Urban Camp 4
Excursus
‘Place and non-place are rather like opposed polarities: the first is never completely erased, the second never totally completed...’ [1]
The Space of Opportunity presents its fourth Urban Camp, a series of art workshops in the summer. Time has been central to our investigations of the urban space over the past three years: we first concentrated on the sensory experience of the here and now; then descended into the layers of the past in search of stories embedded in our surroundings; and with the last camp, we turned towards the future, attempting to create our own urban visions as we navigated utopias and dystopias. We are opening a new chapter this year, and we will look at spaces we seldom take notice of, with help from invited artists.
We will examine the passageways that can be found in our immediate vicinity, the ‘Losonci’ prefab housing estate, which was built in the 1970s. The layout of the estate is typical of the period and reflects the principles of the socialist era’s functionalist urban planning. All the services and facilities that a socialist society needed—such as schools, kindergartens, health services and shops—were to be close at hand. [2] Passageways, which provided for efficient movement between the various ‘useful’ spaces, were necessary elements of the layout. People spend little time in these typically dark access ways: they are places of which they do not form memories—so-called non-places.
The concept was introduced by French anthropologist Marc Augé in his 1992 book, Non-places. Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodenity, a cultural-anthropological examination of late capitalist urban spaces. He argues that our age is increasingly dominated by spaces that are impersonal, without identity, impossible to relate to. In his view, underpasses, shopping centres and public transport hubs are non-places: they are places of transition where we never spend much time. While Augé’s anthropological research focuses on spaces exploited by consumer society, at this year’s Urban Camp we will reflect on an environment that was built during socialism from the viewpoint of contemporary society.
Passageways have the potential to provide artistic exploration with a wide range of associations and possibilities of interpretations. We can look upon them as ‘gateways’ between transcendental worlds, as unused urban spaces, or as the relics of a historical era. In the fourth summer art camp, we will turn our attention towards these hidden, seemingly insignificant spaces, and attempt to create moments of common places out—to turn the passageways into stopping places. How can a passageway become a place of connections and how can we create memories in it? What happens when a nonentity becomes meaningful, when we start to look at a non-place as a place? Over the four days, we will seek answers to questions like these and more with guidance from four invited artists.
[1] Marc Augé: Non-places. Introduction to an Anthropology of Supermodenity. London: Verso, 1995
[2] Ulla Terlinden: ‘Die drei Kulturen des Wohnens. Ein theoretisches Konzept für eine Untersuchung sozialer und ästhetischer Leitbilder in Architektur Städtebau und Innengestaltung.’ In: Kerstin Döhöfer (ed.): Wohnkultur und Plattenbau: Beispiele aus Berlin und Budapest (Berlin: Reimer, 1994), 17–33.
Concept: Györgyi Francsics, Dóra Hegyi, Anna Horváth, Zsófia Puszt, Dóra Szabó / Space of Opportunity
Contributors: Anna Ádám and Endre Kertész, Igor and Ivan Buharov, Haibo Illés and Richárd Melykó, Dorottya Szonja Koltay
