Townhall Meeting: Empathetic Exchange
Performances and discussions,
presented by the project SPACEX – Spatial Practices in Art and Architecture for Empathetic Exchange
The SPACEX
Townhall meeting in Vienna is a major public event at the final stage of SPACEX and focusses on "Empathetic Exchange“
as vital topic of SPACEX: To discuss and make the goals of SPACEX tangible, for counteracting right wing demagogies in Europe
and enhancing democratic values through artistic and socially engaged strategies and projects of art and architecture. Especially
in the perspective of our turmoiled political situation in Europe, this event – and the engagement of SPACEX altogether -
is more relevant than ever.
SPACEX responds to the troubling rise of populist nationalism and
conflict in European societies by engaging new publics and forging a culture that embraces diversity, difference, and discursive
exchange within cities, towns and urban sites. The lack of interdisciplinary knowledge by those working in the cultural sector
has significantly affected the way in which the social benefit of cultural activities is understood, articulated and applied.
SPACEXproposes that inventing new and inclusive ways of living together, requires the implementation of new transdisciplinary
and cross-sectoral practices and methods, that connect spatial practice with cultural sociology, cultural policy, critical
pedagogies and behavioural economics. The comprehensive transdisciplinary composition of the SPACEX consortium (29
beneficiaries comprising of 13 universities and academies and 16 cultural organisations, across 11 EU countries with 1 partner
in Palestine) will enable its researchers to undertake secondments in a range of world-renowned academic institutions, research
institutes, arts organizations, biennials, urban agencies and a film festival.
"Empathetic exchange“ will
produce performative situations and various other artistic formats, for engaging and addressing the public as active participants.
In addition projects developed by SPACEX partners will be presented in various media. The event will create an overlay of
actions based on an experimental choreography, enhancing unexpected encounters and direct experience.The townhall meeting
will be presented at AIL, the platform for interdisciplinary research and projects of the University of applied arts Vienna,
which is located in the Otto Wagner Postsparkasse. The originally preserved counters of the bank as well as a special booth
in the cashier hall will serve as spaces for creating a dialogue on „empathetic exchange“ across the counters. Whereas the
counters of the bank served for economic exchange, the SPACEX Townhall Meeting will use the counters for encouraging and envisioning
an exchange of non-commercial values.Rather than promoting protest in a direct way, „Empathetic exchange“ will produce small
moments, modest gestures, ambivalence, silence, moments of reflection for offering an exchange, also on a personal level,
for creating an awareness of taking care – of one’s own interests in relation to respecting the others.
Performative
contributions by: Jitka Hlavackova (Prague City Gallery/ GHMP, Prague), Susanne Prinz (Kunstverein Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz,
Berlin), Vittorio Iervese (Università di Modena, Modena), Aline Hernandez/ Marianna Takou (CASCO, Utrecht), Emma Mahoney (NCAD,
Dublin), Mel Jordan (Coventry University) and Andrew Hewitt (University of Northampton)/ leaders of SPACEX
Further
input: Sofia Bempeza, Annette Krauss, Julienne Lorz, and others (University of Applied Arts Vienna)Barbara Putz-Plecko
(former vice rector and Head of the Dept. Art and Communicative Practice, hosting SPACEX on behalf of the University of Applied
Arts Vienna), and many more.
Kathrin Wildner (urban ethnologist, founding member of Metrozones, Berlin) will moderate
and lead through the event.
The event is conceived by: Barbara Holub (University of Applied Arts Vienna) and Paul Rajakovics
(transparadiso) as partners of SPACEX.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon
2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE). 
