Engaging with the Neighbourhood

During our stay in the city, we were building relations with people of a specific neighbourhood by engaging with local communities. Our goal was participation, that means to invite citizens into a collective creative action.

During the residency, we developed a daily Public Breakfast at the central station to get in contact with the inhabitants of the city. Near the piano and inside the central station, we created a place for encounter by sharing a usually private moment of the day. 

We also transformed the gallery of Kunstpodium T into a colourful and alive Public Living Room – a place where everyone was welcome in the evening for a collective meal, for sharing stories and to be themselves. Over the time the visitors became participants and owners of the space, making decisions and taking responsibility. 

After exploration of the city and making connections, we decided to focus on the neighbourhood of Loven and to collaborate with the socio-cultural organizations of the area: The Living Museum and the Buurthuis de Wissel. Through listening to and living with the people in the neighbourhood, we realized that many experience an urge to express themselves artistically. We therefore decided to organize an Art Parade, in form of a moving exhibition, a celebration of the work that had been collectively developed.

Parade 

After three weeks of collective preparation with the kids in the Neihgbourhood centre De Wissel and artists for the Living Museum Tilburg we invited everyone to join the City Art Parade on Friday the 12th of November.

The parade took 3 hours starting from De Wissel and ending with a collective dinner at Kunstpodium T. On our way we passed Peduaplein, Wilhelminapark, De Pont Museum, Spoorpark and the Central Station. We carried banners with all kind of expressions and performed at the stops in movement, music and spoken word.  

It was an incredible experience and a step towards a participatory public space that is formed by the collective actions of citizens. 

Exhibition opening/collective meal

For the final moment of our residency we invited everyone for a collective meal. In the gallery space the visitors could experience the public living room that we have established in the prior three weeks by opening up the space to the citizens of Tilburg. 

Further, all the banners and other residues of the parade were exhibited as learning objects to tell the story about our project. 

Next to that the visitors could see an exhibition by the The Living Museum Tilburg. The Living Museum is a space that welcomes everyone to express themselves through art including people with trauma and addiction background. We as a collective decided to open up the exhibition space to everyone who we met along our way in Tilburg. This created a magical atmosphere during the opening by blurring and dissolving the boundaries of what some would call amateur art, outsider art, contemporary art and everyday life. It was an incredible learning experience. 

Big thanks to all artists, participants and visitors and everyone  who expressed themselves in the spontaneous public stage.