Lara Almarcegui (E, NL) Hidden terrain with abandoned
allotments
Hidden terrain with abandoned allotments, 2009
Study on wastelands and allotments
Double-page insert in the Kleine Zeitung, Graz
Körösistraße 30
In her work, Lara Almarcegui focuses on deserted or inaccessible areas of a city, wasteland that, while having disappeared from the public eye, is often of importance for urban development projects or private building interests. Looking at the example of allotments on a piece of land in Körösistraße, between Muchargasse and Lange Gasse, whose leasehold contracts have expired, she researches the history of the transformation of urban terrain from unprofitable private uses to planned profitable real-estate investments. Almarcegui is not interested in a romantic view of the loss of greenfield land, local recreation or possible alternative use. Instead, she sets out to reconstruct the debate on the relationship of the public and private sphere, profit interests and welfare that accompany the rise of the “corporate city” and its economic interests based on a specific example.
The artist publishes her research in a double-page insert in the Kleine Zeitung, a local daily, in order to present these – exemplary – mechanisms to a wide public. This advert makes public what is geared to private interests, thus raising the question as to the structures used to harmonise these interests with each other and the situation regarding the transparency of decisions that affect public interests.
Commissioned by steirischer herbst
Project sponsor Think!
25/09 - 18/10
Utopia and Monument I
Fri 25/09, 6 pm
Vernissage at the exhibition pavilion, Platz der Freiwilligen Schützen / Bad zur Sonne
public space
Lara Almarcegui
Born in Saragossa (E) in 1972, living in Rotterdam (NL) since 1999.
25/09 - 18/10
Utopia and Monument I
Fri 25/09, 6 pm
Vernissage at the exhibition pavilion, Platz der Freiwilligen Schützen / Bad zur Sonne
public space
Lara Almarcegui
Born in Saragossa (E) in 1972, living in Rotterdam (NL) since 1999.
