The programme had range of projects that position themselves interestingly in spaces that were unexpected. This created the opportunity for residents to rethink their relationship to the transient spaces that exist with in the city, which become public through how they are constituted. The festival utilised several site across the city: a view site that looked across the city, a tunnel used by vehicles and pedestrians that connects different parts of the city and a washhouse where people pay to have there laundry done. In working in each of the specific space the festival was able to create a context were residents are able to reflect across multiple site on different elements that are impacting on their immediate environment and themselves. The project in the washhouse, worked with the women who did the washing to produce painted baskets. An incredible outcome of this process was a series of stories were captured of each of the women complex relationship to water as both life giving force and as a commodity.
The project is nominated for several reason: 1) the care it took in the choice of where the works were sited and the subtly of its social messaging, relying on the performativity of the work to highlight the social and spatial relations that are inform our understanding of space. These were used to trigger the necessary conversation that need to be had amongst residents about their relationship to their immediate environment. 2) The continued attempt to grow the capacity in city to hold a developing contemporary art scene, give resident the space to imagine new possibilities for the role of art.
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