The partnership of Artopolis and Scenekunst Østfold builds upon an existing cooperation via the IN SITU program (European Network for Artistic Creation for Public Space). Within that frame, Artopolis organized a thematic seminar in March 2016 for artists who are thinking out of the box with the support of Østfold as a partner. The seminar was focusing on the role of art in redefining industrial areas, and served as a sketch version of the PICTURE project, which focuses exclusively on bi-lateral cooperation, investigating both similarities and contrasts, learning more from our different experience and methods, and including additional, interdisciplinary participants during selected activities.
Artopolis is very active in organizing cultural events in Csepel, which is technically still an active industrial area, but it is only a shadow of its former industrial life, while at the same time a fertile ground for innovative industrial activities of the future. This feature relates the situation in a special district of Budapest to the re-development of industrial areas in the medium-sized towns (Moss, Fredrikstad) in the region of the partnering Norwegian location. Scenekunst Østfold directs much of its artistic activities in public space toward areas undergoing post-industrial re-development. The PICTURE project will explore the opportunities of collaboration between cross-sector partners and artists in the (post)industrial scene. Also we will focus on how art interventions can re-define and rehabilitate public spaces on different locations, in different national/social contexts. The program aims to experiment with models of such interventions and activities that can be later used and adopt to different locations and set-ups.
Actions are carried out on two levels (connected to each other):
1. Discussions in seminar format in Hungary and in Norway with the participation of artists, urban planners, sociologists, architects, policy makers, property developers, architects, social theorists from Hungary, Norway and other countries – the discussions are public in order to present the topic to a broader audience, local communities.
2. Creative workshops and artistic program/presentations: 2 workshops -1 in Hungary and 1 in Norway. The audience have the opportunity see the results of the workshops in forms of performances and/or workshop presentations.
We feel essential to find a balance between the exploration of opportunities of artistic projects beyond art and the search for artistic inspiration that industrial areas can offer. The actual locations (in Csepel and Moss/Fredrikstad) will serve as a research field and as an inspiration for artists at the same time.