urban laboratory
living in the city of groningen (the netherlands) is like a real version of italo calvinos book 'invisible cities' (marco polo's decriptions of virtual cities in conversation with kublai khan) it is a place that explores new possibilities of what a city could become, constantly searching, in a kind of laboratory of creative experiment to generate new or weird or just simply accessible manifestations in urbania.
to celebrate 950 years of urban existance in 1990, groningen invited daniel liberskind (currently working on an extention to the v&a museum in london) to develop a series of city markers to redefine the city boundaries of the city. artists, scientists, philosophers, and architects were asked to create a marker, or monumental symbol a modern equivalent to the old town gates, which together formed the 'books of croninga' each marker symbolised an individual letter of the ancient name of groningen.
more recently other manifestations and festivals have been organised to further explore other dimensions of what the city could become including 'what a wonderful world: music videos in architecture' where public space was given an expression in the form of popular video clips in specially designed pavilions. in 1996 'a star is born: the city as a stage' was held which celebrated the laying of a new carpet (of yellow bricks) as a part of a series of improvement projects throughout the innercity together with the realisation of the extraordinary 'groningen museum' and the equally eccentric 'wagstraat complex'. a specially selected combination collaborations between artists and architects from around the world who were invited to work together to assemble four new pavilions for public theatre in the streets or on the canals. this included a public toilet by erwin olaf and rem koolhaas (oma), a canal boat by fumihiko maki and dora van der groen, a terraced lawn and platform by manuel de sola-morales and a demountable stage by bruce mclean and william alsop which could be assembled in different ways for different events in different locations. many of these projects have remained virtual, or should i say have dissappeared after the festival was over, but quite a number have remained to take on new meanings and uses, and contribute in their own way to transforming the city, as well as keeping alive its virtual existance.
'blue moon' is the next event, to be staged in september 2001 which is being developed together with toyo ito (and originally with film maker robert kramer who tragically died at the end of last year after having been involved in the project for several months). this is a particularly exciting project as it not only involves many of the ambitions of the previous projects but is also being explored as a kind of journey of discovery to uncover forgotten or inaccessable sites within and on the perifery of the city (minature ones within the ancient innercity which will be exploring themes for 21st century living, as well as a huge post-industrial terrain to the south east) with the intention of re-engaging them into a new roll for 21st century activity. But the manifestation also enables something else which in particular robert kramer was deeply concerned about - to stop for a moment and contemplate where where are right now. i find this extremely important, he wanted to use the project within a wider global context, to explore the shift from the last several hundred years of industrial society and all that it meant, into a new kind of society driven by the discovery of dna and computers. to look back and to look forward, to stand somewhere inbetween at this moment celebrating 'once in a blue moon - that moment which almost never happens' without being so focused on the hype of the future or the nostalgia of the past but to see it within a larger continum. fortunately the conversations between both ito and kramer enabled this underlying concern to be the generator for how then ito could develop ideas further for the project also in what this could mean for how the projects within these specific sites should be developed. ito is currently working on his ideas to develop a framework which links the cosmic potential of the debate with kramer into a network of links between the moon, and five craters within europapark (the previous powerstation site for the city - not unlike the tate modern on the southbank of the thames - although here the intention here is to build a new kind of hybrid piece of city to house the new football stadium, officespace, an entertainment centre, multi-cinema complex, 150 apartments, restaurants and bars, and hotel) and five craters in the innercity.....
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