Kunstakademiet i Trondheim
Hardbakka 2015: the Commons
For this year’s workshop and exhibition, we relocate the project to create interventions within the city of Bergen. Keeping the Hardbakka Ruins in mind, as a natural site deemed to have cultural-historical value, we expand conceptually to look at urban sites that blur the borders between public and private space: we start from a semi-public open area along the harbour, which is currently the site of considerable private development and expansion.
The Commons is a multi-faceted term that is understood differently in different contexts: this makes it a fruitful starting point for a workshop and exhibition. While the curator (Alison Hugill) reads the theoretical understanding of the term from Italian Autonomist-Marxists Antonio Negri and Silvia Federici, design collective ON/OFF have a more hands-on understanding of the commons as it relates to urban questions. Additionally, with the site in Bergen, Norway, the concept of 'statsallmenning' offers yet another perspective: referring to shared public resources owned by the state.This threefold understanding of the Commons will be discussed and worked on throughout the workshop, as we tackle the possibility of a 'third-way' between private and public (state owned) space.
Hardbakka 2015 will be co-presented with experimental design collective ON/OFF, as we interrogate the idea of ‘micro-architectures’: playful objects that appear within public space to prompt fresh interactions with the city. The first two days will be dedicated to an intensive workshop led by ON/OFF, wherein participants will come together to create ‘actions’ in the city. The rest of the workshop week will consist of independent or group work on chosen projects.
Interdisciplinary art/design/architecture groups as well as singular artists are encouraged to apply with a short portfolio of past work, emailed to hardbakkaruins@gmail.com.