Human Cities Festival 2012
Reclaiming Public Space

For the second strand of the Human Cities project, called “Reclaiming Public Space”, the network has been enlarged to several cultural and associated partners such as Time Circus (BE), Prostoroz (SLO) and Esterni (IT) in order to reflect and focus on a broader range of creative interventions and appropriation initiatives of urban public space by its users.

In Spring 2012, Brussels will host its second Human Cities festival where scientific and cultural actors will stress bottom-up initiatives set up by citizens, artists and associations that re-shape the forms and appropriation of public space. The results of the third call for entries “Places To Be – Upcycling : Urban Readymades” – which will be launched in Milan during the Public Design Festival in April 2011 -, will illustrate this topic, while a scientific colloquium and workshops will gather many experts who want to share their findings and experiences in order promote user-friendly, participatory approaches for many players and users of the city. Those initiatives enriched by an enabling kit and a documentary on Public Benches, especially designed by HC partners, will offer to the professionals and a broad public the necessary tools that will help them reclaiming the public space.

During several days, local and international cultural actors will develop initiatives in the public space from art interventions, design installations, urban walks and pedagogical or public art workshops. These “human-centred” initiatives could be individual or collective, material and immaterial (neighbourhood festivities, services, mobilization, performances, testing of the enabling toolkit, video screenings …). A wide range of local and international organisations will contribute to the success of this Spring festival in Brussels from which will result short and long term impacts on the city and on the urban context of its European partners.