2014
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Curated by U.S. public art expert Kendal Henry, the Third Art Prospect Festival explored the ways in which artists address the vast and complex ecological issues at the forefront of global conversations through public participation and social engagement. Participating artists stretched the definition of art and redefined their role as instigator, collaborator, activist and designer while enticing the public to participate in curious and exciting ways. Artists addressed the broad topic of ecology as the relationship between organisms and people and their surroundings. The audience encountered artworks that speak to serious ecological issues about climate change, conservation, energy, resources, and biodiversity as well as cultural diversity, language, and population, and its influence on relationships.
Working in cooperation with the Posadsky Municipal District administration on the Petrogradsky Region of St. Petersburg, Art Prospect invited local residents to engage with the numerous participatory artworks that were presented in the neighborhood. The Festival brought together more than 50 artists from Australia, the U.S., Finland, Armenia, Georgia, and Russia. Among some of the Festival’s most popular projects were: artworks created by children during hands-on mask-making workshops by the local artists collective Creative Manufacture P.T.H. (Masha Nebesnaya and Zhenya Isaeva) at a nursery school and library, a giant inflatable room by Australian artist Daniele Poidomani, and a tree house by Russian artist Petr Shvetsov. The festival also features site-specific performances by U.S. dance group Third Rail Projects and St. Petersburg’s Sever-7, a performance-demonstration about recycling by Russian artists Anastasia Vepreva and Anna Tereshkina, and an installation by Georgian artist Kote Jincharadze. One of the Festival highlights was a special project “Serving II: Who Keeps the City Alive?” by the artist Mierrle Laderman Ukeles based on her work with sanitation workers.
Participants: City+ and New Bark, Lera Lerner, Lilu S. Deil, Kote Jincharadze, Vahram Aghasyan, Slava PTRK, Irina Korina, Ekaterina Borodavchenko, Antonina Fatkhullina, Robert Hickman, Dacha Manifesta 10, Liza Dulkina, Third Rail Projects, Anastasia Vepreva and Anna Tereshkina, Polina Zaslavskaya and Natasha Tseliuba, ‘Anatomical Theater of Culture’ group, Make, Miina Hujala and Arttu Merimaa, Semyon Motolyanets, Stas Bags, Sever-7, Alexandra Gart, Jukka Silokunnas, Olga Rostrosta, Lyudmila Belova, Susan Milne, Lidia Ignatenkova, Petr Shvetsov, the PRO ARTE school for young artists, Andrei Rudyev, Mark Cuthbertson, Open Urban Lab, Creative Manufactory P.T.H, Dali Dardzhaniya and Stefan Press, Mamuka Japharidze, Daniele Poidomani, Daria Makarenko, Stacy Levy, Open Urban Lab and Zavod dance, Karen Alekyan, Nestori Syrjälä, Alexander Shishkin-Hokusai, Pavel 33+1 Shugurov, Mierle Laderman Ukeles.
download the festival catalogue (.pdf)
MIERLE LADERMAN UKELES. SERVING II: «WHO KEEPSTHE CITY ALIVE?»