The 1st World Congress of the Missing Things
A project by Barbara Holub (transparadiso, Vienna/ Austria) // initiated by Anton Falkeis (Social Design/ University of Applied Arts, Vienna) with the Austrian Cultural Forum/ Washington D.C., realized with Bromo Tower Arts & Entertainment, Inc.
Baltimore is a shrinking city (from originally 1.000.000 inhabitants to currently 600.000). „Baltimore shares some characteristics familiar in other post-industrial European cities: shrinking size and population, mixed ethnic population, social disintegration, an economic background of de-industrialization, efforts to reduce crime, and a vibrant cultural scene“ (quote from the call). The City of Baltimore and the BROMO Arts district aim at reactivating the neglected area around Howard Street and Lexington Market by employing an art project engaging in urban issues. This area used to be the center of a lively downtown area with glorious department stores which has undergone decay.
The ambitious endeavor of BOPA (Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts) addresses the question to which extent and by which means art and artistic strategies can have an impact on complex and large societal issues of urban development on a durational level. Art cannot resolve problems of this scale, but art can have an impact by positioning questions from a different perspective and engage people from backgrounds that usually do not have a voice – and bring together diverse participants and audiences.
The 1st World Congress of the Missing Things takes this ambition as fact – striving for the impossible. The congress works with the method of „anticipatory fiction“, a strategy that transparadiso has developed for „direct urbanism“: to transgress the doable by dismissing self-censorship.
The 1st World Congress of the Missing Things will be held in the urban public space at Lexington Market/ MTA subway station by employing a special non-hierarchic spatial setup for leading public conversations with various agents and inhabitants. For this setting transparadiso’s „soothing tables“ will be transformed into „agitation tables“ allowing for 1:1 conversations by appropriating space as rhizomatic structure, as a flexible urban tool.
The 1st World Congress of the Missing Things is a public art project that produces a congress and at the same time shifts the usual format of a congress with its division between a panel and an audience – from exclusion to inclusion: it will be produced by the people of Baltimore.
In the 1st World Congress of the Missing Things everybody can participate: especially those people are invited and encouraged to submit and publicly present their issues of Missing Things, who usually don’t have a public voice – and by no means have access to participate in a congress. In this way they can engage in decision making as a self-initiated process of political engagement. The responsibility is returned to the inhabitants, to all of us, to take action and position our visions to the public to politicians and to decision makers. The cogress needs to stretch beyond the Bromo Art District and engage people from other areas of Baltimore in order to address the difficult and complex situation of Baltimore as a shrinking city with the complex challenges involved.
Project team
Vienna <> Baltimore
Elisabeth Stephan, Marie-Christin Rissinger, Julian Verocai (students at Social Design/ University of Applied Arts, Vienna)
Baltimore
Priya Bhayana (director of Bromo Arts District)
Nick Petr (alternative press center library, Baltimore), Michael Benevento (current space), Kate Ewald (video)
Additional projects
Marit Wolters, Lucia Hofer, Nika Kubyrova (students at TransArts/ University of Applied Arts Vienna// CI + concept for the opening ceremony), Simone Klien (performance at the closing ceremony)
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“The First World Congress of the Missing Things” is part of TRANSIT, an initiative of the Washington, DC cluster of the European Union National Institutes for Culture and the Baltimore Office of Promotions & the Arts, and supported by a grant from the European Union.
The European culture institutes involved are: Austrian Cultural Forum, British Council, Goethe-Institut and the Embassy of Spain.
The project is also supported by a grant from ArtPlace America, a collaboration of leading national and regional foundations, banks and federal agencies accelerating creative placemaking across the US. Additional support for the Congress is provided by the Maryland Transit Administration.
Baltimore is a shrinking city (from originally 1.000.000 inhabitants to currently 600.000). „Baltimore shares some characteristics familiar in other post-industrial European cities: shrinking size and population, mixed ethnic population, social disintegration, an economic background of de-industrialization, efforts to reduce crime, and a vibrant cultural scene“ (quote from the call). The City of Baltimore and the BROMO Arts district aim at reactivating the neglected area around Howard Street and Lexington Market by employing an art project engaging in urban issues. This area used to be the center of a lively downtown area with glorious department stores which has undergone decay.
The ambitious endeavor of BOPA (Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts) addresses the question to which extent and by which means art and artistic strategies can have an impact on complex and large societal issues of urban development on a durational level. Art cannot resolve problems of this scale, but art can have an impact by positioning questions from a different perspective and engage people from backgrounds that usually do not have a voice – and bring together diverse participants and audiences.
The 1st World Congress of the Missing Things takes this ambition as fact – striving for the impossible. The congress works with the method of „anticipatory fiction“, a strategy that transparadiso has developed for „direct urbanism“: to transgress the doable by dismissing self-censorship.
The 1st World Congress of the Missing Things will be held in the urban public space at Lexington Market/ MTA subway station by employing a special non-hierarchic spatial setup for leading public conversations with various agents and inhabitants. For this setting transparadiso’s „soothing tables“ will be transformed into „agitation tables“ allowing for 1:1 conversations by appropriating space as rhizomatic structure, as a flexible urban tool.
The 1st World Congress of the Missing Things is a public art project that produces a congress and at the same time shifts the usual format of a congress with its division between a panel and an audience – from exclusion to inclusion: it will be produced by the people of Baltimore.
In the 1st World Congress of the Missing Things everybody can participate: especially those people are invited and encouraged to submit and publicly present their issues of Missing Things, who usually don’t have a public voice – and by no means have access to participate in a congress. In this way they can engage in decision making as a self-initiated process of political engagement. The responsibility is returned to the inhabitants, to all of us, to take action and position our visions to the public to politicians and to decision makers. The cogress needs to stretch beyond the Bromo Art District and engage people from other areas of Baltimore in order to address the difficult and complex situation of Baltimore as a shrinking city with the complex challenges involved.
Project team
Vienna <> Baltimore
Elisabeth Stephan, Marie-Christin Rissinger, Julian Verocai (students at Social Design/ University of Applied Arts, Vienna)
Baltimore
Priya Bhayana (director of Bromo Arts District)
Nick Petr (alternative press center library, Baltimore), Michael Benevento (current space), Kate Ewald (video)
Additional projects
Marit Wolters, Lucia Hofer, Nika Kubyrova (students at TransArts/ University of Applied Arts Vienna// CI + concept for the opening ceremony), Simone Klien (performance at the closing ceremony)
--------
“The First World Congress of the Missing Things” is part of TRANSIT, an initiative of the Washington, DC cluster of the European Union National Institutes for Culture and the Baltimore Office of Promotions & the Arts, and supported by a grant from the European Union.
The European culture institutes involved are: Austrian Cultural Forum, British Council, Goethe-Institut and the Embassy of Spain.
The project is also supported by a grant from ArtPlace America, a collaboration of leading national and regional foundations, banks and federal agencies accelerating creative placemaking across the US. Additional support for the Congress is provided by the Maryland Transit Administration.
