Participatory Public Art — Collective Action. A project of FORUM STADTPARK in cooperation with the Styrian Institute for Public Space (KiöR). Conceived and organized by artists Nayarí Castillo, Franziska Hederer, Robin Klengel, Margarethe Maierhofer-Lischka, Heidrun Primas, Helene Thümmel, Clara Wildberger, Nikolaos Zachariadis.
On the 10th of December of 2017, the Day of Human Rights, we attempted to gather 1248 people at the human rights square in Stadtpark Graz. Using the entire surface of the FORUM STADTPARK, and at a distance of 1,8m of each other in a sextile pattern, the whole area around the fountain was prepared to be filled up with human beings.
During an intense pre-production period of eight months, the core team of artists worked on the preparations for the action by having bi-weekly meetings, intensive gatherings, workshops, several artistic mini-experiments, and four spot-talks or liminal conversations mapping and understanding the place. A liminal conversation is an event where all stakeholders talk about space’s problems on[1]site. Some of these talks were overly political and revealed the controversies and disputes over the communal open space.
Finally, on the 10th of December 2017, at 7:33, around 500 hundred persons came together to stand silently in a field. In a powerful statement of commitment for a better future and aligned next to each other, the bodies create an organic monument, a temporary sculpture, a network, bodies in an alliance. This stand-together was a signal of determination: standing for humanity in a collective form, a hopeful monument. A statement. A field of empathy.
Position in Project: Artist, co-curator, co-organizer of the event, designer, and editor of the catalog.
