Some reflections from Pop-up City #11 photographic session at Giardini Margherita, Bologna.

During the past year we worked on investigating some bottom-up actions and informal practices able to transform and enhance public space and its perception in the city of Bologna.

Our challenge was: can we deliver a powerful idea of the surrounding everyday space, often taken for granted, through a single picture? Together with the photographer and member of our Board of Consuls Fabio Mantovani we looked for different locations, sometimes hidden or car-crossing spaces, sometimes suburban places, that we intended to enlighten. Working together with Fabio means putting yourself in the line, leaving the mind open to unforeseen experimentations.

One of our locations was the biggest park in the city of Bologna, the Giardini Margherita. In this park in the Seventies you could even find some lions who lived in a dedicated cage, in a sort of small successful zoo. Today the lions are no longer there but the space they were living in has remained: once the grid was removed, a raised platform and a wall were erected, someone then painted a mural representing a jungle. The collective memory of this place is still so vivid and strong in the Bologna community that even today’s teenagers, who never saw the lions, meet at “the cage of lions”.

Close to this meeting point there’s a primary school: every afternoon, as after-school activity, lots of children get out and meet at “the cage of lions” place, to stay and play, together with their parents.

Last April we launched on our website a national competition for short films, entitled "Beyond the Ideal City", as a part of the "Past Present and Future of Public Space" international research activity, involving art, architecture and urban design, in partnership with Cineteca di Bologna and Ottagono.com. The deadline for submitting proposals was June 3, 2014.

According with the competition announcement, we were planning to award the winner on June 25, during the cinema session of the "Past Present and Future of Public Space" international conference, that took place in Bologna, June 25-27. We created a Facebook page for this event, look here to get more news of what happened!
But just few days before the conference, while we were watching the submitted proposals and discussing with the jury, we received the offer from Cineteca di Bologna to include our competition in the next "Visioni Italiane" [Italian Visions] Festival, a well-known Italian competition for short films. That was really a great offer for us!
Together with Ottagono.com we decided to postpone the call for proposals, as a brand new section of the Cineteca Festival, entitled "Urban Visions | Beyond the Ideal City".

The international conference "Past Present and Future of Public Space," which will take place next June 25-27 in Bologna (Italy), is getting closer! But there is still time to contribute.
We are very proud to announce that City Space Architecture in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna and Ottagono.com have just launched a national competition for short films, called "Beyond the ideal city".
Not just words then, but also images, stories and emotions to describe and discuss the Past Present and Future of Public Space. In line with the international academic research project, the main purpose of this competition is to investigate the contemporary city, the connections, intersections and urban activities that take place inside it, seen through complex social issues, contexts and human geographies. Forgetting those seducing shapes of the ideal city, the competition asks to explore the public realm beyond the stereotypes and well-known images of consumerism, looking for hidden aspects that our eyes, deliberately or unconsciously, in the daily experience don't want or cannot see.
The deadline for sending short films is June 3, 2014. No registration fee is required.
On June 25, during the international conference, in a special session at Cinema Europa (via Pietralata 55), the jury will award the winner in front of a large audience, with the "Prize Ottagono.com", worth euro 2,000 in cash. The short film will then be presented and discussed.
The competition announcement (in Italian) can be downloaded HERE (as a .pdf file).

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ART, ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DESIGN
Bologna, Italy, 25-27 June 2014

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"Past present and future of public space" is an Italian project, developed as an academic postdoctoral research activity by our President Luisa Bravo during the past two years, at the Department of Architecture, University of Bologna (Italy). It aims to explore new dimensions of public realm and to discuss results of research activities, through a multidisciplinary approach, on public space and related topics, comparing theories and projects with advisors and correspondents from different contexts.
Started in 2012, the project has  involved many international scholars and professionals.
First results were presented and discussed at the Biennale dello spazio pubblico on May 2013 in Rome, during an international session promoted by City Space Architecture and coordinated by our President Luisa Bravo, and then published in a special issue of the open access e-journal "IN_BO. Ricerche e progetti per il territorio, la città e l'architettura", entitled "The public space of education", edited by Luisa Bravo and Claudio Sgarbi. During the Roman session a call for proposals has been launched in order to invite scholars, architects, urban designers, planners, photographers and artists to join the project. 
The research project was then discussed in Bologna, on 9 November 2013 during a symposium and exhibition at Quartiere San Vitale, Municipality of Bologna, promoted by City Space Architecture.
The international conference that will take place in Bologna, next 25-27 June 2014, is intended to be the final result of this research activity, as a large public event.

During the Art City White Night, a special event within “Arte Fiera. International Fair of Modern and Contemporary Art”, on January 25, 2014, we presented [The urban lounge and a green view], a collaborative project developed with bAQ, a young group created in Florence by several students from the Faculty of Architecture.
Our installation took place in Via Santo Stefano 7, in the urban core of the city of Bologna, close to the Leaning Towers, within the footprint of 2.5 by 10 meters of two parking spots. From 6:00 pm to midnight we transformed a small outdooor space into a private/public domestic living room and its garden. 
We met many citizens from Bologna and had a fun and pleasant time with them and with our friends, sitting on the sofa or surrounded by the nature. They all shared our vision of a road made for people to meet and socialize, with a very positive attitude and a friendly interest. Thanks you all!

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[To read and download the first edition of our magazine "la Res publica" (in Italian),

click on the image]