Platz nehmen #3: Right of Passage - Wegerecht

Public space is an open and free space in the general sense. A space that does not have to be fought for, but is available to all and can be used equally. A lofty illusion. The right to maintain a public space has always had to be obtained. It is only by entering and passing through that a space is claimed and at the same time democratically negotiated. This "Right of Passage" is always also a political act. It creates a transition from the opening of one's own individual space to a social public space: I trust my counterpart and share a communal space. The public space is therefore the framework of trust and the shared understanding of accepting each other and giving each other space. This process must be protected and guaranteed as fundamentally equal.

The artists approach the freely accessible Schillerplatz, which surrounds the academy, with this awareness: to be politically active. We have a common understanding of the need to change communal space with artistic means. This does not require audible politicians or institutional languages, but rather a very own socialized artistic assumption of connected and consenting thought and action: By standing and walking together, we can grow, be audible and visible, can determine and shape social space. A small artistic revolutionary moment that produces fascial and synaptic growths and miracles.

With Platz nehmen #3: Right of Passage - Wegerecht we want to make visible how visual art uses its means to convey the concerns of democracy, the public sphere and public space and invite participation. In the first part of the event, British artist Hamish Fulton, who has been internationally renowned as a walking artist since the early 1970s, will hold one of his open Communal Walking Experiences in Vienna with the public at Schillerplatz. For 40 years, the artist has been planning his performances in public, urban spaces worldwide, which could not be more radical and simple in their approach to nature and people than perceiving the world by walking.

The two-hour program is held together by artistic contributions and performances from students of the Institute of Fine Arts. Thus Clemens Grömmer will have paintings rise dragon-like from an inner-city park area (Schillerplatz). He liberates the painted and drawn medium from its rigid two-dimensionality and playfully fails as the animated moving image develops a life of its own. Textile-scarred papers are silhouetted against the sky, while Kweku Okokroko uses the treetop space of the park's civic setting for hanging constructions for his art. Lightly floating and withdrawing from the scenery.  Ilay Schwingshandl's performance approaches a shared public space in a playfully performatve manner. The artist raises the question of social empathy, which makes public space accessible and livable for everyone, blurring boundaries. They all move very close, in different media, to the questions that also move Hamish Fulton: the preservation, experience and experience of democracy as an everyday concept worth protecting.

Matei Alexandrescu takes up the game sculpturally, as visual language that is not necessarily anthropomorphic, and discusses human needs democratically: he invites metal sand roses to blossom on the grand staircase of the Academy. The discussion about barriers and privileges tells of future dystopian imagery and beautifully outgrows a world forced to change, both climatically and socially. The work of Esther Vörösmarty and Randolf Helmstetter, who both explore social and democratic boundaries with a wink in order to make us aware of our own exclusions and the boundaries we draw to prevent democracy, builds a similar future: bridging, designing, translating.
They collectively explore themes of social empathy, democracy, barriers, and the role of art in shaping public spaces.

The philosopher Jens Badura will build bridges and further air roots beyond the academy and sprawling into the individual artistic positions, back to Hamish Fulton.

Concept:
Michael Höpfner, Institute of Fine Arts, Art and Image I Photography; Claudia Kaiser, Project Management Academy | Art | Public Sphere; Ruby Sircar, Institute of Fine Arts, Art and Image I Context

Graphics:
Beton Studio 

Hamish Fulton, born in 1946, is a British photographer, conceptual artist, painter and sculptor. Since 1973 he has created works based exclusively on the experience of walking and the human walk in the environment and calls himself a Walking Artist. He realizes his walks and guided performances in a variety of media, including photography, illustrations and wall texts. His work is represented in major museum collections such as Tate Britain and MoMA. He has participated in Documenta 5, 6, and 7.

Program:
16 h
Meeting point outside the academy portal
Welcome: Johan F. Hartle (Rector)
Introduction: Ruby Sircar and Michael Höpfner

Binding registration for participation in the Communal Walking Experience by Hamish Fulton on site - followed by parallel training for this group!
Spontaneous participation is no longer possible during the holding of the walk from 5 pm!!

16:15 h
Students of the Institute of Fine Arts: Clemens Grömmer, Kweku Okokroko, Ilay Schwingshandl, Matei Alexandrescu, Esther Vörösmarty, Randolf Helmstetter walk through the outdoor space of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and the Schillerplatz

16:40 h
Lecture: Platzen. Ein Plädoyer für Unvermittlung by Jens Badura  (Philosoph, Co-Head of the Graduate School Kulturen der Alpen at the University of Luzern/ Visiting professor at the Faculty of Design at the UdK Berlin)

17 h
The walking participant is also the art observer
Communal Walking Experience von und mit Hamish Fulton (Walking Artist)

18 h
End and conclusion