Public Art LabPublic Art Lab is based in Berlin and was founded in 2002 by Susa Pop, artist and cultural operator, together with the artist Hans Wiegner. Multimedia producer and curator Ela Kagel joined the team in 2005. Public Art Lab is an open platform consisting of architects, scientists, and media activists. David Farine is responsible for the group’s IT infrastructure and Stéphanie Boisset is Public Art Lab’s media designer.
Public Art Lab and the Mobicases project Mobicases Public Art Lab realizes international nomadic art projects which create artistic processes and public awareness in temporary urban settings. Nomadic communities like Mobile Studios (2006) and Mobile Museums (2004) provide the opportunity for local audiences to participate in their daily environment from a different perspective. For the HTMlles festival, Public Art Lab has created mobile units, Mobicases, which document and archive the festival as it unfolds. The Mobicases thus pose such questions as whether or not all festival contributions are equally worthy of preservation, and what are the reasons behind what is then included and excluded from archived history? What does this mean in terms of taking control? Who becomes the owner of art work documentation? We wish to make artistic processes visible, rather than focusing on their outcome or product. We are also interested in documenting audience experience. As a result, we have included public participation as an important facet of this archiving project through the creation of a wiki. This allows anyone to submit, publish and share the data created or collected throughout the festival. Everyone is thus invited to comment on the festival and the various events taking place. Our aim is to determine whether or not this interactive form of documentation has the potential of becoming an entry point for a community-based resource center. |