Art interventions on the occasion of the G8 summit 2007
May 24th – June 9th, 2007 in Rostock
Curator: Adrienne Goehler
The experiment was successful!
Almost 10.000 people have met with enthusiasm the ensemble of Videohall, Kurhaus, Congresscenter and Spa, the presentations of artist’s works in the public space of Rostock, the Volkstheater and St.Mary’s Church during their visit of ■ ART GOES HEILIGENDAMM from May 24 until June 9 in Rostock.
More than 100 artists from 27 nations have contributed their dedication and commitment in 48 projects to form an artist intervention, a first-time large-scale undertaking to critically follow a G8 summit with works of art.
The project had immense appeal to regional and international initiatives in the area of arts and culture often resulting in their ad-hoc affiliation with ■ ART GOES HEILIGENDAMM which further enriched the program and enlarged its overall impact.
The span of attention devoted to individual pieces of art by the audience was in stark contrast to the usual cursory reception of artist works.
The Kurhaus, the newly introduced venue at the Warnow river in Rostock, hosted daily formats like the “artist talk” and the “Harvest of the Day”, where artists introduced and documented their perspective on the daily events surrounding the G8 summit.
raumlabor_berlin has matched the official Heiligendamm turned high-security zone with the “Silver Pearl – Congresscenter and Spa”, a free and publicly available Heiligendamm in Rostock. With the Silver Pearl we have discoverered a hidden place and opened up an urban waste land on the riverfront to cultural use. The great public acceptance has lead local institutions in art and culture to form an intitiative for follow-up use – our contribution to the sustainability of this art project.
Just as the online project KEIN.TV is focused on sustainabilitly in another sense: Focussed on the interface between NGOs, artist approaches and political questions on globalization they provide the media infrastructure to make that interface accessible to the public.
ARTS INITIATIVE TOKIO, an independent cultural institution, will tie in with our experiences to likewise follow the next summit in Hokkaido by means of art.
The aspired funding of ■ ART GOES HEILIGENDAMM out of the state budget for“Art in Construction” has not materialized, but we have managed to procure money from various sources i.e from the G8-Deescalation fund - money well spent.
Many thanks to all our supporters: City of Rostock, State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Heinrich-Boell-Foundation, the Funds for Visual Arts, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance (in the European Parliament), Pro Helvetia, Hamburg Foundation for the Politically Persecuted, Goethe Institute Cairo, STRÖER – German City Media ltd., tageszeitung – and above all to all our private contributors.
A special thanks is due to the City of Rostock, which took on the project as one of its own and with the staff of the Department for Culture and Preservation of Monuments provided an able team for the solution of numerous logistical problems.
Adrienne Goehler, creative director and curator of ■ ART GOES HEILIGENDAMM: “Our conclusion after 17 days – The experiment to extend the resonant space for the arts in society can be considered successful.”
Rostock/Berlin June 10th 2007
