Opening, December 7, 2006, 5 pm
Exhibition, December 12, 2006 – February 2, 2007
Peter Spillmann, Katja Reichard, Marion von Osten
Throughout the history of human common areas, the park has played the role of both model and stage, functioning as artificial paradise, as a showcase for innovative technologies, as a masterpiece of the latest engineering arts, as proof of man’s mastery over nature, as a mirror of its times, as a celebration of the transformation of ideology into materiality, as a political arena, as governmental terrain, as teatrum mundi, as pars pro toto, and also as a place of retreat, idyll, freedom, as a place outside of society’s utility zones. Another central feature of science & technology parks is their affiliation with existing educational institutions, such as universities and universities of applied sciences. The park concept as a condensed economic and social model therefore influences our ideas about knowledge production, culture and education. Lakeside Park in addition functions as a cultural model that not only promotes art in architecture, but also sponsors critical art projects involving ongoing processes. As artists in the Lakeside Park art space, we no longer represent an outside world, but are insiders here. We view the park in its character as both model and practical example as the attempt to “insource” knowledge and social conscience/commitment into the nucleus of the postfordist economy, while at the same time outsourcing inhibitions to innovation and production areas that are viewed as inferior. Our film is therefore about rationality and affect, the calculation, planning and artificially created/simulated environment that structure the park, and the borderline between inside (model for the future) and outside (the present day in need of development) from the perspective of insourced “parkizens.”
Curated by Christian Kravagna and Hedwig Saxenhuber.
