Hack and the City

Yalla Yalla – Studio for change: SchreibTischGeschichten // Schirin Kretschmann: Another Perfect Day
Apartment Project: Hemshof Boogie // Levent Kunt: Tortenschachtel // Eric Göngrich & Ece Pazarbaşı: Tell Me What You See, I Tell You What You Eat

Das Projekt Hack and the City ist aus dem Wunsch entstanden, neue Formen der Kommunikation und des Miteinanders im öffentlichen Raum zu entdecken. Öffentlicher Raum kann verstanden werden als demokratisches Modell, das auf Beteiligung und Kommunikationsbereitschaft der städtischen Bevölkerung gründet. In einer Zeit, in der sich die Gesellschaft durch ihre besondere Vielfalt und Heterogenität auszeichnet, stellt sich allerdings dringender denn je die Frage: Wie kann ein gemeinsamer Lebensraum aussehen und gestaltet werden, in dem sich jede und jeder entfalten kann?

The project Hack and The City, that took place within the framework of the Wilhelm-Hack-Museum in Ludwigshafen, Germany departed from the urgency of experiencing new communication tools and skills in public space today. As we are living in a fragmented public sphere that is shaped by communities with different interests and needs, we wanted to raise and explore the following questions: How can we redefine our relationship with our city? How do we participate and claim our rights as a citizen? How do notions of participation and public space relate to the construction of identity of a city?

Invited artists and artist collectives investigated those questions by using different artistic practices: Yalla Yalla – studio for change created an emotional map of the city, Levent Kunt drew a portrait of the city which unfolded tension beneath the surface and made it visible, Schirin Kretschmann painted the city in pink and activated public space with various participatory practices, Apartment Project lived in Hemshof district for two and a half months, a neighborhood in Ludwigshafen where 40% of the inhabitants have a migration background, and experienced with its residents the spirit of togetherness, and Erik Göngrich and Ece Pazarbaşı mapped the city through architecture and food. As a city which is incomplete and complex, we tried to scan Ludwigshafen in the year of 2014 in terms of the relationship between public space and the citizens.