Urban Curation

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An explorative study on understandings, roles and functions of curating

practices in urban contexts

Marthe Nehl

Urban Studies (Two Year)- Master Thesis 30 Credits Spring Semester 2018 Supervisor: Per-Markku Ristilammi

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Abstract

Curating practices appear in various fields as a common practice of immaterial labour today. To ‘curate’ is an active verb that suggests ‘doing’ something. Seldom if ever are the implications of curating critically discussed outside the arts, and this provides a reason for this thesis to investigate. What does ‘to curate’ mean, imply or suggest in the urban context? How are urban curatorial practices legitimized and where can they contribute to urban planning? Embedded in contemporary urban challenges and the “state of crisis” often referred to, this paper introduces curating as an emerging cultural practice into this field. A vital part of the discussion this thesis opens up, is where art can become part of urban planning. Noting that the relationship between arts and urban environments is ambivalent, since the arts’ symbolic power is recognized within international competition of cities, it is about the margin between the field of arts and urban development. By laying a groundwork of contemporary curatorial understandings in the arts, the paper gives an overview on the existing notions and practices of ‘urban curation’ and highlights that there are strong positions but no existing definition as such. A look into urban planning theory pinpoints the crucial role of economic growth and its implications for the organization of urban developments under the term neoliberalism, a condition in which festivals replace urban development policies and culture becomes a structuring element. The occurrence of projects as organizational structure dominates and challenges long term developments. This constitutes the framework in which the paper discusses three very different project examples from Hamburg, Liverpool and Vienna for closer analysis. Between preservation and management, arranging and staging curating can alternatively be understood as an epistemology producing new knowledge. By cross-referencing between the arts, where the critical discussion on curating is held, and urban planning and architecture, where curatorial practice is applied, the paper suggests strengthening the critical discourse on the relevance and use of cultural practices in urban studies.

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Acknowledgements

One could describe these few lines as an glimpse into the backstage area of the writing process. It is the space of important people playing a role that would remain visible if not mentioned here.

I would like to thank you for all the hours of maysun that you dedicated to spelling, grammar and logic of this thesis, and in supporting and encouraging me. Thank you Inga Johanna Roos, Louisa Schwope, Anna-Riika Kojonsaari, Fernanda Jaraba-Molt, Ragnhild Claesson, Alexander Jamie Trotter, Rie Meyer-Sørensen, Jeremy Boom, Liz Faier, my supervisor Per-Markku Ristilammi and my absolute greatest and most patient support Jean-Patrick Bernhardt. Thank you for being there for me.

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Introduction – Art and Urban Planning

A continuously growing body of knowledge is being produced at the interface of arts and architecture, connected to a discourse of increasing demand for established functions of the arts in urban planning. However, despite all efforts and the growing number of conferences and publications, the latest Routledge Reader of Planning Theory is still missing ‘art’ in its index. As a Bachelor student in Cultural Sciences and Arts in 2012, I felt obliged to sign the manifest “Not in Our Name, Marke Hamburg” (NION) that was already published in 2009. I refer to it now,1 since it still represents the ambivalent situation of arts and artists in urban development. Artists “prepare the ground for revaluation” (Barbara Holub 2014: 21) and ‘establish a marketable identity of the city as a whole’ where art becomes an ‘abstraction of economic and social power’, Sharon Zukin strikingly writes (cf. 1995: 23). With the work of artist Jeanne van Heeswijk and other examples from the Netherlands, I was introduced to artists being official partners of urban developments (without giving up their artistic independence and criticality), as a perspective that was new to me. In most cases though, the focus lays on how to represent the ‘creative potential’ 2

to create unique features for international competition of ‘entrepreneurial cities’ . This is one 3 side of the medal, one part of the discussion, a discussion lasting over decades now. Is this a rigid dichotomy or are there possibilities of thought and action in between ‘artistic freedom’ and being instrumentalized? The example of the Netherlands leads towards a larger amount of practices located between art and urban planning. Barbara Holub describes a growing interest of artists in working with particularly urban issues since around 1990. While artists approached these issues with “critical spatial practices”, architects suggest “new urban tools and strategies”

1_{The manifest NION was published in the context of a squatting movement to protect the building}

ensemble “Gängeviertel” in the center of Hamburg, that was sold and about to be destructed by a Dutch investor. The manifest is still a powerful symbol and a peak of the Right to the City Network (“Recht auf Stadt-RaS) in Hamburg, protesting against instrumentalizing the artists (representative for a large group of people involved from other related areas) and the right to affordable space to live and work, among other claims. https://nionhh.wordpress.com/about/ (2018/04/11, 11:58)

2_{One can’t exclude Richard L. Florida from this discourse, since use of the term ‘creativity’ in urban}

planning is often linked to his publication _{The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming}

Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life (2004). Florida promotes the idea of bright urban futures that depend on the cities’ capacities to attract the creative class, highly educated flexible workers in the fields of technology, finance and law, medicine and other ‘innovative’ occupations. Understanding ‘creativity’ as a buzzword, cities all over the world developed strategies supporting their creative image, a development that counter voices criticize the concept as exclusive (cf. Peck 2005) and unsustainable (cf. Kirchberg/Kagan 2013). Florida’s latest publication _{The New Urban Crisis: How Our Cities Are Increasing}

Inequality, Deepening Segregation, and Failing the Middle Class-- and What We Can Do about It (2017) speaks for itself.

3_{The state of interurban competition of attractiveness for investment and employment is referred to as}

entrepreneurial cities, which often implies the ‘exploitation’ of decisive advantages, as Guy Baeten writes in Gunder et al. (2018: 107).

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(cf. Holub 2014: 21). Despite all efforts, participatory art projects engaging with the urban usually remain temporary in the context of biennials and one has to face that new artistic urban practices have not yet made it into urban planning (cf. Holub 2014: 21). Though, practitioners from the field of arts and architecture have been involved in feeding web archives to document projects and make the knowledge publicly available. ‘Arte Util’ (useful art) by artist Tania Bruguera for example is a collection of lectures and projects of the last ten years and a list of4 eight characteristics of Arte Util. As part of the conference “Planning Unplanned”, ‘Urban Matters’ is an archive published by Barbara Holub . As a third example, Spatial Agency is a 5 6 large database that collects projects and approaches of architecture in a wider sense. It lists relevant actors and their respective work and is affiliated to Tanja Schneider and Jeremy Till, supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Curating the Urban?

Now, what is the role of urban curation in this context? Urban curation is introduced as one of the many practices located at the interface of arts and urban development and planning. Outside of the arts, curating appears as a popular practice in the present world in immaterial labour production, and the title ‘curator’ is strived for not only in the arts. At a second glance, the availability of literature discussing urban curating reveals the existence of controversial understandings and uses of the term. While there is no common ground or definition to relate to; the term urban curation is open and therewith applicable in many fields. The subchapter Curating everything _{for example shows its use in the management of online contents in social} media.

With the association of a ‘typical’ curator, I have an authoritative figure with a lot of knowledge and agency in mind, someone who is well respected in the Artworld. What would such a curator do in a planning process where the roles are depending on professional skills? The origin of the term though points at the artists Jeanne van Heeswijk who is a prominent actor in the discourse of urban curation. In collaboration with architect Raoul Bunschoten and CHORA, van Heeswijk developed the term ‘urban curator’ and ‘urban gallery’ as tools to increase participation possibilities introduced in the Netherlands in 1999 (cf. Hekking et al. 2010: 334). Besides this, she understands herself as an artist working with neighborhoods and people to create “in-betweens” and addresses urban questions such as the right to housing. In relation to van Heeswijk’s work, curator and theorist Elke Krasny highlights the importance of urban curation to stay independent and self-reflexive, rejecting the idea of a set of skills that allows to employ curators, even though their work is much needed, she writes (cf. Krasny 2014:

4_{http://www.arte-util.org}_{(2018/05/02, 12:05)} 5_{http://urban-matters.org}_{(2018/05/02, 12:09)} 6_{http://spatialagency.net}_{(2018/05/02, 12:16)}

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119). She traces the idea of urban curatorial labour back to the work of Jane Addams in Chicago 1889 (cf. Krasny 2014: 123) and emphasizes the importance of the past in relation to the present, calling the urban curator a ‘contemporary agent’ (cf. Krasny 2014: 122). Other authors mention curating in close relation to management and cultural planning, where questions over power and control appears crucial and critical discourse is hardly found. This might be related to the wave of success cultural planning and development are currently swimming with.

While dominantly understood as the practice of ‘selecting’ and ‘putting together’ the term to curate originates from the latin word_curare _{‘taking care of’ but can also mean to ’serve’ and} ‘look after’, to ‘organize’ and to ‘administer’ or to ‘manage’ something (cf. Beatrice von Bismarck et al. 2012). Further understandings presented in curatorial studies are ‘presenting’, ‘enabling’, ‘making public’, ‘educating’, ‘analyzing’, ‘criticising’, ‘theorizing’, ‘editing’, ‘staging’, ‘directing’, ‘choreographing’, ‘displaying’ and with it implicitly ‘organizing space’ (cf. ibid.). This range offers possibilities and dangers at the same time and leads to a number of interesting questions: How and under which conditions does a curator become a curator? What kind of skills and knowledge does it require and how are these applied? Which role do justice and responsibility play in the practices and how are they negotiated? Do curators do _{new work or} are they replacing previous positions?

Asking these questions in the urban context, whereby the urban is understood as a complex and unique agglomeration of aspects constantly shifting and changing, offering possibilities to be analyzed from a material, an aesthetic, from a sociocultural, an organizational, or political perspective. As main questions guiding this thesis in order to firstly provide an understanding of curating, secondly its relevance and consequences in the urban context and thirdly to position the arts in urban planning, the following three research questions have been formulated:

1. Which notions and practices of urban curation exist today and how is the urban approached through them?

2. How is urban curation legitimized?

3. How do urban curatorial practices relate to urban development to what extent can they introduce change?

In order to answer these questions it is inevitable to depict the areas of tensions created through the globally expanded logic of neoliberalism and its implications for urban planning and development determining local urban situations, where urban curating is practiced. The theoretical framework provides a basic understanding of neoliberal planning tools (Baeten 2018, Häußermann/Siebel 1993) leading to the crucial role of arts and culture in city marketing, festivals and other large events (Zukin 2010, Reckwitz 2010) and its implications for cultural

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practices within this market logic, that crystallizes as what Boltanski and Chiapello call, the ‘Projective City’ (2018).

Edward Soja’s concept of _{Thirdspace is used as a means to differentiate the intentions and} effects of urban curatorial projects. The desired outcome of the thesis is an understanding of what urban curation comprises, what understanding of the city urban curation suggests, how the various practices are promoted and/or defended and how this contributes to the discourse of arts in urban planning.

Methodological considerations

Having witnessed the loud protest of artists and cultural workers through the manifest NION, the role of artists in urban planning for me has been preoccupied with the notions of exploitation and instrumentalization. Practices in the Netherlands have shown a different attitude and Jeanne van Heeswijk expresses the explicit idea of making use of being an ‘instrument’ (2012: 78). This opened up a new perspective on the debate that this thesis is exploring. I developed a curiosity for practices _in-between _{arts and planning, bottom-up and top-down,} self-instrumentalization or exploitation. A visit to the Vienna Centre for Architecture allowed me to experience the potential of an in-between space understood as an institution and its exhibitions. The exhibition _{Form follows Paragraph} _{clearly communicated the impact of the} invisible norms and paragraphs that strongly determine not only the practice of planners and architects but primarily the appearance of newly built environments. I left the exhibition thinking “...if I had known this earlier.”

My first approaches of the subject revealed that the exploration of urban curation is necessarily connected to different fields, which puts the main work of this thesis into transferring and translating knowledge from one discipline to another. Leaving behind the traditional notion of art for the arts sake, the discovery of the dutch policy for ‘cultural breeding grounds’ indicates arts in established positions in urban developments. Furthermore appears the creative city debate as a catalyst for controversial discussions that seem to mobilize rigid structures and give room for new concepts at the intersection of arts and economic urban development. I count urban curating and other artistic practices as well as cultural planning and creative-placemaking to these results. While there may be more practices, this paper explores the _{in-between of art and} urban planning by exploring the notion of urban curation.

As Thomas Kuhn (1970) diagnosed for the field of social sciences, there is no single agreed set of concepts available here either. This work comprises a literature exploration spiked with material published on the three urban curatorial projects discussed in chapter _Urban Curation in practice _{that will be analyzed with the help of Soja’s concept of Thirdspace. The}

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material consists of articles, exhibition catalogues, websites and video material produced in the respective context, notably to represent the projects.

With the awareness of an impossibility to cope with the whole movement of transdisciplinarity research, it seems reasonable though to at least refer to the notions of inter- and transdisciplinarity. Inspired by the work of Sacha Kagan (2010) in the transdisciplinary field of arts and sustainability I refer to Basarab Nicolescu, who suggests transdisciplinarity to understand the present world because it implies the sensibility to the topics that connect ‘‘[...] which is at once between the disciplines, across the different disciplines, and beyond all discipline. Transdisciplinarity implies the construction of an integrative, patterning knowledge.” (Nicolescu in Kagan 2010: 1099)

The aim of producing an understanding of new connections in a transdisciplinary sense requires the involvement in and with unfamiliar grounds. Without offering full knowledge of the involved discourses, this approach allows to open up questions and uncover nodes worthy of possible further inquiry. A reflexive attitude towards those involved discourses (neoliberal urban planning, culture and cities in cultural sciences and sociology of contemporary organization of work, as well as arts and curatorial studies) is aimed at in order to explore the relevance of discourses produced in between them. As previously mentioned, in practice, I aim to cross-reference between urban studies and urban planning theory where urban curation is applied, and the arts and curatorial studies, where critical discussions to the practices and notions are held.

Choice of case studies

Jeanne van Heeswijk’s project _{Home Baked is analysed in chapter Urban Curation in} Practice_{, since it is one of the most discussed projects in the context of urban curating as a} critical spatial practice. Van Heeswijk’s work has been featured in numerous publications and was awarded with the Currystone Prize for Social Design Pioneers (2012) and the Leonore Annenberg Prize for Art and Social Change (2011). Furthermore, she was part of biennials in the UK, Italy, and in China. In short, her work consists of social community art that understands urban complexity and supports resilient communities in urban transition from within.

The second project chosen is Elke Krasny’s _{Hands on Urbanism, that was originally produced at} the Vienna Centre for Architecture. As one of the authors who have written and published most about urban curating, this project offers a perspective of the research and production of an exhibition around the subject of self-organization in the context of urban gardening and farming from 1850 to 2012. A third and very different example is the city curator position _{Stadtkuratorin} launched in the City of Hamburg in 2014 as an official municipal project. Despite its differences this last example has primarily the function to contrast the other cases and depict the breadth of

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urban curation. My aim here is not to produce an assessment of the project _{Stadtkuratorin in} relation to its formulated goals, it solely represents an example in comparison to others.

On Methods – Research Synthesis

Since the thesis is an attempt to find coherences and differences in urban curatorial labour in a still undefined field, I begin with a literature analysis. Anthony Onwuegbuzie, Nancy Leech and Kathleen Collins state that, even though the literature analysis has an official history of about 350 years, it is still rather considered as a step within the “empirical research, rather than presenting a study per se” (Onwuegbuzie et al. 2012: 6). I consider the thesis as a first exploration of an under-researched field that will lead to further in-depth research questions as the result of the thesis itself. For the purpose of this paper, the approach of Onwuegbuzie et al. was chosen, because they argue for an extension of sources beyond existing print and digital information and include talks, observations, photographs, and other documents (2012: 7). The authors differentiate between a within-study literature or the between-study literature, used when comparing contrasting information from two or more literature sources (cf. 2012: 5), which is what I will be doing. From a list of 17 types of analysis that they present I decided on three types as orienting structure. Those are the the _{constant comparison analysis, the keyword-in-context} analysis and the _{membership categorization analysis} _{(cf. ibid. : 12). The latter allows me to} examine how the authors/researchers communicate their work, language use in relation to concepts and categories used in their work (cf. 2012: 12). The keywords-in-context analysis helps “identifying keywords and utilizing the surrounding words to understand the underlying meaning of the keyword in a source or across sources” (ibid.). Especially the constant comparison analysis (main principle in the Grounded Theory Methodology) originating from Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss (1978, 1992) as the main analysis will be of importance. It implies the development of descriptive labels and codes to sort the data into small meaningful parts (cf. Onwuegbuzie et al. 2012: 12). This framework and the emphasis on the fact that ‘literature’ is often limited to print and digital sources makes the authors suggest to speak of this methodology as _{research synthesis (ibid.: 24). Onwuegbuzie et al. suggest meta-evaluations of} the chosen literature considering “trustworthiness, dependability, credibility, legitimation, validity, plausibility, consistency, neutrality, reliability, objectivity, confirmability, and/or transferability as should any synthesis that emerge from its inclusion” (2012: 8).

Availability and use of material

The available sources for this work are scientific journals, essays, textbooks as outcomes of projects or conferences, and other official material about the practices such as websites, video documentation, press releases, and foundations or exhibition catalogues of the cases. For the van

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Heeswijk and Krasny example, primary sources were available and primarily used, while the aims of _{Stadtkuratorin are mediated through the Cultural Department of the City of Hamburg. In} the later case I have prioritized those official representations since the the aim is first and foremost to create an understanding of the practice in relation to the urban context. I aim to map existent practices by reviewing literature discussing the term.

To further grasp the implications of curating as immaterial labour onto or within the urban, I consult Edward Soja’s theory of space to distinguish between material, political and representational work of curating. With a second lense of the contemporary curatorial studies I aim to look even closer at the case studies and discuss them in relation to my interpretative framework that I understand as a set of phenomena describing the present moment. Those include neoliberal planning theory and the role of culture and the critical discourse around the ‘creative city’.

Layout structure

Apart from the research synthesis as extended material review I make use of the synthesis in the philosophical sense as the union of complementary thoughts to a new whole. Short paragraphs synthesize the most important aspects of each chapter into a large interpretative framework that is needed for the discussion of the cases.

To explore the notion of ‘urban curation’ assumed as an ambiguous practice, primarily located in the discussion around the role of arts in urban planning, this thesis is trying to connect a number of different discourses: Laying a groundwork with; Edward Soja’s concept of First-, Second-, and Thirdspace (see chapter _{Theoretical Approaches to Space) the discourses of} curating inside and outside the arts allow an understanding of why it seems that everything is curated today (see chapter _{Making Sense of Urban Curation) and curator positions might be} needed. Alongside the term curating, the crisis is a frequent term that is being picked up in urban planning theory and the prevalent neoliberal logic. In the chapter _{The State of Things I elaborate} further on the present situation and planning principles in relation to urban politics and the role of culture as structuring element. Because I argue that there is a crucial connection between the festivalization of politics and the creative city debate (that is often still used as a blueprint in urban development) I include a short excursion into relevant questions brought up as reaction to Florida’s suggestions. I argue that these debates have the potential to argue for an integration of arts in planning processes. Followed by this chapter that I understand as a interpretative framework, I analyse urban curation practices at the example of three chosen cases (see chapter Urban Curation in Practice _{). I constantly compare the cases using the analytical framework by} Onwuegbuzie et al. who suggest to use keywords and refer to my interpretative framework. The last chapter _{Here and Beyond summarizes the findings of the thesis and presents a number of} questions the thesis has brought up, that might inform further research formulations.

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Theoretical approaches to space

The next paragraph summarizes prominent concepts in western spatial theory and introduces Edward Soja’s theory of _{Thirdspace as the main conceptualization of spatial} dimensions for this work. The choice of a theory to make sense of spatial complexity is a crucial question. As a tool it is predetermining what becomes visible and what remains unseen. Soja is responsible for the ‘Los Angeles School of urban research’ that considers space, time and society of equal importance in urban analysis. The work of feminist- and postcolonial critique as well as Michel Foucault and explicitly Henri Lefèbvre led to Soja’s rework of the spatial triad, originally based on the notions of ‘spatial practice’, ‘representational space’ and ‘space of representation’, published by Lefèbvre in 1991.

Lefèbvre describes the production and reproduction of space, further developed idea of dialectical interaction, in which space is being adopted through practice and at the same time necessary prerequisite (cf. Lefèbvre 2012: 335). Space was given shifting roles over time and when Michel Foucault published _{Des espaces autres} _{(1967, 1984) it was space that he} considered to be more important than time to explain anxieties in society at the time he wrote it. I will briefly summarize the main ideas of Lefèbvre and Foucault, then continue with Soja.

Lefèbvre differentiates between (_{pratique spatiale) 1. spatial practice, l’espace_{) 2. representations of space and (espaces des représentation) spaces. Lefèbvre describes these three forms as dialectical and argues for its necessity to highlight the contradictions created with capitalism. Firstly, spatial practice describes the practices of production and reproduction emitting space, that means a dialectical interaction, in which space is being adopted through practice and at the same time a necessary prerequisite (cf. Lefèbvre [1991] 2012: 335). In order to decipher the spatial practice in capitalist societies or as he describes ‘neo-capitalism’ empirical methods are needed since the _{espace perçu, the} perceived space, is closely connected to the ‘urban reality’ consisting of infrastructure and private and work spaces (ibid.). Another important remark is the acceptance of cohesion of very different spatial practices to a certain extent. Lefèbvre exemplifies this with the reference of social housing and highways or air traffic, to point out the sharp separation of those spaces (ibid.). Secondly, the representations of space describe the design of spaces as in science and spatial planning or technocratic approaches in general producing the _{espace space (ibid.: 336). As the dominant society (mode of production) the designed or conceptualized space is based on verbal and rational signs (ibid.). Furthermore, and this is an important aspect: the lived space, _{espace vecu, and the perceived space tend to be identified space (ibid.). Lefèbvre later explains more in depth that representations of space become abstractions in social and political practice, that present a logic onto the relation of objects and people in the represented space that eventually blasts of incoherence (ibid.: 339).

(représentation de} 3. representational}

conçu,}_{the designed}

through designed}

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The third distinction Lefèbvre makes is the representational space, as the lived space, _espace vecu (ibid.: 336). He describes it as the space of the inhabitant or user or artist and philosopher who describe the space. It is therewith the ‘controlled’ and ‘endured’ space that we imaginatively appropriate. He continues to explain the representational space as a layer on the physical space in which objects become symbols, as the representational space tend to, like the spaces of representation, systems of signs and symbols (ibid.).

Foucault's approach is based on _{strange qualities} _{of connectedness to other spaces by} mirroring, reflecting, neutralizing or reversing them (cf. Foucault [1967] 2012: 320). This complexity is further explained in the differentiation between _{utopias and heterotopias. A utopia} here is a space without actual space that is analogously connected to the societal reality. A heterotopia is an even more complex idea of space that Foucault systematically describes with six principles:

First he introduces crisis heterotopias that describe spaces of societal deviation as he would call them today. Those include prisons, psychiatric hospitals and elderly homes, when inactivity is understood as crisis in society (cf. ibid.: 322). Secondly, heterotopias may change their functions completely, even though their inherent meaning might stay the same. He mentions cemeteries and their changes throughout time, as sacred grounds, origins of disease and parks today, one could add. From being located in the city centres to being abandoned to the outskirts, the location of cemeteries has changed with its functions. Thirdly heterotopias may juxtapose spaces that are usually not connected otherwise. Stages and sacred spaces, generally speaking, spaces that represent or project spaces, such as cinemas (cf. ibid.: 324). A fourth principle is the connection to chronological breaks and the idea to accumulate time such as museums and libraries that Foucault calls heterotopias of time (cf. ibid.: 325). The system of openings and closures is what he describes as the fifth principle. It entails boundaries that are either overcome through rituals or other forms of specific permissions, or they are enforced in the case of the prison. The illusion to think one could access these heterotopias is already prove that one can not, he writes, and refers to guest house architectures without access the private space or the idea of motels (cf. ibid.: 326). Finally and as the sixth principle of the description he refers to the heterotopic function as one that is between two extreme poles as either illusionary or compensatory functions. An illusionary space is one that encompasses all other real spaces to make them appear even more illusionary or it is understood as compensatory when it suggests a perfect order, such as in former colonies (cf. ibid.: 326 f.).

Soja’s further development of Lefèbvre’s spatial triad and its implications as well as Foucault’s description of heterotopic principles led to the definition of the three dimensions of space: _{First-, Second-,} _{and Thirdspace. Firstspace is understood as the direct connection of} physical space and social structures. Firstspace consists of physical indicators of social facts, in the built urban form. In comparison, Secondspace as the imagined representational space is

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based on reflections on the physical reality and can be understood as affective and emotional fabric. The idea of Thirdspace further combines First- and Secondspace to create what Soja describes as ‘a fully lived space, a simultaneously real-and-imagined, actual-and-virtual locus of structured individuality and collective experience and agency’. As qualities of Thirdspace Soja mentions:

“[A] knowable and unknowable, real and imagined lifeworld of experiences, emotional events, and political choices that is existentially shaped by the generative and problematic interplay between centers and peripheries, the abstract and concrete, the impassioned spaces of the conceptual and the lived, marked out materially and metaphorically in spatial praxis, the transformation of (spatial) knowledge into (spatial) action in the field of unevenly developed (spatial) power.”_{(Soja 1996: 31)}

This quote links to the many different aspects such as power in relation to (geographical) location, to tangible and intangible dimensions and the planned and lived or planned and unplanned. With Thirdspace Soja introduces the idea of “extraordinary openness” to replace an either/or logic with a both/and also logic to encompass perspectives that were considered epistemologically incompatible (cf. ibid.: 5). Similar to curating, as the next chapter _Making sense of Urban Curation _{will show, Thirdspace includes the idea of recombination, Soja explains} (cf. ibid.: 5). He introduces "thirding-as-Othering" as a critical strategy to “open up our spatial imaginaries to ways of thinking and acting politically” (ibid.). Through thirding, binaries are “subjected to a creative process of _{restructuring}_{that draws selectively and strategically from the} two opposing categories to open new alternatives” he continues (Soja 1996: 5).

“_Thirdspace _{too can be described as a creative recombination and extension, one that} builds on a Firstspace perspective that is focused on the "real" material world and a Secondspace perspective that interprets this reality through "imagined" representations of spatiality." (Soja 1996: 6) This idea relates to _{Lefèbvre’s note on the moment of realizing incoherences between} the relation of objects and people and the logic of the represented space as an abstraction, that is part of social and political practice. In other words, a representation of space contains a logic that, since the urban is a dynamic constellation, might not correspond with the spatial practice of time at a moment and needs to be replaced or adjusted. It might be in those moments of correlation where Soja sees the need for thirding. To sum up and repeat the most important aspects I quote here at length:

"Thirding introduces a critical "other-than" that speaks and critiques through its otherness. That is to say, it does not derive simply from an additive combination of its binary antecedents but rather from a disordering, deconstruction, and tentative reconstruction of their presumed totalization producing an open alternative that is both similar and strikingly different." _{(Soja 1996: 61)}

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I will quickly resume the main aspects here: Building up on _{Lefèbvre's spatial triad and} remembering the relation between spatial practice and spaces of representation (or lived and conceptualized space) as the moment in which incoherences occur, the emphasis lies on the role and potential of spatial practice to reveal incoherences in the logic of those representations of space. I understand this as the particular moment in which Soja suggests thirding as a critical spatial practice that critiques through its otherness. With Foucault’s six principles of heterotopic space, new aspects are added that allow different lines of thought that can inform the process of thirding.

Making sense of Urban Curation

The first research question formulated in this paper asks about notions and practices of urban curation today and about the way they suggest to approach the urban. An overview onto the origin and development of the curator position and related practices will be followed by a review of publications on urban curating to map the field. The outcome is summarized in a graphic that presents the first results and functions as a basis for further investigations and putting urban curating in the present context.

Evolving curatorial practice

The curator position has its origin inside the art or cultural heritage institution and its walls, as a dependent practitioner commissioned by institutional officials. These institutions could be galleries, museums or archives where the curator’s practice is described as ‘caring for’ its content, traditionally tangible objects. The curator’s work comprises also the selection of objects, connected research, and decision making about public share eg. forms of exhibit or publication. Tasks may vary with the size of the institution and change over time, especially in regard to digitalization, opening up a range of new possibilities such as digital exhibitions and virtual museums (cf. Clough and Smithsonian Institution 2013). Increasing financial pressure forced museums to lower collecting activities and to marketize its content increasingly through temporary exhibitions with objects from the collection. Private museums today, necessarily driven by entrepreneurial spirit focus on profitability. To demonstrate the enormous extend e.g. museum marketing has reached today, _{Museum Hack} _{as popular museum consultancy offers a} striking example. By selling museum visits as unique experiences, boot camps for audience development and other events tailored to specific audiences, using the Metropolitan Museum of Art as their major example of success. The website lists Google, KPMG, Deloitte, McKinsey and

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Company and Amazon as their clients . But curating as a practice does not only appear in the 7 context of museums and art any longer, curating allows to make meaning and orientate in a state of information overload. Curators though have not always been self-appointed or ‘casted’ as the guides in Museum Hack, in the eighteenth and nineteenth century the curator was not much of a free agent (cf. Balzer in Speirs Littlefield 2017: 289). A major change was linked to the idea of an independent curator or exhibition maker, as Harald Szeemann introduced himself in 1962. In an interview with curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, Szeemann expresses the importance of a large network that makes the curator a key figure in control of the network around exhibitions and success of artists. Obrist describes Szeemann as “[...] more conjurer than curator – simultaneously archivist, conservator, art handler, press officer, accountant, and above all, accomplice of the artists” (Obrist 2011: 9). Art critic David Balzer describes Szeemann’s ‘controlling nature’ and mentions that Szeemann himself rather used the term Ausstellungsmacher _{(exhibition maker) than curator (cf. 2014: 47).}

Curating Everything?

The ‘curatorial impulse’ is what led to curationism as a dominant way of thinking and being, writes Balzer (2014: 8f.). Institutions and businesses rely on others to cultivate and organize things; we live in the _{curationist moment (ibid.) He further points out the overuse of the} title curator to appear ‘creative’ when nothing is curated (2014: 120). A suggested exclusivity of curated work lies primarily in its popularity rather than its preciousness, he writes (cf. ibid.: 118). Balzer’s critical assessment of the verb and the idea to present exclusive selections highlights the modern-day curator’s function as that of a gatekeeper and tastemaker (cf. 2014: 132). Finally, the task of selecting what to represent as the most important elements to the contemporary society gives the present day museum curator the legacy about the question of how future generations might interpret the past (cf. Speirs Littlefield 2017: 289f.).

In internet studies, the curation of contents on social media platforms such as _{Pinterest is} discussed as a common practice. The study of Leah Scolere and Lee Humphreys shows how designers and regular users of the site Pinterest ‘curate’ content as a form of self-performance. Interestingly enough the production of original content is of little relevance, it is merely about curating content that is already existing, which opens a discussion about convergence of amateur practice and professionalism. The curatorial labour of pinning in this case is regarded as constant process of value production (cf. Scolere/Humphreys 2016: 11).

7_{‘Museum Hack’ extended the boundaries of event culture and makes use of large museums symbolic}

capital in the corporate context; to reinvent the adult museum experience. Professionals with backgrounds from acting schools, educators, scientists lead “unconventional tours in the world best museums” having in mind that “storytelling is more important than art history” as founder Nick Grey states. https://museumhack.com/ (2018/04/13, 11:40) http://blog.museumhack.com/ (2018/04/13, 11:38)

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Contemporary curatorial practice in the arts

In the writings in the field of arts where the term ‘curating’ originates from, a much more critical discussion is held that allows deeper insights and new perspectives to approach urban curatorial practices. While, following Balzer and the loss of meaning through overuse, the rise of the curator (and especially freelance curators as mentioned earlier) creates power shifts and leaves artists and art critiques a lower rank in the field, writes art historian Beatrice von Bismarck (2011: 19). She refers to sociologist Zygmunt Bauman who positioned the curator “on the front line of a big battle for meaning under the conditions of uncertainty, and the absence of a single, universally accepted authority.” (Bauman 1998 cited after von Bismarck 2011: 19). Related to this quote von Bismarck concludes two aspects quoted here at length:

“On the one hand, there is the positive assessment that the figure of the curator represents the hope for finding footing again in the jungle of meanings that has resulted from the loss of clarity and binding norms. On the other, there are reservations about giving the installation a new position of authority that lays claim to special powers to i_{nterpret the processes of connection.” (von Bismarck 2011: 19)}

Following her conclusions the appearance of curators and especially self-appointed freelance curators have a crucial effect on the constitution of meaning, that had not been produced by a single authority, but art critics, artists and curators. A suggestion to counter the curators powerful role is the equal distribution of tasks in the process of exhibition making between those involved in the process. Before considering this, one needs to have in mind that the curator also holds the position of a gatekeeper and artists heavily depend on the curator to be part of an exhibition in the first place.

By referring to a _{curatorial turn von Bismarck (2012) provides not only a discussion of} the curatorial in the arts, but maps a valuable overview of the fields of curating as cultural practice since around 1990. This collection of essays opens up to the varieties of understandings and related possibilities of thinking the term curation offers. An especially valuable contribution is von Bismarck’s discussion with Irit Rogoff about the differentiation of ‘curating’ and ‘the curatorial’. While the previous paragraph presented the phenomenon of the curator as an individual subject, the differentiation of curating and the curatorial allows to think beyond curating as the practice of a single actor/authority that includes the representational, the role of the audience and the potential produced through unsatisfied expectations.

Curating and the curatorial

The practice of curating comprises what is needed for the making of an exhibition or more broadly spoken what is needed to produce ‘platforms of display’. Curating is understood as

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professional practice in the realm of the representational, that includes a set of skills taught in academies, such as organizational work such as insuring, hanging, packing, negotiating etc. (cf. Rogoff and von Bismarck 2012: 22f.). As a central aspect Rogoff mentions the imperative of “creating a fit between a thematic and a series of works that functions as a representation of that thematic” (ibid.). Whether related to the ever more emergence of curating positions or not, the two express an encouragement to think about ‘the curatorial’ as a concept, Rogoff explains, that is concerned with getting away from the mere representational towards the ‘trajectory of ongoing, active work’ (cf. ibid.: 23). What this_{active work of the curatorial entails is what I will} try to carve out here now. An important part is the idea of an _{active gap and the role of the} audience within it. The gap is what appears between the aims of an exhibition and the effects in the world (cf. ibid.). Whether intentioned or not, Rogoff says, in the gap between the ambitions of an exhibition recognized by the audience and the impossibility to be fulfilled, the curatorial takes place. She later points out how important it is to develop reading strategies for what's going on within audiences. (cf. ibid.: 28) Not only the potential of the gap, but also the coming together of different knowledges is something Rogoff emphasis. She suggests to understand the curatorial as an epistemic structure, as ‘event of knowledge’ (cf. ibid.: 23).

Von Bismarck understands the curatorial as a dynamic constellational field where the activities of curating are embedded rather then opposed. She understands curating as apart of the curatorial in the sense that an exhibition can form an ‘ephemeral argument’ within the dynamic field of the curatorial as a constellational condition and ongoing (cf. ibid.: 24). “The curatorial seems to be an ability to think everything that goes into the event of knowledge in relation to one another” says Rogoff. (ibid.: 23). Considering the active role of the audience she formulates a main question of the curatorial practice as that of “[...] how to instantiate this as a process [...] and how to create a public platform that actually allows people to take part in these processes.” (Rogoff in von Bismarck et al. 2012: 23) Regarding the following quote, one could argue the curatorial encourages reflexive and relational critical approach that touches upon Soja’s notion of thirding.

“[...] the curatorial related to Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological definition of a field whose own rules are constantly defined and redefined by those participating in it. In the same way as a discursive argument or a physical move, an exhibition – as the most concrete manifestation within the curatorial – can form this perspective turn into a relational, spatiotemporal configuration that in itself creates differences, deviances, and frictions with the existing conditions. It is the potential which accounts for the relevance of the curatorial beyond the arts.”_{(von Bismarck 2012: 37)}

Synthesis number one

Before continuing with the review of urban curation this short paragraph summarizes aspects I consider relevant. The freelance curator brought power shifts and developed into a

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trend. That is partly due to increasing immaterial work, exemplified at curating online media content as service and self-performance. Curating as the practical process of producing platforms of display includes the selection of works that create a temporary public sphere in the form of an exhibition. While the term curating undergoes an inflation as a practice in immaterial labour today, the academic discussion of curating at the example of von Bismarck and Rogoff shows an orientation towards immaterial aspects in the non-representational itself, by emphasizing the potential of the curatorial as an epistemological structure. It includes the question of power distribution and through an aversion of the curator position, the role of the audience is considered important and active.

Sketching a Map of Urban Curation

Curator and cultural theorist Elke Krasny states that the trend of urban curators started in the 1990s and it is not a new field (cf. Krasny 2014: 121). To trace back the beginnings of urban curation and urban curatorial practice, it is to say that there is different existing narratives that this paragraph is aiming to carve out. The use of the term though, Krasny and Sandra Spijkerman agree, was probably first introduced by artist Jeanne van Heeswijk and architect Raoul Bunschoten in the Netherlands and by Tokyo based architect studio bow-wow. The architect Jane Rendell appears as a key figure in the discussion of urban curating. She refers to the precedents of land art and community art and the growing number of collaborative work between artists and architects and therewith the development of artworks outside the galleries, that lead to new forms of curating and an emphasis on the role of the artwork in its specific site. As one of her main arguments she claims that, for architecture to develop as a critical practice, it has to “look to art” in order to exit its own disciplinary boundaries and get between disciplines: “As a mode of cultural production that enjoys a greater separation from economic and social concerns, art can offer architecture a chance of critical reflection and action” (Rendell 2006: 191). Outside the gallery art is better “positioned to initiate critical spatial practice that can inform the activity of architectural design in the occupation of buildings”. Her definition of _{critical spatial practice} functions as groundwork for many practitioners, especially in the feminist discourse. Schalk et al. refer to her _critical _{dimension as: "Projects that put forward questions as the central tenet of} research, instead of, or as well as solving or resolving problems, tend to produce objects that critically rethink the parameters of the problem itself" (Rendell quoted in Schalk et al. 2017: 15).

Actively used as an established practice, urban curation appears in The Hague, in the project _{OpTrek in Transvaal} _{where the artists Sabrina Lindemann, Annechien Meier and} Veronica Hekking worked with their mobile project-bureau “OpTrek” 2002-2009. Their aim was to witness, visualize and comment on the transformation in the urban renewal project, with a special interest in the history and the changes in the social structures of the neighborhood (cf.

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Lindemann/Meier in Hekking 2010: 330). A larger question of interest is to explore the possibilities of artistic practice in urban renewal within the different forces that constitute the framework.

Urban Curatorial Practice

Schalk et al. define ‘Spatial practice’ as interdisciplinary practices of studying and transforming space (cf. 2017: 14). The origin of the term ‘urban curation’ as previously mentioned goes back to the work of Jeanne van Heeswijk, a dutch artist and community organizer who is known for carrying out long term projects in complex urban settings. As curator Mirjam Westen put it, “Heeswijk sees herself as an intermediary between a situation, a space, a neighbourhood and the people connected to these” (Westen (2003) in Mar/Andersson 2012: 333). “She generates “interspaces” – contexts and crossovers within which new relations and connections can be established between groups of people, institutions and conceptual frameworks that are always different”, she continues (ibid.). In the debate on instrumentalization of the arts in urban development, van Heeswijk stands out as she understands autonomy and instrumentalization no longer as oppositional strategies. Instead she asks “How can I be an instrument that makes the right to produce our daily environment a possibility? I like being an instrument that works on self organisation, collective ownership, and new forms of sociability” (in Philipps 2012: 78). In the processes van Heeswijk intervenes and aims at the intensification of ties between those who participate and the spaces and allow the production of a collective responsibility (cf. ibid.: 81). The number of van Heeswijk’s projects is large and exceeds the 8

capacities of this paper to be adequately represented. A work worth being mentioned is her contribution to the artistic research project _{Shelter 07, The Freedom of Public Art in the Cover of} Urban Space in the city of Harderwijk, curated by Henk Slager in 2007. Van Heeswijk used9 archival material to develop a series of wallpapers that were put up on the outside of houses:

“[...] retelling last century’s lingering tales about the symbolic poet Rimbaud, who lost his identity as a poet during his stay in Harderwijk and vanished in the grand myth of the foreign legion; about the first big stream of (Belgian) refugees who found temporary shelter during World War I in Camp Harderwijk; and about the circulating rumours of missing passports popping up during the transformation of the AZC (Refugee Centre) Jan van Nassaukazerne into luxury condominiums, as proof of the search for shelter in a new, safe identity for its former inhabitants.” _{(Slager in Biggs et al. 2012: 345)}

8_{For a comprehensive overview of van Heeswijk’s work as an artists and urban curator see her website}

http://www.jeanneworks.net/#/projects/ (2018/04/03, 10:17).

9_{The announcement on e-flux gives an overview of other topics taken up by the involved artists}

concerned with topic refugees, safety and freedom:

http://www.e-flux.com/announcements/40320/shelter-07-the-freedom-of-public-art-in-the-cover-of-urban-s pace/ (2018/04/03, 10:36).

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Slagers detailed description highlights the great versatility and the historical layers of space she uncovers, to then connect them to contemporary discussions and social questions such as migration and identity, citizen rights and urban development today. Van Heeswijk’s awarded project _{Homebaked is object of discussion in the analysis chapter Urban Curation in Practice.}

Alongside the architect Raoul Bunschoten and CHORA, Jeanne van Heeswijk developed the profile of an architect as an urban curator (Krasny 2014, Bunschoten 2001) that was introduced in the Netherlands in 1999 (cf. Hekking et al. 2010: 334). As an example of the many collaborative projects between artists and architects in the nineties mentioned by architect and writer Jane Rendell, the project group CHORA describes its organizational form as between academic research institute, urban planning office and city policy think-tank, founded in 1994 (cf. Bunschoten 2001: 261). With the notion of _{stirring the city}_{the research laboratory aims at} understanding, modelling and transforming dynamic processes in complex urban situations ( cf. 2001: 10). The book presents a retrospective of their works and presents a methodology in progress, presented as four chapters, case studies and a manifesto consisting of 57 individual terms, including the _{Urban Gallery and Urban Curation: “Urban Curators are the practitioners} that manage the content of these metaspaces. They oversee the production of scenarios and prototypes. They organize tables of negotiation, support the initiation and work of Liminal Bodies” (Bunschoten 2001: 446). In other words, the book suggests a set of tools and new vocabulary for complex and ambitious planning processes. The urban gallery therewith presents the idea of a metaspace as a room for alternative scenarios produced by various participants in the context of usually larger urban development projects. The urban curator, whether an artist or architect, is responsible for the creation of this space or platform and its maintenance.

Meike Schalk presents an example of how urban curation in form of these tools is applied in the context of one of the many projects of Raoul Bunschoten and CHORA in 2000. In her own article she offers insights to the proposal presented at a conference at the Alvar Aalto Academy, aiming at contributing to the restructuring of the post-industrial city Jyväskylä in central Finland . In the introduction, she quotes the landscape architect Gunilla Lindholm: “The idea of ‘urban

10

curating’... seems to have possibilities to be a fresh way out from the conventional prisons of design styles or planning rules” (Lindholm quoted by Schalk 2007: 155). The direct application of the previously mentioned tools of urban curating were used here in form of a web platform that was publicly accessible and left room for discussions of the scenarios presented for the city.

10_{The material from the conference is no longer available online, which is why secondary quotes by Måns}

Holst-Ekström and Gunilla Lindholm are used. I consider the quotes relevant here, because they express the understanding of urban curating as a potential at an early stage, shortly after their introduction in 1999. Holst-Ekström and Lindholm took part in the urban curating roundtable discussions in Jyväskylä, where these quotes originate from.

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“There is one thing that makes curatorial practice very different from urban planning. Curating has come to mean making readings through exhibitions that in some way or another are cutting edge. The exhibition is by its nature temporary, hence cutting. Urban planning is traditionally intended for an indefinite period of time. To operate with a model that follows or is, urban planning as temporary readings would be interesting, breaking up a traditional time-space relationship in the city. Is it the true temptation of ‘curating’? Do we need urban planning? And what do we in fact mean by ‘curating’: is it the same as un-planning?”_{(Holst-Ekström quoted by Schalk in: 2007: 155).}

The term ‘un-planning’ reoccurs at a later point with the conference and publication “Planning Unplanned – towards a new function of art in urban planning”, Barbara Holub (2014). Elke Krasny is interested in the notion and takes a closer look at the impact of unplanned practices to urbanization processes over time. I take a closer look at this urban curatorial project in the chapter _{Urban Curation in Practice.}

The suggested position of artists Jeanne van Heeswijk is closely linked to the situation of arts often being official part of large redevelopment projects in the Netherlands. One example is the eight year long residency of the mobile project bureau _{OpTrek by artists Veronica Hekking,} Annechien Meier and Sabrina Lindemann in The Hague neighborhood Transvaal. Urban curating played an important role in _{OpTrek in Transvaal (cf. Hekking et al. 2010) and is discussed by} 11 several authors. Among them is Elke Krasny who has probably written most on urban curation today. In an earlier article she presents critical thinking and reflexivity as crucial aspects of urban curating (cf.Krasny 2010: 376). She mentions existing traps and dangers of artistic and aesthetic potentials being used for stimulating urban renewal and image polishing (cf.ibid.). In an earlier article she discusses the crucial aspects visuals and aesthetic in urban competition and introduces the ‘Art of Urban Curating’ as a practice beyond pretty pictures (cf. 2008: 60-71).

While she, like van Heeswijk, sees the purpose of urban curating in creating change from within, her recent practice is closer connected to research, that strengthens individual practices through a larger context and transnational projects. The social in urban curating, that is the organization of collectivity, where urban curation tackles the question of where dwellers take part in the urban, is understood as a state of constant transformation (cf. 2010: 377). Krasny's approach to urban curatorship is based on common _{spatial figures: “Spaces, such as the museum} or the hotel, the public garden or the library, are spaces of collective conduct and appealing to the cultural heritage of autonomy and personal responsibility in shared spaces” (ibid.). This is partly related to her historiographical approach of urban curating in which she refers to activist and writer Jane Addams. Addams work on the importance of urban communities is based on her

11_{OpTrek is a mobile project office led by Sabrina Lindemann since 2002 and aims at following large}

urban transformation processes, such as in The Hague district Transvaal. OpTrek focuses on the quality of art projects (cf. Wilje in Hekking et al. 2010: 330).

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experiences in Chicago in 1889, where she established a settlement and practiced community building from within . As part of the historiography Krasny further mentions the feminist artist12 Suzanne Lacy and other artists and feminist groups in the 60s and 70s.

She strongly counters the idea of curating as an external top-down practice by emphasizing relationality of space, place and thought, originating from the decolonization movement and author Dipesh Chakrabarty (cf. 2014: 120). “This radical relationality abounds with the aesthetic and political consciousness of solidarity and its far-reaching alignment with the struggle against urban injustice and social movements striving for urban redistribution” (Krasny 2014: 120). This quote makes the position even stronger root in urban economic structures where injustices are produced. As a format of relational practice she mentions a variation of possible formats ranging from art to building, but also discourse, community organizing, legal action, exhibition making, protest, the support of self-organization (cf. ibid).

Sandra Spijkermann writes about urban curating in inner city districts in the Netherlands (2010). She refers to Bunschoten and van Heeswijk as the first to introduce the term and describes the urban curator, similarly to them, as an intermediary, who creates infrastructure for exchange and debate, that can be sites of imagination or actual spaces (cf. Spijkerman 2010: 334). Her contribution is valuable because she discusses the legitimacy issue and the difficulty to assess the quality of urban curating and that critics often understand these forms of art as social work (cf. ibid.: 335). Spijkerman further mentions critical statements by Jeroen Boomgard who sees the artist practice restricted by ‘frame and backdrop’ and argues that results can therefore only be questionable. She refers to Rutger Pontzen, who states ‘Critically committed artists? They don’t exist!’. He argues that critical engagement is meant to change something, whereby art had no goal (cf. ibid.: 336). Besides many other aspects, her extensive text also discusses functions of urban curating: “the need for contact, communication and participation in everyday society remains an important motivation for many contemporary artists” (ibid.: 339). She is the first writer who addresses the question of financing and dependence of artists on commissioners, such as municipalities or developers. According to Spijkerman, initiators from a non-cultural background often care more about their image and intend to show commitment or search for original solutions. She writes that contact and communications should rather be the by-products of art and not their intentions (cf. ibid.). She agrees with the variety of possible forms urban

12_{Inspired by Toynbee Hall Settlement in London, Addams imported this model of community}

organization to Chicago in 1889 (Krasny 2012: 14f.) Known as Hull House Chicago, Addams lived and worked within the community following the settlement strategy of _{empathy instead of distance}(cf. ibid.). “Hull House Maps and Papers” is a series of publication by Jane Addams and other residents of Hull house first published in 1895, that included subjects exploitation, child labour and the role of art in working class neighborhoods, writes Krasny (2014: 123). Furthermore, Jane Addams contributed to the ideas of the Chicago School of Sociology that is primarily connected to Robert E. Park and Ernest W. Burgess (1925, 1967).

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curation can be practiced through but mentions the necessity of a proximity between form and content (cf. ibid. 228).

The four authors mentioned present urban curation as either the idea of collaborative methods or as a practice of transformation from within. While the curatorial practice here relates to creating a platform for dialogue and therewith the task of mediating different perspectives by as many different stakeholders as possible, Jekaterina Lavrinec understands the curator as an active citizen suggesting and initiating alternative behavior and movement in urban space, without clearly defining a problematic issue, such as injustice.

Lavrinec sees the urban curator as an initiator of “emotionally moving situations in public spaces" (2011). She highlights the potential of art interventions to re-invent and revitalize urban spaces. Her focus lies on implemented practices and objects, such as the spontaneous performance group "Improv everywhere" , a practice of improvisation theatre that refers to the13 potential to revaluing space through art interventions that additionally offer moments of non-formal education. Her paper draws upon situationist practices14 in order to provide alternatives to behaviour in public space, that she then exemplifies with flash mobs, urban games and the example of the "Free Hugs campaign". She mentions these temporal interventions as solutions to the "problem of hunger for emotions and bodily contact" (Lavrinec 2011: 58) in deactivated public space. At another point she mentions alienated public spaces, which together form the argument for the interventions she presents, while there is no other problematic mentioned. She concludes, without referring to the curator again but the reflexive urban activist, that interventions as mentioned above function as active reinterpretations of spatial structures that, on the one hand, inhere the potential to “stimulate dialogue on the actual problems of the city itself” and eventually “transform the conception that local authorities have towards certain issues of city life” (ibid.: 61) while on the other hand often being used in advertising campaigns. Based on empirical work in London, Amsterdam and Paris, the work of Jesper Magnusson (2016) analyzes the role of material in relation to the emergence of collectives. Especially in Paris two different projects are connected to the practice of curating. Magnusson elaborates on curation and its origin in the arts where it means selecting and organizing artefacts, while in the urban context curating can be understood in two different ways: on the one hand it implies the "ordering and management of material elements _{as well as} _{processes and social} activities connected to these artefacts" (Magnusson 2016: 243). He adds that curating here

13_{Improveverywhere is a fifteen year old comedy collective doing spontaneous performances in public}

space. https://improveverywhere.com (2018/05/24, 13:21)

14_{The Situationist practices are of large interest today and are referred to in the context of alternative}

urban practices, as it is the case in Lavrinec. This increase of interest and the resulting rediscovery has been noticed and commented on by Erik Swyngedouw who notices the discrepancy between the use today as aesthetic means and the political understanding of the situationist capitalism critique (cf. Swyngedouw 2002: 153).

Urban Curation - An explorative study on understandings, roles and functions of curating practices in urban contexts