthalle Zürich is now showing a selection from this extensive body of work in the exhibition K12 Schwamendingen.

The event ‘Initiating or Accompanying Transformation’ is organised as part of this exhibition. A series of lectures and discussions with various artists will shed light on how art makes processes of change visible or conceivable, how art accompanies and interprets change – both for the urban public and within the art world.

The programme will take place on two evenings with the following focal points:

Thursday, 16 January 2025 from 5.30 pm
'Artistic perspectives and strategies'

The focus is on artistic and curatorial strategies that initiate social transformation processes and make them visible in public space. We will discuss how artists can become active in an increasingly fragmented public sphere and initiate and critically reflect on change.

With inputs from: Wochenklausur // Wendy van Wynsberghe, Constant // Alessandra Saviotti, Asociación de Arte Útil

5.30 pm Welcome and introduction Heiko Schmid, President of the KiöR Commission
6 pm Input from Wochenklausur, in German
6.50 pm Input from Wendy van Wynsberghe, Constant, in English
7.40 pm Break
8 pm Input from Alessandra Saviotti, Asociación de Arte Útil, in English
8.55 pm Summary by Heiko Schmid, President of the KiöR Commission, followed by drinks

Friday, 17 January 2025 from 5.30 pm
‘Documentation of urban transformations’

Artistic documentation, such as Ruth Erdt's durational project, accompanies and reflects the complex dynamics and effects of urban change. The focus of the presentations and discussions lies on contemporary artistic projects that capture and deepen the understanding of change in public life.

With inputs from: Eric Meier (Berlin) // Ruth Ewan (Glasgow) // Conversation with curators Daniel Baumann and Heiko Schmid

5.30 pm Welcome and introduction by Heiko Schmid, President of the KiöR Commission
5.50 pm Input Eric Meier, in German
6.40 pm Input Ruth Ewan, in English
7.25 pm Break
7.45 pm Discussion with Daniel Baumann and Heiko Schmid, in German, followed by a summary and drinks

About the guests:

Since 1993, the Viennese group Wochenklausur has been developing and implementing small but very concrete proposals to reduce socio-political deficits. Artistic design is no longer seen as a formal act but as an intervention in our society.

Constant is a non-profit organisation based in Brussels and has been active in the fields of art, media and technology since 1997. Constant learns from/engages with/practises from the perspective of feminism. Constant draws inspiration from the principles of copyleft, free/libre + open-source software while formulating its own critique of them. Constant loves collective, digital, artistic and thoughtful practices.

Arte Útil uses artistic thinking to imagine, create and realise tactics that change the way we act in society. The Asociación de Arte Útil is an international membership organisation that aims to promote and implement Arte Útil. The Asociación de Arte Útil is part of an ongoing collaboration between Tania Bruguera, Grizedale Arts, the Van Abbemuseum, Liverpool John Moores University and the International Confederation of European Museums, Tate Liverpool, Ikon Gallery Birmingham and MIMA as part of the five-year project ‘The Uses of Art: The Legacies of 1848 and 1989’. The Asociación de Arte Útil is led by Tania Bruguera and Alistair Hudson (ZKM | Centre for Art and Media Karlsruhe) in partnership with the Van Abbemuseum, FRAC Poitou-Charentes, The Whitworth and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. The Asociación de Arte Útil is represented by curator and cultural mediator Alessandra Saviotti.

Berlin-based artist Eric Meier photographs urban spaces and architectural fragments in which signs of post-socialist transformation and the loss of a built social utopia have been inscribed. The photographs become indicators of an urban situation in flux, bearing witness to individual mythologies as well as collective recoding or remodelling.

Ruth Ewan is a Glasgow-based artist. Her work is engaged with ideas of power and challenges representations of time, rebellion and oppression. Her work emerges from context-specific research and is made manifest in a variety of forms, including events, public works, performances, texts, large-scale installations and prints.