Corrispondente e fotografo da Napoli per la mostra del NAI

Rotterdam, 28th/19th october 2008
NAI NETHERLANDS ARCHITECTURE INSTITUTE

Exhibition statement
Public space is, in principle, open and accessible to everyone. The My Public Space exhibition reveals how the public character of European public space is under threat because of economic and political shifts. Public space is being privatized in ever greater swathes as a result of governments increasingly adopting free-market policies; it is being thematized in order to boost tourism, and regulated in the interests of public safety. At the same time the ubiquitous influence of market forces is demanding that public space turns a profit. Devoting spaces to specific interest groups necessarily reduces their publicness.

The My Public Space exhibition presents an outline of the history and development of European public space. Eight correspondents conducted research into urban developments in Dublin, Copenhagen, Naples, Barcelona, Rotterdam, Tirana, Brussels and Berlin to determine what has been driving the transformation of public spaces. These studies show that Dublin is the most extensively privatized, free-market extremity of Europe, while on Europe’s eastern rim Tirana has gradually been recovering from post-communist chaos and is rediscovering the concept of public space. The findings of this research are being presented in eight mobile kiosks, themselves an increasingly rare feature in European cities, which from June 28th will be parked at several outdoor locations throughout Rotterdam as well as within the NAI’s own grounds.


Informal use
Even though the living environment is being designed with ever greater specific intent there remain myriad places where people manage to evade the ground-swell of regulations and controls governing their use of public space. People appropriate public space and introduce new ways of using it, thus unceasingly enlivening the cities of Europe. These photographs capturing informal uses of public space were submitted by a diversity of people.

Correspondents for kiosks
Barcelona: Francesc Muñoz, director of the Observatory of Urbanisation. Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona
Berlin: Friedrich von Borries, Matthias Bötgger, Moritz Ahlert, Benjamin Kasten / Raumtaktik
Brussels: Kersten Geers, David van Severen
Dublin: Alan Mee / Alan Mee Architects
Naples: Danilo Capasso, Diana Marrone / N.EST Napoliest Project
Copenhagen: Charles Bessard / Powerhouse Company
Rotterdam: Elma van Boxel, Kristian Koreman / ZUS
Tirana: Paolo Carpi, Lorenzo Laura, Silvia Lupi, Vittorio Pizzigoni, Giacomo Summa, Pier
Paolo Tamburelli, Francesca Torzo and Andrea Zanderigo / Baukuh