USE THE C!TY FESTIVAL

12 - 14th june 2009, Košice

Project description:

The slogan of the project INTERFACE, with which Košice won the title of the European Capital of Culture for 2013, is ‘USE THE CITY'. It invites the citizens of the city - its users - to go out into its streets and take an active part in the city's public life; it invites them to engage with the art and culture offered by the urban space, and with one another.

It is the aim of the street art festival of the same name - the USE THE C!TY FESTIVAL - to showcase all forms, genres and faces of street art. The festival's programme will combine the presentation of work by Slovak and international artists with a variety of community-based activities. The programme will feature a broad range of subcultures and street art styles and genres, innovative forms of intervention into the public space and various ways of transforming the urban space. It will also contain non-artistic activities aimed at mobilising the general public. One of the aims of the festival is to initiate discussion about the possibilities offered by non-traditional art forms, using various artistic, cultural and civic interventions into the public space. Thus public education will form a significant part of the festival.

It is envisaged the festival will become an annual flagship event of the project KOŠICE INTERFACE 2013. The key aim of the festival is the revitalisation of the city (and primarily its out-of-centre areas) and to open-up a creative and direct dialogue between street artists and the public. A number of artists, art groups and citizen initiatives are actively involved in the production of interesting street art in Košice and the surrounding region, and this festival aims to present and support their work.

The key programmatic lines of the festival:

-          PERFORMANCE AND VISUAL ARTS IN THE PUBLIC SPACE (street theatre, performances, happenings, multimedia and videoart)

-          ARTISTIC EXPRESSIONS OF DIFFERENT SUBCULTURES, different forms of urban cultures and new types of activities offered by the urban environment (graffiti, hip-hop, slam poetry, breakdance, skateboard, parcours, city games)

-          INTERVENTIONS INTO THE PUBLIC SPACE (architecture and transformation of contemporary urban spaces)

-          DIRECT AND INDIRECT MOBILISATION OF THE PUBLIC (flash mobs, expressions of civic activism, public discussions)

Target groups:

-          the Košice art scene (fine and visual arts, theatre, literature)

-          slovak and international street-art artists

-          art critics, theoreticians and publicists

-          the subculture environment, minority cultures and marginalised groups of young people

-          young people with an interest in art, culture and social and public affairs, as well as with an interest in the city and the possibilites of its transformation

-          high school and university students and teachers

-          children, their parents and the citizens of Košice at large

Links to partners and participants of the festival:

- OMA (AT) - www.tagtool.org

- PAUL CURTIS / Moose (UK) - www.symbollix.com

- MARTA JONVILLE (FR) - www.myspace.com/martalala

- Aron Tesfaye + LMC hip-hop skola (SK) - www.lilmitucrew.com

- DJ ORDOEUVRE (FR) - www.myspace.com/ordoeuvre

- STANICA PROJEKT (SK)- www.myspace.com/stanicaprojekt

- LACO STRIKE + STREETDANCE AKADEMY - www.streetdance.sk

- ALTERNATIVE - www.mrmaros.sk

- OZ FLEDA- www.slampoetry.sk

- HALIGANDA - www.haliganda.sk

- DIVADLO BEZ OPONY - www.divadlobezopony.sk

Contact person:

Christian Potiron / Miroslava Rybarova / Romana Maliti

festival@kosice2013.sk

055/6854 299

www.kosice2013.sk

The USE THE CITY FESTIVAL is a priority event of the project Košice - European Capital of Culture 2013. It will take place annually, and it is foreseen it will grow year-on-year both in terms of its programme and the types of events it includes.  The festival aspires to become a unique event in the area of street art in Slovakia.