The project ART, URBAN COMMUNITIES, MOBILIZATION is defined as an oriented research aimed at unifying, ina theoretical and applied interdisciplinary frame, knowledge concerning the relationship between architecture / urbanplanning, art and community in public space. The project joins the (physical and discursive) field of contemporary publicspace, vast and hard to define, which is today the testing ground of critical theory in relation to philosophy, geography, visualarts, cultural and sociological studies and urban design. The specific area of research is at the intersection of building /organizing public space, architecture / urban planning, art in general (particularly social art and public forum art) and the waythey are experienced by urban communities. Within this zone, complex planning processes convene multiple skills andinterests – from the political and financial to the artistic and social ones – and produce different effects upon those whoexperiment them. Thus outlined, the project involved a particular methodological reflection, able to appropriate the research methods tothe complexity and fluidity of the domain and to the rich fabric of relationships between its components. Among the manyapproach directions, the research group forming the ACUM consortium chose three major lines of work, all equally fertile andlegitimate from the research point of view: (1) the theoretical, analytical and interpretative method, which seeks to discloseand “geometrize” the potential of the vast field of relationships sheltered by the public space; (2) the “mirror” method, inwhich space becomes a background, a “stage set” for the developing of these relationships, a “screen” onto which visual artsof most various kinds are projected, and (3) the actionist method, in which various types of applications and provoked eventsbring to light and enhance the space of these relationships. The three methods correspond to a particular type of research,the “oriented research”, situated between theoretical thinking ? in which knowledge is what counts first and is important initself – and the informed action ? in which usefulness and practical issues, “le practicable”, come first. Inevitably, within the common field of study, working in consortium faced us with common general purposes, butalso with specialized areas of interest with particularized targets, which imply partial, possibly divergent approaches. To keepthem together in a converging whole, in which multidisciplinarity should tend towards interdisciplinarity, was part of the stakesof this project, which has constantly been the subject of reflection and various decisions within the consortium. This aspectwas eventually reflected both in the in situ actions, and in rethinking the formats of the main products of the synthesis, thevolumes ACUM 1, 2 and 3 (A and B), and Bucharest ? Film Location, which, although closely complementary, retain theirspecific addressing directions. All of them bear inside and rely on cross-references (both between them and to the previouspublications – the common reader, the specific readers and the rich filmed, photographic and graphic material). The project also aims to draw attention to the role that alternative approaches can play in understanding andevaluating organized space; they are presented as a possible means of passing from theory to practice, maybe also frompast to future, a minimal means that is sensitive to specific facts.
- Title Original : Arta, comunitati urbane, mobilizare (ACUM) - Reinsertia sociala a proiectului artistic si arhitectural
- Website : http://
- Project start : 2006
- Project end : 2008
- Funding Agency : CNCSIS
- Project Partners : Universitatea de Arhitectura si Urbanism "Ion Mincu", Bucuresti; Universitatea Nationala de Arta Teatrala si Cinematografica "I.L. Caragiale", Bucuresti; Universitatea Nationala de Arte, Bucuresti; Asociatia pentru Tranzitie Urbana, Bucuresti; Universitatea de Stiinte Agronomice si Medicina Veterinara, Bucuresti
