A project promoting art in public spaces, TriPolis runs from June 2005 - June 2006 in London, Barcelona and Brussels. Thirteen urban art interventions are realised using three tools: a virtual workspace and library, itinerant objects of urban intervention, and a conference/book proposing a methodology capable of being applied in other cities. The project was initiated by CityMine(d) — an urban movement focusing on the re-appropriation and transformation of public spaces into arenas for social, cultural and artistic encounters.

http://www.citymined.org

TriPolis consists of clusters of interdisciplinary works (including film, performances, digital technology, installations and site-specific artwork). It supports up-and-coming artists with an urban development agenda; provides an opportunity for transversal linkages (urban interventions act also as venues for exchange between academics, policymakers and civil society actors); and involves local networks in addressing social issues affecting cities, using a method which can be replicated elsewhere.

Just as an individual person dreams fantastic happenings to release the inner forces which cannot be encompassed by ordinary events, so too a city needs its dreams.
-Christopher Alexander

PART ONE, THE PROJECT: “Tripolis"

Public Art Harnessing Social Capital

Public art is a particular practice characterized by bringing art from the private sphere of studios and galleries into public spaces especially in urban areas. Controversies arising from this practice historically arose due to responses by the public to these works ranging from enthusiasm to indifference to outright violence. These days, it might seem the controversy proposed by public art is turned on its head when the starting point of art is the community itself.

The success of the endeavor may hinge on the ability of art to engage with context. Take for example the activities of City Mine(d), an organization originating in Brussels. Next year will mark ten years in existence and the duplication of methods and instruments of urban intervention in London and Barcelona. The City Mine(d) project “TriPolis Urban Art and the Public Sphere," running from June 2005-April 2006, explores the intersection between innovative art forms and new modes of governance in these three cities.

The name of the project comes from the combination of “tri"—referring to the triadic nature of the project, and “polis"—the word German philosopher Hannah Arendt used for the public sphere. Public spheres within cities are seen as hotbeds for exchanges that foster new identities, innovation, experiment and social change. TriPolis sees the “public sphere as the site 'par excellence' to explore innovative art forms and new modes of governance." (source: www.citymined.org)

The triadic concept permeates throughout the project. Three modes of production or 'angles' take place respectively: in Brussels with time-based art forms (film, theatre, dance); in Barcelona with new and digital art forms (new technology, blogging); and in London with site-specific art forms (installations, design, architecture). Each action occurs in three 'stages' of an exploratory process: site exploration, reflective production and consolidation of social capital. The project makes use of three kinds of 'tools:' a website called L-Atlas; mobile instruments used in interventions called Readymades; and a conference and book to summarize a new unique methodology for urban art interventions. In total, TriPolis realizes 15 urban “art interventions" on a transnational level.

The starting point is always the location of the artistic intervention. Tripolis projects are located in “urban voids" or public spaces which have been abandoned or are unclaimed by social groups within cities. The expectation is to reinvigorate these void ('residual') spaces by triggering exploratory artistic interventions. At the same time, there is also an effort to bridge communication between urban planners and local inhabitants—to make planning more responsive to local needs, on the one hand, and to bring local vision into a wider perspective of development, on the other.

The actions intend to galvanize actors from different groups within neighborhoods-- neighborhood associations, corporations, ethnic communities— in the production process. Critical reflection comes about when the urban artist's perspective is juxtaposed against the community's visions. In triggering art interventions in public spaces, Tripolis creates a public sphere where people's ideas and activities are exchanged.

• A Snapshot of Tools I: GuaGua

Can Ricart is a 19th century manufacturing colony located within Barcelona's Poblenou district where an urban development plan involves the city's transition from an industrial manufacturing to a knowledge-based economy. A reference point for European industrial heritage, Can Ricart is threatened by expulsion and was the site for "Visquem Can Ricart," (http://visquemcanricart.tk/) a workshop initiated by CityMine(d) and Context weblog as part of Tripolis.

The objective was to demonstrate how the hidden potential of urban spaces can be made manifest by cultural activities. Local creative projects based in Poblenou (Musikomuna, AXA/Can Font, Flea, Nave 7 or Hangar) participated as activities became a laboratory of new cultures and new forms of living and working in the city. Proposals were gathered and explored in a workshop on 'new technologies' - with the participation of groups from Brussels, London and Barcelona (Parkbenchtv, Hacklab, Reseau Citoyen, Telenoika, R23, Xarxa Sense FIls Cooperative, Nice-noise, and Cityborg).

An old caravan of Belgian manufacture, WAWA 410, was sent to Can Ricart - Barcelona to be transformed into a modular multimedia studio combining new technologies with art in public spaces. In a long nomadic workshop (Barcelona, Brussels, London) the facilities are meant to grow and a diversity of utilities tested. At each stop, GuaGua stores more knowledge on its digital memory module and an international network devises new ways to communicate on urban issues, in open source and with free software.

• A Snapshot of Tools II: PingPong Project

In an area of London characterized by a high diversity of people, a giant overhead network of vacuum-suctioned tubes - like a long-limbed octopus - will be constructed and will connect various schools, pubs, shops and other meeting places to a central point. For about four days in spring 2006, people will be invited to write their ideas about the neighborhood of Wembley on ping pong balls and feed them into the plastic tubes. The ping pong balls, visible through clear sections of the tubing as they shoot towards a collection point, become carriers of local ideas and creativity. Easy to disassemble and rebuild, the Ping Pong Project will be repeated in Brussels using the same set of materials to help forge local connections. (source: www.pingpongproject.org).

All three 'tools'—L-Atlas, Readymades, Conference/Publication—are meant to reach beyond the local character of interventions moving towards the inter-city implications of the project. Exchange and networking will play a dominant role in the creation of new forms of communication in support of urban initiatives.

The Readymades are flexible, moveable tools for urban art interventions. These toolkits consist of instruments that other participants can use as a base for duplication and experimentation.

Through the website L-Atlas and Conference/Publication, the project also facilitates consolidation and continued cooperation among emerged networks. L-Atlas provides a virtual workspace, an exchange platform and library of practices and facilitates exchange between urban artists in Europe. The Book/Conference will critically look at the results of interventions in each city and derive a unique methodology that can be reproduced in other cities.

PART TWO, THE ORGANIZATION: CityMine(d)

Supporting Urban Regeneration through Culture

In 1995, Brussels made plans to convert a vacant housing block within the historic city centre into a monolithic hotel complex. The response of concerned citizens was to challenge policies that were leading to residents leaving the centre, increased speculation and vacancy. The focus of this urban movement was on public spaces because it was there where exchange and interaction between city inhabitants, policy makers and artists could take place.

Having found that working campaign by campaign was very demanding, in 1997, City Mine(d) was conceived to provide the same space for different initiatives. As an organization that combined support to up-and-coming artists and an urban development agenda, it resolutely claimed an in-between position among artists and other actors in the urban environment. Public spaces were the locus for action and urban interventions were seen as both artistic result and also opportunities to involve a wider variety of citizens.

The method used by City Mine(d) has been to re-invent similar projects with the same philosophy: a vision of diverse and inclusive cities governed by local, metropolitan and international actors realized through urban interventions and social networks.

This has involved setting up legal entities in each of the cities as well as creating local networks of like-minded groups and individuals. The transnational part of the work consists of exchanging ideas, people and instruments. Not only the Readymade instruments are duplicated but also methods as, for example, the Taller Mapas in Barcelona—a workshop and mapping exercise of real estate development risks and potentials—found its counterpart in the Brussels MapRac. Hence methods or strategies that have proven to be successful in one city are tested and reproduced in another. People involved are artists or people with a similar vision who use the City Mine(d) infrastructure and tools to work in other cities.

From Local to Global

At the start, City Mine(d) worked on a neighborhood level. However, it was soon apparent that things happening within cities like Brussels were affected by networks and events beyond the boundaries of one metropolis. With growing awareness of the consequences of migration and globalization, in 2000, efforts became geared towards building an inter-city network.

Though contacts were built with groups in cities such as Barcelona, Milan, Rome and Paris, the challenge to duplicate methods and tools among groups with complex and diverse organizational cultures was too large. Also, operating from a central base would not facilitate the level of local support and interest needed for urban interventions. Hence, in order to better manage both organizational and conceptual challenges, the decision was made to re-invent City Mine(d) in London and Barcelona.

The process of going to these cities, finding a space and building up a network had to be a slow and gradual one. In the beginning, the Readymade tools-- already existing from past campaigns, easy and cheap to set up and always spectacular enough to garner interest-- were used. The Bubblicious Project, for example, featured such a tool. In 2002, in cooperation with the Architecture Foundation and a local girls' dance group called the Young Black Women's Group, City Mine(d) set up a giant plastic bubble the size of a basketball court on a road that symbolized a social divide through the neighborhood of King's Cross in North London. The Bubble traveled to Barcelona and Belfast in 2004 where it likewise provided a temporary structure enabling people to occupy the public spaces where they lived and worked.

According to Jim Segers, one of the co-founders of City Mine(d), the main challenges involved in going trans-border were “translating a concept to a local context, and on the business side finding enough resources to cover funding hiccoughs. We hope to deal with the first one by creating a local organization and building a local network, the latter one inevitably consists of taking enormous risks and working without resources."

The first shared project on an international level was the “5pp"—an arts project consisting of five clusters of projects in three cities. Through this project, organizers learned to write catalogues and developed skills to write a more elaborate project of one year duration. Also during 5pp, CityMine(d) organized the Bruxel Glocal Conference bringing together a network of academics, architects, artists and activists in urban art. Having the experience of 5pp, City Mine(d) launched the current and more elaborate cross-border project-- Tripolis.

Tapping Partners in the Public and Private Sector

City Mine(d) has tapped both public and private bodies to realize their projects. During 5pp they emphasized the importance of intercity experiences and managed to convince the Flemish Government of the impact on Brussels of dynamics in other cities and that, at the same time, artists from Brussels wanted to work in these cities. They managed to emphasize the long-term vision of their initiative—to explain that 5pp was merely a start-off towards a longer-term network, that they would create five projects in a total of three cities as a beginning phase for longer-term collaborations.

Partnerships with private bodies within the community have also enabled CityMine(d) to realize their projects. This required a process required identifying and involving local stakeholders. In order to tap into this source of partnerships, it was often necessary to emphasize the urban development aspect of their agenda.

The Limite Limite project responded to a problem of residual space being used as a rubbish dump in the Brabant neighborhood of Brussels and realized the construction of a nine-meter translucent tower that functioned as a meeting and exhibition space. Construction and use of the building served as a catalyst to bring together various groups in the neighborhood: JP Morgan Guarantee Trust Company financed the structure and also took responsibility in keeping the new network together. A number of local schools -Business School Vlekho, Architecture School Sint-Lucas, and Social High school- participated with their students in one or more stages of the project and local shopkeepers also took a place in the network.With local stakeholders, the project became the start of a local coalition: residents were involved in design and building process with the neighborhood committee of Brabant; APAJ Classe Chantier, an apprenticeship/training that prepares unemployed people for jobs in the construction industry, trained a number of its students through raising the tower.

The building became a trademark for the area from 1999-2004. In 2004, the structure had to be replaced by a permanent building but, as the materials were still too good and the concept too strong to discard, it was transferred to Belfastto provide a temporary arts venue in the Botanic Gardens. Partnerships with civic groups were duplicated for the project ReLimite including The British Council, crafts cooperative Lawrence Street Workshops and the Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education. Builders from Brussels worked with young people from Belfast Institute to exchange practical skills and discuss issues around architecture and public sculpture in the city.

“For want of a framework that would support an endeavour like this, too much time is spent on re-phrasing the project, and chopping it up in pieces that can be funded by particular bodies. As a result, the funding for these projects consists of a patchwork of local, national and international funding, public and private, cultural and social. “ (Jim Segers, City Mine(d))

Structure and Funding

City Mine(d) is an independent non-profit organization governed by a board of trustees with its statues deposited in Brussels. The organization began with base personnel in London and Barcelona and later developed independent branches in these cities, each governed by a Board of Directors.

In Brussels, City Mine(d) receives funding from local and national public institutions including the Urban Fund of the Flemish Community Commission, the Brussels Capital Regional Council, the Cultural Department of the Flemish Government and the Belgian Federal Government. It receives occasional project funding from private bodies such as the King Boudewijn Foundation. In 2000, City Mine(d) received funding from Brussels2000 as project leader of one of the capstone projects of Brussels Cultural Capital 2000.

City Mine(d) Barcelona receives logistical aid and project finances from the Centro de Cultura Contemporanea (CCCB) and structural funding from the Generalitat de Catalunya.

City Mine(d) London is supported by the British Council and a number of local councils in London. To initiate its international activities between Brussels, London, Barcelona and other European cities, and for the project Tripolis, the organization secured in 2004 funding from the Flemish Government, the National Lottery Fund for Exceptional Cultural Projects.

Sources:

http://visquemcanricart.tk/

www.pingpongproject.org

www.citymined.org

“Bringing a bit of Brussels to Belfast", Elaine Cronin, CIRCA Art Magazine, 17 December 2004

“British Council—Lost and Found" Brussels Bulletin, April 2005, Issue 6,

“City Mine(d)" Street Signs, Centre for Urban and Community Research Newsletter, Goldsmiths University of London, Volume 1 Issue 6

“The Art of Regeneration: Urban Renewal Through Cultural Activity" Social Policy Summary 8, March 1996, Joseph Rowntree Foundation