Public art workshop “Ephemeral monuments”

Workshop leader: Ivana Sidzimovska

Workshop dates: 7-10 June 2011


Maximum number of participants: 6 - 8

Target Group:
Young fine art students / young artists (with/without Art Degree), experience in artistic projects is required, experience with working in public space is preferable but is not a condition.


Workshop description:

The city is not a summary of architectural buildings, the city is created performatively as a result of public actions and social processes, everyday situations and happenings, thus the city is changing permanently and is always newly produced. (Abstract from the press text of „Performing the city“ Symposium Lothringer 13, Munich, 2008)

Opposite to the idea of monuments, seen as artistically created objects, set for a long time at one certain place, with the aim to remind the public of a past event or national personalities, the idea of ephemeral monuments, on the other hand, urges the importance of everyday situations and currently significant events.
Using the method of derive (English – drift), an unplanned tour through an urban landscape directed entirely by the feelings evoked in the individuals by their surroundings, the aim of the workshop is to experience different atmospheres and feelings generated by the urban landscape, in contrast to the predictable and monotonous experience of the everyday life.
In the form of performances, speeches, walking, objects, planting etc. from a subjectively chosen situation an ephemeral (only for a short time, fleeting, without permanent meaning) monument should be created.