The 28th State: European Borders in an Age of Anxiety
The Chelsea Programme / Tate Britain symposium kicks in the 24th October, with the title ‘The 28th State: European Borders in an Age of Anxiety.’
The symposium questions how artists and curators in Europe are currently engaging with ideas around borders, nationhood, social organisation and collaboration. What is role of art within this context, particularly in relation to the current state of European politics and increasing social unease within many rapidly changing populations?
I will be presenting Participatory Architectures (archive, memory, revolution), a work in progress, in collaboration with Ines Amado and the participation of Lucia Marques.
Participatory Architectures presents the results of the first field trip to Meia Praia, Algarve, for an investigative art project focused on the politics of space and mobility in the Southern Europe. It unfolds the architectural archive of the SAAL- the housing programme initiated after the Portuguese revolution of 1974- in the context of the touristic coastline of the European Union.
The quarter 25th April, made out of 41 houses built collectively by the so-called Índios (Indigenous) of Meia Praia is a radical experiment in participatory architecture, articulating the strong association between the local community and the littoral, a linkage that transformed the quarter into the vulnerable target of a spatial segregation campaign since the extinction of the SAAL programme in 1976.
The first phase of the Participatory Architectures project, is a cumulative work tracing the historic migration route of the Índios of Meia Praia, the SAAL archives, and the memory of the site in the context of current media representations of the case. The presentation will discuss the project within an ethics of artistic intervention, exploring technological platforms and an architectural re-enactement that mobilises archives and collective memory for an installation at the Parade Ground in 2010.