SUPERSTADT! ²

A Symposium on the Public Space of the City Wed, October 20, 2010, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Public space exists for all, at least according to the definition of public as opposed to private space. From ancient agora to shopping arcade, from boulevards and barricades to today’s urban non-places, public space has always been there, tolerating access and rituals, giving rein to imagination and its positioning, an object of struggle and change that nowadays is balanced precariously between panoptical surveillance and leeway for free action. The right to public space is regarded as a natural, matter-of-fact commodity open to appropriation. In the opinion of sociologist Richard Sennett, however, public space is about to disappear. Today, when even deeply intimate acts are freely publicised and public space is ostensibly extended, true exchange and confrontation within this space are increasingly being curtailed. The actions that are still possible are limited; the use of the city is reduced to a set of short-lived attractions; art in public space is understood less as agitation and more as display; control of the city is becoming tighter and tighter.
Superstadt - republic! explores the possibilities of public space, embarks on a quest for unusual ways of using the city,  tests the limits of the public and private, commemorates revolutionary urban practices and compares the status quo of Linz to that of Sao Paulo, Detroit or Shanghai. In the context of an international symposium, architects will engage in a discussion with sociologists, curators and stakeholders to draw up a manifest for the reinterpretation of urban public space, while Djanes will organise a super-party to conclude the event!

ADMISSION IS FREE!

Curated by:
Sabine Pollak, Head of the Department Architektur | Urbanistics, University of Art and Industrial Design in Linz

Moderation:
Ines Mitterer, Ö1

Programme:
Regina Bittner, cultural scientist, Dessau/D
Scott Burnham, Curator Supercity, Playcity, London/GB
Thomas Edlinger, artist, Vienna/A
Liza Fior, MUF Architects, London/GB
Jeanne van Heeswijk, architekt, Amsterdam/NL (inquired)
Bojana Pejcic, art theorist, Berlin/D (inquired)
prostoRoz, architects, Ljubljana/SLO
Sabine Pollak, architect and architecture theoretician, Vienna and Linz/A
Tex Rubinowitz, author, Vienna/A
Wolfgang Schlag, curator Wiener Festwochen, Vienna/A

Location:
Kollegiumgasse 2, 1st floor, Main Auditorium (Audimax)
www.superstadt.at