Author: tonkam

Long-term traveling education and exhibition project curated by PUNKT Association
Concept: Ivana Mestrov, Tonka Malekovic and Tanja Vujasinovic

www.gn2p.com
www.facebook.com/gradnadrugipogled

The City at a Glance (gn2p) is a travelling interdisciplinary research-educational and exhibition project which, through the subject “the city” fosters the education of young people in the field of contemporary art, media and urban research, encouraging their creative expression, critical view and citizens’ engagement.

Renowned contemporary artists are invited to realize new works of art inspired by the city where the project takes place, and at the same time to lead the workshops with students from local primary and secondary schools.

Additionally, lectures and urban walks with professionals such as artists, architects and urbanists, filmmakers, urban anthropologists and ethnologists, urban activists, or art historians are organised, to expand the knowledge and insights of students while working on their projects, but also, thanks to their “open” format, to involve a wider local audience, raising awareness on different urban issues and drawing them in to discussions. At the end of the 3-month period of research, organised activities and creative production, the works of artists and students are presented in a non-hierarchical manner in a local museum or a gallery.

The basic medium used in the project is video. Excessive usage of technological gadgets with young people, often to alarming proportions and in non-creative ways, was a reason to engage daily technological gadgets as a main methodological tool for urban research and creative expression. Mobile phones, tablets and cameras, used in a creative way, activate the “second view”, the one which perceives, focuses, explores and encourages thinking and imagining different scenarios and images of reality. One of the regular workshops within the project is the workshop of urban activism. After they identify one or more critical spots in urban space, participating citizens and students articulate the problem, propose solutions and start a public campaign in raising public awareness on a given subject. After organising petitions, presentations and using other democratic tools and procedures available, a formulated request towards the city institutions is filed.

Since 2013, the project “City at the Second Glance” was realized in Velika Gorica, Rijeka, Sisak (2 sequences), Karlovac, Vrbovec, Koprivnica, Split, Paris and Šibenik, in collaboration with numerous local schools, universities, museums and galleries, festivals, NGOs, artistic and film associations, activists and other individuals.

In total, approximately 1.000 pupils, students, artists and other professionals took part in the program. The short films realised in the context of the project with a focus on different urban subjects and phenomena were shown and awarded on numerous film festivals. A number of citizens’ initiatives for improvement of public space, articulated and initiated within the workshops of urban activism, were realized in almost each city where the project took place.