Urban wasteland has been disappearing in Zurich since the 1990s due to the increasing demand for residential and living space. The research project is based on the assumption that urban wasteland has an ambiguous potential and is open to a variety of different appropriations and usages. From an artistic-research perspective that combines ethnographic methods with processes of artistic production and intervention, this potential is explored, fictionalised and (re-)territorialised in densely populated, highly regulated public spaces in Zurich.
Urban wastelands in Zurich are disappearing. The recent eviction of squatters from the “Koch-Areal,” for example, showed a broad public the importance of such urban spaces that people can appropriate in a self-determined way to thus participate in urban life. The development of the industrial wasteland “Koch-Areal” must be seen in the context of a constantly growing need for residential and recreational spaces in large and small Swiss cities since the 1990s. Inner-city districts are being densified and upgraded, while socially disadvantaged groups (e.g., poor and older people, the unemployed, migrants) are being displaced from these areas. Urban researchers criticize these processes of densification and displacement, drawing attention to the fact that a vibrant and viable city requires urban spaces distinguished by diversity, openness and the encounter with the other. The engagement with urban wastelands in this regard has mainly been conducted by interdisciplinary urban research and in works of fine arts, while artistic research approaches to this field are lacking.
The art research project starts from the assumption that urban wastelands bear an ambiguous potential and are open to a variety of appropriations and usages. First, it examines how ethnographically acquired knowledge about the ambiguous potential of wasteland can be fictionalised in order to temporarily intervene artistically in dense, highly regulated public spaces. Secondly, it analyses what forms of appropriation and participation in urban life are made possible as a result.
The explorative project is situated in the field of artistic urban research. It is based on an expanded concept of art that departs from the institutional context and intervenes in public urban spaces by means of installations and performative practices (cf. New Genre Public Art). The experiences and insights will be discussed with representatives of fine arts, architecture, urban planning and research, as well as social work with regard to the question of new possibilities for a diversity-just shaping of public spaces.