City 2009: bringing down the walls

A procession, a symposium, and many more events

April 30th – May 3rd

Opening the London Festival of Europe 2009, the City2009 Symposium inscribes a reflection on transnationalism into the fabric of London. A series of free public activities will promote imaginative engagement with the urban realities of a global city to propose utopian alternatives.

PROGRAMME

THURSDAY 30th APRIL

City/Multiplicity: Opening symposium, Courtauld Institute of Art, 6.30pm

Architect Stefano Boeri will talk with curator Hans Ulrich Obrist and others about his project Multiplicity, an ongoing artistic investigation in the implications of globalisation on the architectures, territories and temporalities of different localities in Europe.

FRIDAY MAY 1st

Opening Performance at Shunt Vaults

Locus Solus is a cross- cultural performance bringing together museums, universities, architects, visual and sound artists, dancers, choreographers, performers, set designers, video artists, researchers, scientists and writers from seven different countries for an evening performance between theatre, art, and happening. It takes its starting point from Raymond Roussel’s novel Locus Solus, about an eccentric inventor who can create living portraits.

Procession: City 2009: A Modern Dystopia

Following the closing of the performance at Shunt at midnight an artistic procession from the Southbank to the city of London will take place. The procession will run from Shunt Valuts to the lively area of Shoreditch, and will be punctuated by performances, poetry reading, public declamations and manifestos relating to the symbolic dominance of the (financial) city of London over the futures of the peoples of Europe and the world. The Procession will draw from the imaginaries of Blake’s prophesies for London, Orwell’s dystopia in 1984, and Eliot’s Wasteland, amongst other resources.

SATURDAY MAY 2nd : Open City: the Forum

Saturday will see several events in public spaces across London on different topics related to political, cultural, artistic, and urban life in contemporary Europe.

Kom.post arts collective (Paris/Berlin): European social imaginaries and identities, artistic discussion in cafe.

Compass youth will hold a ‘no turning back’ event in a public space

The National council of voluntary organisations and Shelter will hold a talk on civil society and social Europe: British Library or Shelter space.

The Transnational Republic (Munich, and elsewhere!) will organise a public happening promoting a transnational utopia

SUNDAY MAY 3rd : The Long March to a New City

The Long March: Bank to Hackey Wick

Join us for an archi-cultural tour of the East of London from Bank to Hackney Wick and the new Olympic Village. The walk is accompanied by readings from manifestos, poetry, architectural treaties, etc. directly relating to the urban environment we will be crossing.

The day will end with an evening event at Arcola Theatre in Hackney Wick, with the participation of the theatrical troupe of the Locus Solus production.