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.

community pavilion_opening announcement

community pavilion upgraded

first cinema event

Our first cinema event was a tryout for the cinema screen and the technology that we have available. There is an obvious problem with the projector. We can only start with the cinema when it is dark. This time we borrowed the projector from RUB - Rhur Universitaet Bochum. However in the future we would like to have our own. This equipment is very expensive therefore we are looking for powerful second hand projectors.

The program for the event was supplied by www.shortsattack.com whith a series of short films: "50 Jahre Mauerbau: Rock the wall!"

OPEN AIR CINEMA EVENT

CP-box

building the CP-box

meetings at the pavilion

The community pavilion is a meeting place for various groups.

summer herbs at the community pavilion

Under construction

The following task was to build the CPbox. We managed to reuse the wood from the demolished temporary pavilion and old pergola to build the box and pavilion furniture. The CPbox is multifunctional. It can be used as a cinema bar, party kitchen, storage room, puppet theatre... and information point. On the back side of the CPbox there is a black board which can be used for announcements for events in the pavilion, education actions and chalk graffiti. The CPbox has also a poster wall, access to tab water and electricity. With the addition of the box the pavilion is now ready to host a range of various activities.
Our building team has been enlarged with people from Wohnheim Hustadtring.

building the roof

Finally we started to build the roof. It was a rainy day, of course, when they delivered the material for the roof very early in the morning. At first we were five people (Matthias, Philipp, Tobias, Faruk and myself) and then some others joined in. Finally everybody was helping us; Claudia from IFAK made coffee for us, Aino from the Pizzeria gave us water, Ismail from the Kiosk brought us some sweets. We worked for 14 hours to finish the roof. The work was quite dangerous since we didn’t have enough money to build the scaffolding or any kind of protection system. At the end of the day (quite late in the day) Hustadt got a public roof!
Many thanks to: Thobias, Matthias, Philipp, Wolfgang, Peter, Faruk, Memet, Tugai and Claudia!

Rückenwind für den Gemeinschaftpavillon

Ruhr Nachrichten.de
30.5.2011

Finanzloch im Pavilion

Ruchr Nachrichten.de
23.5.2011

WHERE IS THE ART?

I was commissioned to produce an art project, which I was trying to bring to completion. The lawyers from the “Rechnungprüfungsamt”– Regional Audit Office where asking me, where is the art object? At this point I found this whole process absurd. Never in my life had I been so aware of the gap between art and the rest of the (legal) world.

Jugendtheater

the pavilion mini herb garden

Two members of Aktionsteam, Susanne Breindenbach and Bettina Eickhoff, are coming to Hustadt every month to give a garden workshop for kids and their parents. It became a very popular activity that created a very special bonding between various social groups.

discussing hustadt project in the city council

We have got the money from the Fonds voor Beeldende Kunsten (NL) and Slovenian Ministry of Culture to finish the Pavilion already in September 2010 however the politicians in the city of Bochum needed half a year to decide if they would like to see the Pavilion finished or not.

In May 2011 they made the final decision despite the CDU objections.