The 5th edition of Narracje – Installations and Interventions in Public Space
Unearthing Delights. Markets, Memories and Meetings / Odkrywanie zachwyca. Targowiska, spotkania, wspomnienia
Długie Ogrody, Gdansk, 14 -17 November 2013
Rob Garrett, Curator

download the Open Call announcement (pdf)

download the curatorial statement (pdf)

Introduction
The language of the open call is very open and inclusive. While two strands are clearly identified, they are not proscribed or narrowly defined. Rob Garrett wishes to make it clear that there is no strict set of rules or precise criteria for selecting works. He is interested in really good concepts that are linked to the curatorial them, that approach the situation and context of Długie Ogrody thoughtfully and imaginatively. Therefore the two strands talked about below should be read as a catalyst for your thinking; they should be read as a provocation to consider how your situation and approach as an artist might meet the context of Długie Ogrody and the theme of “Unearthing Delights.” The curator does not have a narrow definition of what might emerge. Surprise us with your most authentic and thoughtful concepts.

Who is eligible?
We are seeking proposals from local artists who have local knowledge. Local is defined as Poland, not just Gdansk.
Artists must be resident in Poland and while they are most likely to be Polish, this is not a requirement. Artists of other nationalities who have been resident in Poland for some years would also be suitable.
If you have participated as an artist in previous editions of Narracje, you may also apply. We are interested in the quality of the ideas and how suitable they are for this particular edition of Narracje.

The main ideas of the Open Call
Through the open call the curator hopes to secure projects, perspectives and voices that could only come from those with enduring “local” knowledge. Rob Garrett does not wish to privilege local over other forms of knowledge, or vice versa, but to ensure that there is an authentic and locally generated dimension to the programme. He seeks a balance between local and foreign voices and approaches. Both approaches are valuable. This mixture of voices is central to the ideology of the Narracje Festival; and it is also consistent with this edition’s curatorial emphasis on “memories,” “meetings” and the dialogue of the open market place.

Type of projects:
Rob Garrett seeks two strands of project:
1. Idea-based: Song / Voice / Text
I am thinking about sound in the first instance; though other ideas may be suggested. The proposed projects may utilise any media with the stipulation that they are suitable for the outdoors and can be experienced by an audience at night. I am looking for particularly local narratives / memories / visions that manifest themselves in song or voice or text.

2. Genre-based: Interactive light and atmosphere
These projects will make distinctive and evocative alterations to the appearance and “sensory feel” of sites in the territory. I am not looking for decoration here; I am looking for conceptual projects that manifest as light and / or atmosphere. Therefore they must be site-specific and be linked to the curatorial approach.

Definitions:
This strand seeks installations and projects that are less likely to be object-based or image-based. They are projects which create, alter or interrupt a physical and sensory site / situation in the Długie Ogrody territory.
Projects may be any combination of light, interactive light, interactive atmosphere, or interactive light and atmosphere.

Interactive:
This term is meant quite broadly. At the primary level it is something that alters an audience member’s awareness of their own spatial situation; an awareness of how their body moves through space. At more advanced levels it is about giving the audience a choice of participating through their physical actions; for example using casting a shadow, influencing the projections of a beamer, activating something through their txt / phone, or activating a motion sensor.

Atmosphere:
This term refers to physical atmospheres and could be clouds of light, sound, scent, moisture. Such works might create an atmosphere in a site, or alter the existing atmosphere.

Sites and locations
Proposals may indicate preferred or ideal sites, although this is not required. Final site selection will be determined by the curator and the organizers.
However, all proposals are required to articulate how the project links to the Długie Ogrody territory and to particular types of space or terrain typical of the area as a part of explaining how the proposed project is site-specific.

Proposal requirements:
Please submit the following in electronic form:
– Images to illustrate your proposed project
– 1 – 2 paragraphs outline the concept of the project (in Polish and in English)
– 1 – 2 paragraphs explaining the links to the district and the curatorial theme (in Polish and in English)
– Technical description
– Budget
– A selection of images of your previous works that are relevant to the proposed work
– Your contact details

address for the entries: info@narracje.eu
Due date: 31 March 2013

Please read also Rob Garrett’s curatorial statement:
“Unearthing Delights” responds to various aspects of the current status and past history of the Długie Ogrody / Long Gardens district selected for the 5th Edition of “Narracje.” Specifically the two words of the theme refer to the transformative re-engagement and wonder (“delights” as adverb) that can result from uncovering past histories and spotlighting the potential of areas languishing from neglect. The curatorial theme will be further elaborated through the site-specific projects that are being commissioned, the selected video projections and the projects resulting from the Open Call to artists. The projects will express and reflect the historic and contemporary dynamics of Długie Ogrody.

The “Garden” and the “Market” were central to Długie Ogrody over many centuries and these have influenced my thinking. “Unearthing” acknowledges through its reference to tilling the earth, a particular generative and progressive aspect of the district’s past as a series of gardens that supplied the city from the 14th century at least; and through Gdańsk’s role in the grain trade, to the wheat bowls of Poland and the Ukraine that supplied Western Europe. “Unearthing” refers to the processes of discovery as dynamic; as activities generating knowledge, ideas and relationships.

Through the Narracje programme we hope to “unearth” or conjure up images suggestive for the exchanges, encounters, scents, sounds and other sensations of open markets in memory of the historic open market(s) that occupied Długie Ogrody for hundreds of years until the 19th century. One of these open spaces was adjacent to St Barbara’s Church which still stands on Długie Ogrody and it was a public place where the street was widened specifically so that people could gather. Equally, the Granary Island, with its 300 grain stores and numerous trading boats and people, constituted an important part of the territory’s history as a place of exchange. Broadly speaking, both trading and discursive marketplaces are important loci for encountering difference and for the mixing of people and ideas from different parts of the country and the globe. “Unearthing Delights” aims to (re-)ground visitors and Gdańsk residents alike in the delights of new and unusual encounters typical of a bustling open market.

The market is a key aspect of the curatorial theme. Markets are hubs of social, cultural and historic interaction as well as places of trade and exchange. I am interested in the ways that forms of public art (in this case temporary light-activated installations, performance, video, light projects, sounds and scents) can create moments of surprise, delight and challenge in public places where people from different parts of a city mix and mingle. The Narracje location in Długie Ogrody is both one of these places where people might expect to encounter the surprise of otherness; but it is also a neighbourhood where people who live here might expect that culture reflects their own values and stories in a more comforting, even homely way. This is the intriguing double dynamic in much public art that is deployed for place-making purposes (whether temporary or permanent); making on the one hand for surprising and challenging places; and other making more homely and attractive places for those who live there.

How we engage with and think about the territory and our situation in it, whether as visitor, worker or resident, is not an entirely private matter. Among the various propositions of “Unearthing Delights” we hold that the best public art specifically seeks to create a dialogue between private experience and public action; between art appreciation and the “becoming public” of cultural citizenship. In Narracje 2013 these forces will be energised through the projects and the publication of information about the current situation of the district, people’s past activities in the territory and various aspirations for a transformative future.

By the end of the 17th century Długie Ogrody was only partially occupied and developed; and to this day it has remained as a district without name, without intensive development, without a unified character. For the past 200 years it has constituted an urban-spatial and psycho-geographic field of possibilities. It does not impose a single style, or any particular aesthetic upon visitors. It is attractive for our Narracje project specifically because it is “un-made.” It is the perfect meeting place for things strangely familiar and uncommonly strange.

The projects commissioned for the 2013 programme will address the tension between otherness and homeliness, and between publicness and privacy; and each work, in its own way, will chart a path that softens the anonymity of the public realm with intimate gestures about small places and individual people, local sites and personal relationships, while also pointing to larger issues around trade and exchange and the condition of being on display.

“Unearthing Delights” seeks to help people to re-discover the district and perhaps re-value its status as a fragmented and un-made public domain. The programme aims to shed some light on aspects of the district’s past, particularly the series of long gardens, the open market and its history as a place slightly to the side of “main society” and yet as a place of trade, exchange and dialogue; coupled with its present situation as a neglected area of Gdańsk. “Unearthing Delights” will focus on the district of the Long Gardens as it is rather than seek to redeem or recuperate it. Nevertheless, some sort of transformation is anticipated. What we can especially hope for is the transformation of peoples’ imaginations; given that artists are specialists at uncovering and spotlighting neglected areas of life in ways that reveal their generative potential and thus humanise our predicament.

The Długie Ogrody / Long Gardens territory of the 2013 programme
The Festival trail will commence at Instytut Kultury Miejskiej / City Culture Institute and then move to Gdańska Galeria Miejska / Gdańsk City Gallery (GGM2) before taking in Granary Island and Stągwie Mleczne.
It will then take in the area of the Marina, Ołowianka Island, Kanał na Stępce, Pułkownika Jana Dziewanowskiego and parts of Długa Grobla before returning along Długie Ogrody via the park on Świętej Barbary.

Długie Ogrody: A personal response
One of the principal reasons I am attracted to Długie Ogrody for the 2013 edition of Narracje is because of its neglected, or unloved, but precisely lovable character.
Let us imagine you have inherited some beautiful fabric from you great grandmother. Now let us imaging that this fabric was made into a beautiful dress by your mother when she was a young woman; and now, partly because you value recycling and reusing things, and because you like used clothes, you are wearing this dress now. Let us imagine the fabric is very beautiful; but now it is also very worn and in places almost threadbare and fragile. Therefore you only wear it occasionally. You wear it because it brings you close to your great grandmother and to your mother in her youth. Let us also imagine that there are not even any photos or latters from your great grandmother, only this fabric and the stories and memories of your family; and perhaps also, the genetic traces of your great grandmother that you possess, in the way you gesture with your hands, the way you stand, the quality of your voice.

This is how I feel about the district which doesn’t even really have an official name. It is a district which is a mixture of old and new and it is full of holes, ruins and wasteland. Neglected and marginal; perhaps it is unloved by many; but it is also home to many people, some of whom are elderly and poor and others who are raising young families.

Rob Garrett

appoints Mr Rob Garrett – an independent curator living and working in New Zealand – the curator of the 5. edition of NARRACJE – Installations and Interventions in Public Space that will take place from 14th until 17th November 2013 in Gdansk.

Rob Garrett’s curatorial concept entitled Unearthing Delights refers to the act of exploration of the historical context of the Long Gardens – a part of the city where the next year’s NARRACJE Festival is going to take place and which – until 19th century – hosted a large marketplace and, as the name indicates, long narrow gardens.
The list of artists invited by the curator includes among others: Anna Nordquist Andersson (Sweden), Gregory Bennett (New Zealand), Olga Chernysheva (Russia), Alexandra Guillot (France), Rebecca Ann Hobbs (New Zealand), Juliette Laird (New Zealand), Judy Rifka (US), Daniel von Sturmer (Australia), Ines Tartler (Germany), Raewyn Turner (New Zealand), Where Dogs Run (Russia).
The application sent by Rob Garrett was chosen from among thirteen applications that were sent within the deadline and met the requirements listed in the rules and regulations of the open call.

Steven Matijcio, the jury member and the curator of NARRACJE 2012 about the verdict:
New Zealand based curator and arts impresario Rob Garrett demonstrates impressive passion, creativity, research and innovation in his winning proposal for the 5th edition of the Narracje Festival: Unearthing Delights. Mr. Garrett strongly considered the site’s history as a former garden and marketplace, as well as a current hybrid between evocative ruins and nascent neighborhoods – crafting a vision that is both comprehensive and unconventional. Moreover, he showed abundant passion for the city of Gdansk and the opportunity to connect with its architectural, cultural and social histories. Mr. Garrett has an extensive background in the organization of large scale public art projects, and an expansive network of artists and artworks from which to draw. His fundamental excitement for Narracje is matched only be his well-developed abilities, and I am confident that Unearthing Delights will bring a delightfully surreal lens to reconsider the lost gardens of Gdansk.

The statement of the curator, Rob Garrett, upon the official announcement of the verdict:
I am delighted to be invited to curate the 2013 edition of the Narracje Festival in Gdansk. The chosen district of Długie Ogrody immediately caught my attention for a number of features, particularly its marginal relation to the main city, its so-called underdeveloped character, its long history as a place of gardens and market place, and its proximity to Gdansk’s canals and the old moat. Seemingly neglected in the present day, it is a very attractive location for artists to devise site-specific installations, light and video projects that engage with its current situation as well as unearthing traces of the past.

About the curator: http://www.robgarrettcfa.com/

Rob_Garrett_CV

See you all next year, 14-17 November 2013!

The third day of the Festival is about to start. See you on the NARRACJE route!

The following participants joined the project:
Michał Andrysiak, Kuba Bielawski, Bogna Burska, Krzysztof Leon Dziemaszkiewicz, Dickie Dreams Soundsystem (Krystian Wołowski +M.Bunio.S), Adam Hryniewicki, Piotr Jahołkowski, Radek Kobus (Decay Sound), Tomasz Kopcewicz, Lipali, Honorata Martin, NAVIGATORGONG (Robert Usewicz +Joanna Jordan), Agata Nowosielska, Anna Orbaczewska, Julia Porańska, PGR ART (Robotnik Sztuki Mikołaj Robert Jurkowski, Robotnik Sztuki Sylwester Gałuszka), projekt Cicho, cicho (Olimpia Dębska, Ola Fijałkowska, Emilka Garska, Kama Kania, Karolina Piątkiewicz, Magda Małyjasiak, Adam Nagórski, Karolina Szambelan, Iwona Zając), projekt chlebalin/czerkas/łuniewicz, Queen Bitch (vc kristi), Maja Ratyńska, Maciej Salamon,snake / estern front soundNOsystem, Anna Steller, Studio à Propos, Michał Szlaga, Artur Trzciński, Jolanta Woszczenko, Sebastian Woźniak, Tomasz Wierzchowski, Konrad Zientara, Alina Żemojdzin.

The project is processual. The artists will enter the Telephone Exchange Building no sooner than on 16 November at 5 p.m. During the two days of the project, the viewers will be able to see performances, concerts, installations and exhibitions. The majority of the artists did not return to the building after having left it, so it is not only the visitors who will feel like tourists.

At 9.00 pm in our Festival Club a Polish avant-pop band Ballady i Romanse will give a concert. The club will be located on the shipyard, in 49a Hall and hosted by Cafe Lamus and Avocado Vegan Catering.