Exhibition "Man muß die spRACHE quälen, bis sie schreibt", 2017
Space Appropriators
Space Appropriators are based on existing and familiar, usually, table games, fuse art and design, and are realized with simple media. Pattern-based, as many games and systems are, Space Appropriators were applied and have the potential to be applied on different urban designs and contexts, and reinvent anonymous, unnoticed and unused aspects of public space. They add value, meaning and energy to a variety of urban situations and designs, offering them for alternative use. The main purpose of these appropriations is to stimulate divergent thinking. Divergent thinking is an essential tool for provoking creativity. The creative user of the public space is an active and engaged citizen. Active and engaged citizens create a strong sense of place and community. A stronger sense of place and community increases the level of comfort and safety in public spaces.
Space Appropriators prompt spontaneous engagement and interaction with one’s immediate physical and social environment. These delicate and yet powerful interventions in the public space appropriate without occupying or destroying and rather offer shared urban space typologies for communal use. Sharing in public space increases the level of trust, which is favoured as a qualitative measure for social capital.
Each Space Appropriator employs a different situation or element in the urban fabric in order to question their status quo and positively rethink and creatively alter the urban human habitat. They are about shifting the notion of playing and most of all about transforming ingeniously urban design paradigms and behavioural patterns on a daily basis. Space Appropriators offer a different frame of reference and question modes of behaviour, notions of ownership, safety, sharing and freedom in the public space. They are about rethinking the public space and our role, attitude and relation to it and from here to all agencies involved in its construction, government and policies.
More detailed information and documentation is to be found the bilingual book iGRAZ/Space Appropriators (2016, English/German, ISBN-13: 978-1537617305). The book is collecting the visual documentation and experience of more than 25 interventions in the public space and some events in which the Space Appropriators were involved. For these few years the project accumulated significant, and I would allow myself to say, impressing visuals and knowledge, embodying divergence thinking and proactive attitude towards one’s environment.
| SchAUGEnusss * Pandemic-proofed permanent exhibition with changing exhibits August 2020 -August 2021 Display window of Atelier 12, Münzgrabenstraße 24, 8010 Graz, Austria SchAUGEnuss is an year-long exhibition with works from my series CDoupbles and syllaBLEndings. The exhibits are exchanged monthly. Exhibition views are available in the eponymous photo album on the Facebook page of "SchAUGEnuss". To be viewed 24/7, from August 28, 2020 till August 31, 2021. * Schaugenuss (de)- pleasure (Genuss) of seeing (Schau). A compound word, by which in the middle accidently appears another word - "Auge" (de) - "eye" (en). |
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syllaBLEndings
Verses on light-boxes in public space 2018-ongoing Since May 2018 selected verses from the syllaBLEndings series are exhibited on light boxes in several public spaces in Graz, Austria. The verses are changed every two weeks. To this moment seven light boxes at five locations are hosting the syllaBLEndings: Steiermärkische Landesbibliothek, Cafe Stockwerk, Stadtbibliothek Zanklhof, Kulturvermittlung Steiermark and Cafe König. After each change of the verses on the light boxes, photos are posted in the eponymous album on my Facebook profile, and on my blog under the label CDoupbles :: syllaBLEndings. Flyers with syllaBLEndings verses are produced and distributed in Graz. |
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| My Blog challengedgames.blogspot.co.at The CHAlleNGED GAMES blog was conceived with the hope to stimulate divergence thinking and challenge the viewer to rethink one’s routines and shift his/her perspective on the status quo. The blog was initially dedicated to the CHAlleNGED GAMES series and seeks for extended meaning in playing and its relation to aspects of human existence and production. As with the time I started to experiment with another system - the language, to apply mathematical logic and seek patterns in words, in the last years my publications are mostly about this part of my work. |  |
| My Videos on YouTube on Vimeo |  |
iGRAZ/Space Appropriators is a bilingual (English/German) book, collecting the visual documentation and experience of more than 25 interventions in the public space and some events in which the Space Appropriators were involved. For these few years the project accumulated significant, and I would allow myself to say, impressing visuals and knowledge, embodying divergence thinking and proactive attitude towards one’s environment. ISBN-13: 978-1537617305 Paperback: 160 pages Language: English/German Dimensions: 21.6 x 1 x 21.6 cm |
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| st.art Author: Veronika Tzekova As a manner of artistic creation in many of my recent works I employ existing urban situations, objects, visuals, texts and just add often a small detail, which significantly changes their meaning and/or function. St.art book includes art works in the period 2004-2010, some still in progress at the time and some as ideas developed during 2010. The selection is made to guide the viewer through an artistic process that lead to the birth of ideas such as Space NRGZers and Dadissuasori. The book ends with a couple of blank pages, which are to e filled in with sketches and ideas for new works employing the same approach. |  |
| Veronika Tzekova — veronika.tzekova@gmail.com |
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