Osservatorio urbano # 1
The Osservatorio Urbano/Lungomare (Urban Observatory) is a reading tool which collects information experienced and observed about the city through image and texts and organizes informal artistic on-site visits in the form of workshops open to the public.
Bolzano-Bozen
Bolzano-Bozen is an alpine city which appears mono-centric and compact and its margins seem clearly defined. Large urban areas are interspersed with vast, intensely cultivated ones which in turn make way for other landscapes of considerable interest. The consolidated city occupies the available surface at the bottom of the valley where the rivers Isarco and Talvera meet and stretches until the beginnings of the woodland slopes and farmland. The surroundings, on the plains or in the mountains are characterized by a fragile balance between cultural landscapes and landscapes of great natural beauty. The city seems to possess a well-defined identity and an idyllic image which not only its citizens hold dear, but is also loved by all those who observe the city from the outside. Yet, if seen through a magnifying glass this image breaks up into many cities and many landscapes.
Osservatorio Urbano/Lungomare – a reading and archiving tool in progress
To investigate the polyhedric nature of Bolzano-Bozen we are constructing the Osservatorio Urbano/Lungomare as a reading and archiving tool in which information, experiences and observations of the city in the form of texts, personal images and on-site artistic visits both as projects and informally. Through the urban observatory we want to open up possible and unexpected insights into a well-known or unknown context. The Osservatorio Urbano/Lungomare contains objective and subjective material. The objective material is represented by quantitative and technical data such as cartography, statistics, texts and publications, links etc., which don’t provide other (emotions and atmospheres for example) information about the city. The subjective material consists in personal and informal information, gathered in a widespread fashion throughout the territory, which don’t come under the descriptive matrixes of conventional urban planning. The on-site visits are actions organized by the Lungomare urban exploration agency and coordinated by international groups with the aim of experimenting alternative approaches to the understanding of the urban environment in Bolzano-Bozen.
In Osservatorio Urbano/Lungomare the subjective material is gathered in an archive and represented by a map which contains precise and personal contributions from those participating in the project, the so-called urban explorers. It is a world of constantly growing short interventions. The map which gathers the material sent provides the dynamic basis for all of the actions organized by Osservatorio Urbano/Lungomare. Initially the explorers are asked to answer a question about the city. The answers given become interactive points on the map which correspond to the information required as well as to data regarding the hour, place and person who sent them.
Lungomare urban exploration agency
The Lungomare urban exploration agency is the physical headquarters of Osservatorio Urbano/Lungomare. For the duration of the project it is in direct and continuous contact with the public and coordinates urban trips, excursions and actions. All the urban observatory material is gathered and can be consulted here. Conferences and actions ensure that the attention of the population about the project is kept high. The agency organizes five on-site visits to which international workgroups are invited. Each of the groups invited coordinates an on-site visit: an action which tests a practice of reading the city of Bolzano-Bozen, creating new creative cartography and cognitive maps. Those coordinating the workshops can make use of the material previously gathered by Osservatorio Urbano/Lungomare or can choose to develop independent action. The outcome of the on-site visit, which is recorded in the archive, is presented during a special event at the agency.
Lungomare
Site visit 1
08.04.05
Manuela Demattio, Roberto Gigliotti, Carlotta Polo
A walk from Lungomare to del Colle woods in the direction of “the sea” represents the first of the site visits within the Urban Observatory project, organized by the Lungomare agency of urban exploration. A group of urban explorers will go for a walk, moving along an imaginary straight line southwards, informally reading, recounting, and documenting the city. Using a video camera, a camera, a tape recorder and a sketchpad, images, sounds, and random encounters will be annotated. The act of walking leaves marks on the earth that signal the beginning of the Urban Observatory and mark the route and points of observation of this first site visit. The method of arbitrarily reading the imaginary line permits a spontaneous description of the city, recounting what is encountered along a path that doesn’t actually exist: There is no science in the action, leaving to chance and surprise the sequence of objects and situations encountered. The process is ‘geomorphological’ and doesn’t make a distinction between surfaces with different characteristics or uses. It is a ‘mobile gaze’, which restores a subjective responsibility to the citizen-observers.

Site visit 2
08.05 – 13.05.05
Bartolomeo Sailer, Saul Saguatti – Bologna
Fotorama is a performance in which video artists and a group of citizens experiment with the animation of digital photographs and live recording, with the aim of creating an artistic portrait and documentary of Bolzano. It will be created in the branch of Lungomare (former Löwenzahn shop) in Piazza Domenicani. The result will be a video as reproduction and interpretation of images and live sounds, characterized by the randomness and possibility of error typical of a live performance. Fotorama through its participatory component wants to on the one side rediscover the place where one lives, reawakening an attention to certain daily routines, and on the other, provide a new vision of “digital appliances” (computer, camera, audio recorders) as simple creative tools.
Site visit 3
17.05 – 20.05.05
Studio1.Institute of Design, M. Mutschlechner, A. Flora – Innsbruck
For a long time the urban interstice was intended as a “void” between the buildings or simply as public space (without quality). This research starts from the assumption that the urban interstice can be used as a planning tool, as a means through which to structure space and provide the world isolated from architecture, meaning and context. Whilst the architecture of buildings requires forms and symbols to represent itself, and tends to define its own formal and functional perspectives, the urban territory can break free from these constraints and yet remain coherent. Like the backgrounds in Hieronymus Bosch paintings, the urban interstice connects a world “apparently fragmented,” by re-contextualizing and providing a continuous surface of human interaction.kontinuierliche Oberfläche menschlicher Interaktion schaffen.
Concept: urbaner-zwischen-raum/Stadtlandschaft (in German)
Invitation to the discussion (in German)
The sector outlines a well-defined zone within the urban area, which marks the territory under investigation. The defined section intentionally ignores existing borders and patterns within the urban neighbourhood structure, thoroughfares, rivers, topography – in order to examine the supposedly known territory from a different perspective (P.8)
Site visit 4
23.05 – 27.05.05
IMPEXunlimited – Berlin
In 2003 IMPEXunlimited carried out its first DETOURISMO experience in Leipzig where participants could choose from four thematic itineraries. The excursions could be undertaken alone or in a group of friends. The results of the site visit (photographs, artefacts and documentation of the experience), presented as part of an exhibition, have provided the basis for a discussion on the current state of public urban space. In Bolzano IMPEXunlimited will present a new DETOURISMO. For the preparation of the itineraries a four day workshop is planned, the first phase of which will be to introduce and discuss the methodology of DETOURISMO. Following this, groups will be established that will develop “their” personal itinerary and a Guide Vague (a small brochure similar to a tour guide) put together, to be given to the “detouristi” who follow their route. All produced texts will be digitised and analysed in statistical form according to the Cluster analysis method. Through this form of analysis the texts will then be reorganised to provide information not only on the perception of the city held by the participants, but also on the connection between the image of the city presented by the writers of the guides and the “detouristi”. IMPEXunlimited will provide the technical and theoretical support for the design and layout of the guides (specific computer knowledge is not necessary). All of the itineraries developed can be followed in the form of excursions for the entire duration of DETOURISMO II.



Site visit 5
14.06 – 17.06.05
oginoknauss – Florence
The public space of the contemporary city is essentially space for exhibition and passage. A complex system of surfaces, on which the flow of people, vehicles, information, and energy have a growing influence. The urban surfaces, in addition to constituting the physical structure that contains and distinguish these flows, increasingly express themselves as a communicating system of signs. What emerges is ”vertical urban planning” where the rental income from urban objects assumes an increasing value in comparison with the communicative capacity of the spaces, and in which the power of large advertising agencies becomes increasingly evident. What also emerges is a conflictual dialectic between spontaneous practices of communication and artistic expression (graffiti, writing, street art, and informal, political communication) and institutional and regulatory control exercised over the territory. The main topic on which we intend to focus attention during the site visit in Bolzano will be expressions of the semantic space of the city: how they manifest themselves, discriminate, occur, and how spontaneous and institutional, commercial and political uses of urban spaces enter into conflict; how the system of advertising space articulates itself. The work undertaken during the three-day site visit will have an instant and instinctive character that will try to describe in an “epidermal” way the impact with the perceptual landscape of Bolzano.
Expedition 5
14/06 – 17/06/05
ogi:noknauss – Firenze
Der öffentliche Raum in der zeitgenössischen Stadt bezeichnet grundsätzlich einen Ausstellungs- und Durchführungsraum. Ein komplexes System aus Oberflächen, auf welche die Strömungen der Menschen, der Fahrzeuge, der Daten, der Energien einen zunehmenden Einfluss haben. Die urbanen Flächen definieren die Struktur, die diese Strömungen enthält und organisiert. Darüber hinaus entwickeln sich diese Flächen immer mehr zu einem kommunizierenden Zeichensystem. Es fällt eine “vertikale Urbanistik” auf, innnerhalb der die Eigentumverhältnisse der urbanen Objekte im Vergleich zu der Kommunikationskraft der Flächen einen zunehmenden Wert bekommen und innerhalb derer die Macht der großen Werbeagenturen immer offensichtlicher wird. Darüber hinaus fällt auch eine konfliktreiche Dialektik auf zwischen den spontanen sowie künstlerischen Kommunikations- und Ausdrucksweisen (Graffiti, Writing, Street Art, informelle und politische Kommunikation) und der Kontrolle der Institutionen und Gesetze über die Stadtlandschaft. Während der Expedition in Bozen möchten wir uns hauptsächlich mit der Artikulation des urbanen semantischen Raumes beschäftigen: Wie offenbaren sich, wie differenzieren sich, wie folgen sich und stoßen die spontanen und institutionellen, kommerziellen und politischen Nutzungen der urbanen Flächen gegeneinander, wie artikuliert sich das System der Werbeflächen? Die Arbeit, die während des dreitagigen Workshops durchgeführt wird, wird einen instinktiven und augenblicklichen Charakter haben, durch den der Impakt mit der Wahrnehmungslandschaft der Stadt Bozen in direkter Weise beschrieben werden kann.
Site visit 6
28.06 – 01.07.05
Ma0 – Roma
Public space is quintessentially the place for disorder and the unexpected; for amplification and infraction of rules; an open field of forces, conflictual and unstable space; urban display that highlights changes in social conditions and the mixing of cultures; a playground where new practices of appropriation, sharing and privatisation are triggered, from tai chi lessons in the morning, to Slavic Sunday picnics, from the evolution of skateboarders, to the writers collective, from ethnic markets, to illegal drugstores etc. Through these phenomena of appropriation of public space, it is possible to monitor the degree of vitality and growth of an urban ecosystem, its ability to react dynamically, and to assimilate spatial and social boundaries that constitute the physical, cultural, and economic environment. An unorthodox mode of political participation (in the sense of the polis or city-state) and free interaction with the complexity of the urban system and the rules which they intend to monitor and govern the territory. The ma0 site visit aims to document the spontaneous and improper uses of public space, to reveal their forms, investigate their origins and authorship, understand their relationship with the city and its inhabitants and – why not ? – suggest something new for them. The project is a public event in its collection of information, production of ideas, the way it puts into play experiences, and takes place alongside those who use and inhabits these spaces at the time of the site visit. During a first phase of collection, information and reporting on the “misuses” of territory in Bolzano will be followed by the exploration and subsequent discussion of the material collected. The presentation evening at Lungomare is designed as a public meeting/lecture on the theme addressed of the territorial misuses in Bolzano and of its urban playgrounds.
Site visit 7
12.07 – 15.07.05
Peanutz Architekten – Berlin
Armed with tables, chairs, paper and pencil BozenComixTeams start by positioning themselves in strategic places around the city of Bolzano. Their mission: Collect stories from the inhabitants and document them through BozenComix supercool. The Bozencomix products will be displayed on the site itself (system of exhibiting, clothes line and pegs). Passersby are thus tempted to document their own stories in the form of BozenComix. The exhibition of BozenComix acts as a stimulus to exchange stories lived in the city, of favourite spaces and places, of unloved areas and other aspects of the subjective perception of the city. The character of the BozenComix event awakens curiosity and stimulates interaction. The BozenComix document points of view that are extremely personal and information difficult to represent with statistical tools. The stories are not only recorded, but also interpreted through the drawings by members of the BozenComixTeams.
Autonomous Province of Bozen/Bolzano-South Tyrol, Culture Departments
Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio
Autonomous Region of Trentino-Alto Adige
City of Bolzano, Culture Department
Supporter 2005:
Clipart, EOS-Solutions for Business, Finstral, Heinrich Gasser, Parkhotel Laurin, Höller-vollendet Räume, mc11- Management Consultants, Tecnomag
What´s on
EXHIBITION :: Binta Diaw :: Collective Practices – A Living Experience of Feeling ListenedAbout Lungomare
Lungomare, a cultural association founded in Bolzano in 2003, was created from the desire and necessity to open a space in which to share differences, experiences, opinions and desires, a space in which to make the link between cultural production and the political and social dimension. Lungomare undertakes projects that investigate and test possible relationships between design, architecture, urban planning, art and theory, the results of which are presented in different formats: public discussions, conferences, publications, exhibitions and interventions in public spaces. All these formats are characterised by the intention to interact with cultural and socio-political processes relating to the region in which Lungomare is located.
Currently Lungomare’s activities focus on long-term residency projects, a format whereby Lungomare invites guests to engage and interact within the context of South Tyrol. Lungomare’s activities are based on three principles: specific attention to the context in which the association’s projects are undertaken, the transdisciplinary approach that distinguishes these projects, and reflection on the role of Lungomare as a cultural institution in connection with the region in which it operates.
Territory
Lungomare is located at the edge of Bolzano, the capital of South Tyrol, and relates to the context in which it operates, attempting to highlight the dynamics of change. Large urbanized areas alternate with broad areas of intensive cultivation and yet others of picturesque landscape, all of which penetrate the centre of the city. The city is surrounded by mountains and this is one of the reasons why the tourism industry has become a driving force in this locality. The demographic structure of the city has been characterized for a long time by the coexistence of two populations, those speaking German and those speaking Italian. However, the social and demographic composition of Alto Adige Südtirol is changing. Migrants, including those from non-European countries are making their way to the area to settle, whilst others, including political refugees, are flowing through the region.