Topics and directions of the project

The project 'Lost Free Space' was started by Guy van Belle and Barbara Huber in spring 2006 after the opening of the cultural space 13m3 in Studena/Zlate Piesky. The industrial area is located at the fringes of Bratislava and therefore somehow a Lost Free Space. We started with the approach to combine research and artistical interventions to redraw the lines and appropriate the area for ourselfes. We invited other people - not regarding to their discipline - to participate in the project. Three main topics were the starting point:

• 1.Diachronicity

Collection of stories, facts and other findings from archives as well as from people living, working and crossing the area. Interviews and other forms of investigation will form the tools for this topic.

• 2.Alternative economies

Experimenting with 'other' forms of the standard economy, using the left overs from the former industry that was situated before on the 13 kubikov site, and redesigning them into different other functional and imaginative objects. In this area with an outspoken commercial aesthetics, and a consumer based transaction style, this forces to critical rethinking about the way we 'belong' to certain places. Alternative economies are based on exchange and interaction which will be explored throughout the project. The 'garbage belt' will become an intersting source of design by inventing a re-use for what is considered abandoned and without value.

• 3.Mindmapping

The technique of psychogeography will be used to map the area in yet a different way. Based on the tracking down of companies that have their outlets there, a kind of “mindmap” will connect the economical histories with a critical view on actual developments. The same psychogeographic technique (derive) will be used to explore the area , and be confronted with unexpected views of a place that is no place in many people's eyes.

With these approaches in mind we worked towards an exhibition. The final pieces exhibited were made and created by:
Barbara Huber
Guy van Belle
Michal 'Cuco' Curdnakech
Kristina Pia Hofer

related -> Tagging the Lost Free Space