URBAN INTIMACY SYMPOSIUM

3 July 2021 – 8pm -11pm

A symposium on the art of semi-public space making in cities

Mika – Middelheim Museum 

live broadcasted on YouTube and WAV radio channel 

and on several digital billboards in the city of Antwerp 

3 July 2021

In the context of the Antwerp ONBOARDS Biennale 2021, a unique symposium will be held in the Middelheim Museum park and live broadcasted on a YouTube and WAV radio – synchronized with several billboards in the city center. ONBOARDS Biennale is an exhibition of artworks displayed on billboards across Antwerp city. By bringing art into shared public spaces, the biennale aims to create a possibility of social interaction, provoke public dialogue and offer new social and cultural experiences, promoting communication, reflection, self-awareness and humanity. For the symposium artists, activists and researchers will give lecture performances to demonstrate how they uniquely shape urban life. Through their work they construct semi-public spaces that allow people who barely know each other to dare to share emotions, affects, appreciations and their social, political and ecological concerns with each other. By doing this, the artists generate “urban intimacy”. It charges the city both artistically and politically, giving it a soul again.

Lecture performances by 

Pascal Gielen (Belgium) https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/staff/pascal-gielen/

Bahia Shehab (Egypt) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahia_Shehab

Sarah Vanhee (Belgium) https://www.sarahvanhee.com/home

Santiago Cirugeda (Recetas Urbanas – Spain)  http://www.recetasurbanas.net/v3/index.php/es/

Music Performance by

Anna Godzina, Cornellia Zambilla and Yiannick Heeren  

‘Rainscape for Viola’

https://annagodzina.com/i-sing-the-space-electric-rainscape

Program

8pm

Introductory lecture the symposium

Pascal Gielen

Urban Intimacy and the Art of Constituting Semi-Public Spaces

8:25pm

Lecture

Bahia Shehab

Where is the public?

9:05pm

Music Performance

Anna Gozina, Cornellia Zambilla and Yiannick Heeren  

Rainscape for Viola

9:35pm

Lecture Performance

Sarah Vanhee

All cells in your body becoming ears

10:05pm

Lecture

Santiago Cirugeda

Unauthorized Entry Permitted

10:35pm

Talk and Q&A with Bahia Shehab, Sarah Vanhee and Santiago Cirugeda, moderated by Pascal Gielen

11pm

Closure & Drinks