I was invited to make a public work for the central marketplace in Hustadt, on the outskirts of Bochum, Germany . When beginning to investigate the conditions of the area, I found a number of interesting issues and formed my project around these. The issues in question are related to the equitable distribution of socio-political power in public space, internationalisation of culture and questions around public participation.

Hustadt Project – is developing into a project where public participation has become a very important generator of the project itself. It became a challenge to the usual passivity, and non-activity of the public concerning the shaping of their environment, and the strictly regulated behaviour within planning processes. However the project also revels problems in relation to motivations, expectations and formal definition of participatory processes as perceived by official city politics.

This collaborative, consultative approach has deep and complex roots in the history of community work, cultural activism, and dialogical art.
The project circulates around questions of publicity and the public realm. It is focused on and discussed distributions of power in the public realm, the issue of “spatial justice”, and the appropriation of public space as understood by different actors.

Apolonija Šušteršič

Hustadt Festival 2011

Program:

14.00 Opening of the Hustadt Festival
15.00 Choir “Integral”
15.30 Afrolight, African drum music and dances
16.00 Singing duo Sema & Cumhur
16.30 Blackboard drawing action by Apolonija Šušteršič
17.00 Dance Group Own Stylez
17.15 Folklore Group Dile Kurdistan
17.30 Kurdish folksinger Gulistan Subari
18.00 “Gegenstromprojekt”- Hip_hop_HU_stadt
18.30 Fashion – show: HU_stadt brand presented by Matthis Köllmann, social activits
19.00 Lecture by Dr. Barbara Steiner, director, Museum of Contemporary Art – GfZK, Leipzig

20.00 Film Program in Open Air Cinema – Community Pavilion
Apolonija Šušteršič: HU_stadt Trailer, 2011, 3:20 min.
Mischa Kuball: NEW POTT/100 Lichter/100 Gesichter, 12 min.
Pia Rönicke: Facing – An usual Story from a Nameless Country,2008, 52:18 min.
Discussion with Zeynel Abidin Kizilyaprak (Screenwriter from Facing – An usual Story from a Nameless Country)
Gitte Villesen: JuJu (White Magic), 2008, 37:56 min.
Melanie Manchot: Celebration (Cyprus Street), 2010, 10:20 min.



Opening of the Hustadt Festival


Blackboard drawing action


“Gegenstromprojekt”- Hip_hop_HU_stadt


Lecture by Dr. Barbara Steiner


Film Program in Open Air Cinema – Community Pavilion

Press Conference and evening program

Friday, 23.09.2011

Program for 23.9.2011

11–12 Press Conference

Round table discussion:

Moderation: Ria Jansenberger (producer: Twins Projects, Ruhr 2010)

Participants:

Alexander Kutsch, head of SUB – Stadtumbaubüro Hustadt

Apolonija Šušteršič, artist and architect

Christine Wolf, landscape architect, Wbp – landscape architecture Office

Claudia Buning, head of IFAK – Immigration Office, Hustadt

Dr. Kratzsch, Chief Administrative, City Council Bochum

Dr. Kraemer, director, Housing Corporation VBW

Matthias Köllmann, social activist, Café HU

Philipp Unger, head of UmQ e.V.- University meets Querenburg, Association for Street Culture


17.00 Philipp Unger: HUMU ILLUMINARE, performance


20.00 Film Program in Open Air Cinema – Community Pavilion
Lasse Ernlund Lorentzen: Freeway, Iran, 2009, 12:16 min.
Dario Azzellini & Oliver Ressler: Comuna – under Construction, 2010, 94 min.