Dedicated to critical cultural production at the intersection of art and activism.

We cover artists from around the globe whose work explores and realizes social change. Our goal is to provide a narrative about these activist efforts while simultaneously participating in them. Maintained by The Groundswell Collective since 2007.

City Mine(d) – Urban Interventionists Extraordinaire

James David Morgan wrote this post at 3:39 pm on June 24th, 2009.

Belgium, London, and Barcelona host offices of the nonprofit City Mine(d), an organization that creates interventions in public spaces and supports similarly-minded people and initiatives.  With more than 70 interventions to their name, City Mine(d) is accredited, living up to their self-description as a “production house.”

Generalized Empowerment: Urban Forum by City Mine(d)

Several influential initiatives have come out of City Mine(d), whose action-research arm, Generalized Empowerment, revisits and scrutinizes each action, feeding back a constant commentary on the influence of their interventions on urban development.

PRECARE

Precare, for example, is responsible for 14 building reappropriations, serving since 1999 as an intermediary between property-owners of temporary vacant premises and artistic or social initiatives in need of workspace.

After a first phase of informal support, (1999 – 2003 ), and a second more systematic laboratory phase in which instruments were designed, tested and disseminated ( 2003 – 2005 ), PRECARE has been working in a structural way on the actual use of a series of creative workspaces in empty buildings for almost two years.

City Mine(d) is currently in the stages of pre-planning Precare’s extension into London and Barcelona.

Towards a subjective collective cartography

Another, Towards A Subjective Collective Cartography, is an attempt to represent the territory of Brussels in a subjective way, done in collaboration with Recyclart, Constant, and the graphic designers from Speculoos.

Trésor

Towards has divided into two parts, one resulting in the creation of a subjective atlas of Brussels, the other (Trésor) a concatenation of existing cartographic softwares, aimed at extending their functionality.

An ongoing list of City Mine(d) projects, including those in which the organization played a support role, is available on their website.

Related posts:

  1. City from Below: Resisting Gentrification in the Creative City
  2. Define “Urban Wilderness” at ElectroSmog with the Urban Wilderness Action Center
  3. Seeding the City
  4. City from Below Reportback
  5. Off to the City from Below Conference!


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