Contribute to The 2007 Almanac of Political Art!
REUNION EVENT: 30 June 2007, 1100h–1600h, Austrian Cultural Forum, London
Austrian Cultural Forum, 28 Rutland Gate, London SW7
Free and open to the public, refreshments will be served!
To mark two years of Reunion, an Almanac of Political Art will be edited, printed and distributed in one day to capture meanings, facts, fictions and predictions of political art in the year 2007.
See the reunion website for more details and information on how to submit a contribution to the Almanac
Editor at large: Sophie Hope
Guest Editors: Simona Nastac and others TBC (if you would like to put your name forward as an editor please email mail@reunionprojects.org.uk)
Contributors so far include: allsopp&weir, Djordje Balmazovic, Nemanja Cvijanovic, Igor Grubic and Nada Prlja
ONLY TWO WEEKS LEFT!
The Manifesto of Possibilities for commissioning art in urban environments is still online and you can make your comments for two more weeks. On 1 July Cameron Cartiere and Sophie Hope will be re-editing it and publishing it in the Autumn.
ART OF NEGOTIATION publication now available!
B+B have contributed a chapter about tenantspin to the new Arts Council publication, Art of Negotiation, edited by David Butler and Vivienne Reiss. To order your copy contact the publisher, Cornerhouse: http://www.cornerhouse.org/
TAKING THE MATTER INTO COMMON HANDS publication now available
B+B have contributed to a new publication by Iaspis with a text entitled, Taking Play Seriously about notions of participation and collaboration in art. To order a copy go to:
http://www.blackdogonline.com/all-books/taking-the-matter-into-common-hands.html
NOTION NANNY in America!
Allison Smith recently traveled to Berkeley, Califronia to engage with East Bay makers, learning such skills as Arts and Crafts-style stained glass, textiles, and ceramic tiles; bookbinding, letterpress, and enamelwork. An exhibition and Day of Demonstrations took place at the Berkeley Art Musum in May.
See www.notionnanny.net for updates!
COUNT DOWN TO HET RESERVAAT!
Sophie has been going back and forth to Leidsche Rijn, a new town being built in the Netherlands, for over a year and on 15 July 2007 the project she has initiated will come to life! An open air museum will present life in 2007 to an audience from the future.
Read more...
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'Quantum Entanglement over Leidsche Rijn' Sophie Hope
HET RESERVAAT: BACK TO THE PRESENT
Join a voyage from the future at this one-day museum experience!
Castellum Hoge Woerd, Leidsche Rijn, Utrecht
11am–5pm Sunday 15 July, 3007
Where time stood still for 1000 years, a place of wonderment where everyday moments of 2007 have been captured in time for future generations.
This world Heritage site is the most well preserved picture of life in 2007. It has come to be known as the 16th wonder of the world. For one day only you can experience how people lived, worked and played in the Leidsche Rijn of 2007!
The beautiful town of Leidsche Rijn was built in the beginning of the 21st Century, over 1000 years ago. Opening this summer (for one day only!) is a re-creation of life as it was when the town was still being developed in 2007. Now underwater, the creators of Het Reservaat give you the chance to tour a part of the old authentic town and talk to some of the children and families who populated this amazing experiment in living all those years ago at a time of great expectations and new beginnings.
Taste the unusual food people used to eat (for energy but also pleasure!) and find out what a fluffy animal named a ‘sheep’ was used for. Visit a reconstruction of a ‘family home’ and find out what happened in a ‘kitchen’. Our experienced and professional archeologists recently excavated an ancient ‘automobile’ – one of the most revered objects in the early 21st Century. Come and learn what it was used for! Meet children from 2007 and talk to them about the strange ideas they had for the future. Discover how wrong or right they were! Listen to live performances of sounds (often called ‘music’) found on old ‘compact discs’ and ancient ‘ipods’. Discover how 'politicians' of 2007 explain 'democracy' and their plans for our future (you can judge how wrong or right they were!) and learn about how 'religion' informed the life-styles and survival of the people of 2007. And lots more!
Our wonderful guides will take you on a trip of a lifetime to the depths of the 21st Century.
For one day only you can travel in time: Take a dive down to the original Leidsche Rijn!
Het Reservaat is brought to you by Sophie Hope, Daphne de Bruin and Joost de Groot and residents of 2007 Leidsche Rijn.
Het Reservaat is sponsored by Beyond
Background / further info:
What if everywhere was like Leidsche Rijn?
The masterplan for Leidsche Rijn Utrecht was completed in 1997. By 2007, the town, still only half-complete had accumulated over 15,000 residents, make-shift supermarkets, plenty of primary schools and a Leidsche Rijn anthem. Built on agricultural land, numerous archeological sites and incorporating two existing villages (Vleuten and De Meern), Leidsche Rijn Utrecht was not merely a suburb but the largest ‘new’ town ever to be built in the Netherlands.
Leidsche Rijn was an extremely popular place to live. Houses were sold before they were built. The first families to move there experienced the urbanization of the landscape and were ready to move on to pastures new while more inhabitants kept arriving, expectant of fresh beginnings in the pristine new-builds and ordered, fenced-in lawns. This really was another, ground-breaking experiment in ‘ideal living for the 21st Century’.
What happened to Leidsche Rijn? Did its success continue? How did such ideal living pan out over the centuries to come?
Often the urban experiments of yesteryear are laughed upon today. We are in perpetual motion, inventing, responding and surviving. Het Reservaat began as a series of workshops and conversations with residents of Liedsche Rijn about the next 1000 years of this new town. Thinking about the future of a town that has just been built was a way of unveiling the different ideologies and perceptions people have of today, allowing us to imagine the future triumphs and failures of such an ideal place to live.
Het Reservaat is a snapshot of 2007 that asks us to look again at today with fresh eyes as if we have travelled in a time machine from the future back to the present. Would we change the way we live, work and spend our time? What informs the decisions we make on a daily basis? Het Reservaat is an opportunity for visitors to consider their own ideas for the future – politically, environmentally, socially and economically. This one-day museum will become a site bustling with contradictory views, ambitions and ideologies with the combination of visitors, performances, props and interventions triggering both laughter and puzzled looks. Het Reservaat is more than a fun day out for all the family.
Is Leidsche Rijn a vision of your future?
Come and discover the future of yesterday!
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