How to Curate a City?
At the close of Sophie Goltz’s term as Artistic Director of Stadtkuratorin Hamburg, Goltz will discuss art in public space together with artists, members of the art commission and supporters and introduce ideas related to the further development of Stadtkuratorin Hamburg. Additionally the documentation of the music performance Wassermusik (2015) by Michaela Melián will be released. The premiere of the concert for seven launches took place last year in Grasbrookhafen at HafenCity.
In 2012 the Cultural Senate together with the Art Commission of the City of Hamburg developed the initiative project of a city curator for Hamburg. In 2013 Sophie Goltz was appointed as Artistic Director by the Cultural Senate after an international call. Autonomous from any thematic specifications, Stadtkuratorin Hamburg was initiated to question the actuality and relevance of the program Art in Public Space which was founded in 1981. Events and artistic projects were to developed to debate and discuss publicly viral themes and aspectes of urban art today connecting local and international practitioners.
In this national unique initiative, Goltz and her team developed a new concept of art in public space in Hamburg and researched the 35-years history and presence of the reowned program. With more than 150 artists, performers, urbanists, and theoreticans an ambitious program was developed and realized together with partner institutions among others: HFBK, Kampnagel, Kunsthaus Hamburg, W3-Workshop for Culture and Politics, Bildwechsel, Hamburg Postcolonial, Kulturforum South-North e.V. along with with international educational partners like Aalto University Helsinki and University of Arts Linz. In over 35 international new commissions with contemporary artistic and performative approaches to urban space were introduced in Hamburg, including Hannah Black, Ricardo Basbaum, Etcétera…, Regina José Galindo, Omer Krieger, Michaela Melian, Angela Melitopolous/Brigitta Kuster/Vassilis Tsianos, Martha Rosler / Miguel Robles Duran, Alice Peragine, Johannes Paul Raether, Lawrence Weiner, et al. The project received significant support from the Cultural Senate and the German Federal Cultural Fundation, with further national and international supporters giving additional contributions. The newly founded association Curating the City e.V. has been in a partner in all steps of the project and will remain as partner the newly initiated projects such as Silent University Hamburg.
In winter 2016, a catalog will be published by Spector on the 35-years history of the program Art in Public Space Hamburg and the programm We Are not Ducks on a Pond. We Are Ships at Sea* by Stadtkuratorin Hamburg (2014–2016).
Cultural State Council Dr. Carsten Brosda says: “Sophie Goltz has reviewed in a very engaged and profound way the program Art in Public Space Hamburg and set new impulses. In the past 3 year she developed very different artistic projects, exhibitions and symposia which which aroused the discussion of art in public space anew. Through various cooperations with local and international actors Hamburg became a remarkable voice again in the global debate on urban art. Together with the art commission we will discuss the results of her work and her proposal about the continuation of Stadtkuratorin Hamburg.“
[from: press release on July 7, 2016, Cultural Senate Hamburg]
Welcome: Inga Wellmann (Head of Department Art and Creative Industries, Cultural Senate, Hamburg).
Premiere: Michaela Melián, Wassermusik, 2016, documentary, color, sound,
25 min.
Discussion: Jesko Fezer (architect, Professor for Experimental Design, HFBK Hamburg, Hamburg/Berlin), Dr. Brigitte Franzen (Chairwomen, Peter und Irene Ludwig Stiftung, Aachen; jury member German Federal Cultural Foundation), Ulrich Genth (artist, Hamburg), Sophie Goltz (Artistic Director, Stadtkuratorin Hamburg), Michaela Melián (artist, Professor for Timebased Media, HFBK Hamburg, Hamburg/Munich), Inga Wellmann (Head of Art Commission, Cultural Senate, Hamburg), moderated by Christoph Twickel (journalist »Die Zeit«, Hamburg).