UrbanFestival Zagreb 2005

UrbanFestival Zagreb 2005

"UrbanFestival began in 2000 and the start of the program was in 2001. In its five editions so far, it deals with the questions of public space and the public in the narrow sense through its thematic focuses, selection, but also specific organizational forms and experimental variations thereof. In the social climate of increasing privatization of public space, social atomization and a very intimate and individual consummation, it seems very important to keep opening and maintaining spaces of collective consummation, with the active participation of the wide audience and public. From the starting point of the transformative potential of art and culture as mechanisms of progress, we proceeded to the regular realization of the program in places accessible to the widest public (squares, parks, traffic infrastructure, shopping malls...), outside the protective walls of galleries and theaters. The basic tendence is the infiltration of artistic activity into urban life, intensifying the communication between the urban population and the city and its infrastructure. The works presented aim the problems and specifics of urban life, provoke the townspeople to think about their everyday life and include them in the realization - the spectators are by no means passive consumers of a cultural program, but active participants, coauthors of the projects."