Cultural and artistic projects focus very intensive and solicitous care on small, periphery, secret and/or abandoned places.
The relation of contemporary culture towards these architectural structures is rather complex, for which seems that is related with exploring past, feelings and experiences. Inspiration by such places is very irrational and emotional, sometimes is marked by awe, astonishment or regret. Therefore it is not impossible to associate nostalgia with those small, periphery, loosened and abandoned places which are defined with feeling of disappearance and symbolic desire for their consumption.
Artistic and cultural exploration and rehabilitation of periphery places are accompanied by the political and economical use and addition of those anew discovered geographies of experience and adventure. These places are exotic potential which can serve as an engine for tourism and market of real estate, but they can also connect artistic and cultural projects with social mission. This is one possible answer to the society which asks - Can something be contemporary if it doesn't reject its history?
Here I select few projects which are inspired those places.
Hidden Spirits gives a voice to and connect small villages (both within and beyond Europe) that usually remain unknown and isolated.
Nomadic artistic work contemplating temporal geographies and presentations in alternative spaces. Bunker Research Group is an interdisciplinary research project producing documentary material (photographs, paintings, videos, etc.) about Albanian military bunkers.
The Connection Barents project explores and interacts with the community of the Barents region and the various cultures there.
Try also other Labforculture's resources. For example:
If you want to check what happens when the region experiences a potential change from periphery to center, than click here.
You can also read the Report on the Barents Cultural Co-operation which shows how a region on the periphery of Europe can develop successful cultural exchange and cooperation programmes despite cultural and political differences, great distances, harsh climates, and economic and demographic problems.
Many of the abandoned places left over from the industrial past have been converted into cultural spaces that now represent the wealth and the uniqueness of the cultural landscape in the two cities: Lille and Nantes.
Forgotten, abandoned places give a specific features. Their secret potential are activated on unique way and sometimes they are only a territory for exploration of their possibilities. Intention for reinterpretation, utilization and loading, which are the main characteristic of the centre, appears in front of them. However, reinterpretation, utilization and loading of marginal places focus on some other perspective: it is a result of film and photography shooting, interest of visual arts, creative and organizational intention but also unavoidable economic and political activities.
Add you project in the Case Study section here.
LabforCulture es una iniciativa de la European Cultural Foundation. LabforCulture agradece el apoyo de sus financiadores.