SAMSTAG
IN DER STADT / SATURDAY IN TOWN Samstag´s
approach is severalfold: it reminds people of their right to the city
and supports them to make use of this right in a low-threshold process.
It uses public space to make the cultural variety visible as far as
possible, it invites to communicate and to get curious about the
other/s. By being involved in the design of the “Samstag in der Stadt”
events, and therefore involved in what happens, people might get a
sense of ownership, of personal investment and of participation. We provide the
infrastructure and collect ideas, needs and
wishes of the most diverse participating audiences and, in
collaboration
with artists and experts, transform them into events, workshops,
discussions or simply into qualitative time spent together. “Samstag”
also aims to support – by its intervention – the revitalization of
“dead” places, especially of market areas.
About the
Schwendermarket The Schwendermarkt is a neglected
market place located in the 15th district, the district with the lowest
income and the highest percentage of immigrant population in Vienna.
The once big and important market place, now reduced to a minimum of
size and appeal, is located in a neighbourhood, where more than 160
languages are spoken, the shops change their stock during Ramadan and
Saris are worn. This is where we started the project “Samstag in der
Stadt” (“Saturday in Town”).
Samstag initiated by: Nadia
Prauhart Studies
of Romanic
Languages
in Vienna and Barcelona. 1994 birth of son Luca. Since 2000
staff-member of the Austrian
Institute of Ecology, responsible for realization and coordination of
international projects on educational and youth research, sustainable
development, and participation. Concept, curation, organization and
realization of "Samstag" (Vienna 1999-2001). Since 2010 conception and
realization of SAMSTAG IN DER STADT/SATURDAY IN TOWN.
Tamara Schwarzmayr Studies
of Comparative
Literature and Romanic Languages in Vienna and Lisbon, Brazil, and
Chile. Since the early 1990s working in arts and culture projects, among others as project developer and
manager for Linz 2009, European Capital
of Culture, in the fields of migration, community building and
neighbourhood-culture. Projects in public space: "Samstag" (Vienna 1999-2001), "My
perfect street" (Tokyo 2008) and SAMSTAG IN DER STADT (from 2010).2008-2009:
School for artistic photography/Friedl Kubelka, since 2011 studies in International Development. 2015 birth of son Oskar.
**************************** PAST PROJECTS: MY PERFECT STREET, TOKYO 2008 This
participative
and playful project was realized in 2008 in Tokyo. After some weeks of
urban research and taking
pictures of various neighbourhoods in Tokyo, residents were invited to
create their “perfect street” by the materials we provided: a fictive
street, photos of situations, buildings, infrastructure and places to
be added, glue, a pen and a pair of scissors.
************************************************ SAMSTAG / SATURDAY
1999 - 2001: ART IN PUBLIC SPACE
A mobile centre at the periphery of
Saturday´s flea and fruit market in Vienna Samstag/Saturday
started in spring 1999. It followed an idea we
had imported from the streets of South-America, something new in Vienna
in those times. The concept was to give young writers, painters,
actors, musicians, DJs, photographers, filmmakers and designers a
platform for their works in public space. We organized and curated
these afternoons: We invited
the artists, prepared them to meet the agents and conditions of the
very special public space. The place we had chosen was located at the
edge of the official Saturday market at Kettenbrückengasse, it was
very informal, near the exit/entrance of a metro-station, surrounded by
the so called black marketeers and an again and again returning police.
Our
most intense interaction though we had with our neighbours: the
marketers, who sold their goods without permission and stand. There
was an old Viennese lady offering her old shoes and coats besides Roma-
and Sinti-families, who sold used kitchen facilities and books. When we
started to construct our set up an open party-tent, technical
equipment and the artist´s works, we also started the initially quite
difficult discourse about the question, who the owner of public space
is. We had an official permission to be there, the marketeers the
better argument, namely survival. Even if we didn´t make friends with
all of them, we finally were accepted. The best case was to enter
symbiosis in order to use the temporary space according to the
necessities of all, to build alliances against the norm.
If you walk on Saturdays over the today empty and clean
place you will get the feeling that It longs for
densification. Like many public spaces it is not a centre anymore. It
turned into a place to walk on by, not to stay.
Participating artists
in alphabetic order: Hawy
Abdel-Rahman, Gerald
Anetzhuber, Mario Aschauer, Xaver Baier, Fady Barcha, Ken-neth Barkern,
Alexandru Bilc, Jay B. Cool, Peter Danzinger, DJ dent, Paul Divjak,
Thomas Eglseer, DJ Elk, Onno ennoson, Christian Fackler, Jürgen Friedl,
Doris Fries, Gudrun Fürlinger, Manuel Gartlehner, Martina Gasser, DJ
Gazarolli, Tom Grunert, Astrid Hafner, Erwin Hafner, Frank Hagen, Elmar
Hanke, Manfred Friedrich Hofer, Die Herren Juhann und Jod, Gerhard
Kaufmann, Josef Kleindienst, Edith Kneifl, Michael G. Kraft, DJ
Krameritsch, Grace Marta Latigo, Jakob Lediger, Christian Loidl, DJ
madMoiselles, Nina Maron, DJ marritime, Michael Menedetter, MyQuh, Herr
Nagl, Christina Nemec, Helmut Neundlinger, Martha Novy, Charles Ofoedu,
Fritz Ostermayer, Pennylane & DJ y, Julia Pernold, Veronika
Pöcksteiner, Susanna Poulicek, DJ Punch, Faek Rasul, Hosea Ratschiller,
Sieglinde Reichhardt, Elisabeth Remmers, rudi*lenz, Papp Sandor, DJ say
dog, Susanne Scheubmayr, Lukas Tagwerker, Otto Tremetzberger, Georg
Wagner, Manfred Weihs. Technician: Franz Ahammer.
Sponsored by Frucade. Samstag series II: Supported by the local
district office.
Further events: Winter
home-base 1999/2000: galerie station 3/gallery station 3,
Mariahilferstrasse, 1070 Vienna
Finnisage of the summer-series I: Schikaneder, November 13, 1999
Finnisage of the winter-series, wienstation, June 12, 2000, in
cooperation with Orange 94.0, the independent radio in Vienna
Exhibition at Gallery Mouratti, 1010 Vienna, January 18 until February
17, 2001
Finnisage of the summer-series II, VEKKS, December 1, 2001
