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Excerpt from the report written for the COMMISSIONING AND CURATING CONTEMPORARY PUBLIC ART course with Valand Academy at the University of Gothenburg.
The report outlines the work undertaken through 2020 on the People's Land Trust art project.
As the climate becomes wetter and tides higher, Cork city centre is undergoing a difficult transition. A river runs into the city splits and re-joins, exiting the city centre into Cork Harbour. This tidal river and the hills to the north and south create a basin that floods moreand more often, damaging businesses and homes. Protesters claim that engineering works, proposed to stop flooding, will destroy the fabric and character of the city centre. An ideological clash is underway expressed by campaigns based on citizens right to the city and business’s right to trade without interruption. (Harvey, 2012) At the same moment in 2019, the city boundaries have been extended with an intention to increase the population of the city 300% by 2040. Land hoarding, national housing policy and the privatisation of public land, sit alongside a growing realisation among those who watch out for market advantage, that cheaper higher ground is worth investing in.In this context, the People’s Land Trust art project is asking the questions, how do we shape the urban places we live in? How can we do this in a collective way? How do we build a collective process and take responsibility for imaging the future? How can we construct a common vision of urban land use that applies to the present moment, yet transcends it to embrace unknown future possibilities. How do we collectively construct new social imaginaries?
Landscapes of daring political dreams: A Masterclass series with Jeanne van Heeswijk & Phoebe Bahman
Starting last Monday I'm lucky enough to be a participant on the current Masterclass hosted by the Fire Station Art Studios and Create, the national development agency for collaborative art. The Masterclass is online over three 2.5hr sessions. One of the tiny advantages of COVID 19 restrictions has been access to online workshops, screenings, seminars, talks and so on. I know it doesn't replace being in the same room, but getting to the room has so often been my problem. I'm counting my blessings.
The Masterclass series is focused on community dreamscaping. 'In this time, we need to bring forth new ways of working across physical and digital divides. Artists can work as facilitators bridging knowledge and experience to amplify community resilience'.
The interactions and training offered over the three days will develop my practice as an artist, and crucially the module training will be shared and adapted by the People's Land Trust (PLoT) project. (www.plot2220.ie)
Our project is creatively problematising the use of urban land and reflecting on custodianship in urban places. Over the course of the art project we are using artistic strategies, the CLT model and radical pedagogies towards future imaginings and transformation of the urban condition of living together. Within this focus we see an opportunity to also take into account critical future ecological concerns and wider concepts of cohabitation. PLoT is particularly interested in the dynamic transaction between – land law, community led planning for collective living and artistic processes of enquiry.
This is a wonderful opportunity to work with Jeanne and Pheobe, and the fellow participants in the modules that will bring fresh methods and perspectives to our work. I'm hoping to learn more about building a community that has the tools and skills to engage in long-term change, I’d also value conversation and tools that reflect-on and test blended real-world and digital strategies as we all work with the challenges of Covid 19 restrictions
