Mohar Kalra

The Galoprennbahn in Sebaldsbrück, what some have claimed is the best candidate to become Bremen’s Tempelhoferfeld, is a bizarre and intriguing site of contention in Bremen. Closed in 2018 and stuck in development limbo since, it has been administered by the ZwischenZeitZentrale and turned temporarily into a greenspace connecting residents of Vahr and Sebaldsbrück. In collaboration with the ZZZ, participants in this class will have access to the Galoprennbahn as a playground for the summer months, culminating in a one week intervention/exhibition/public-something on the race track’s 30 hectares of land. Drawing from various theoretical, practical and aesthetic methodologies to approach public space, the class is interested in how overlooked spaces in the urban fabric can become fertile ground for collective narratives to form. Every place in the city is the result of layers of natural and artificial forces converging on one spot. Each of these layers resonate, sometimes together, sometimes on their own, and each carries a small kernel of truth about that place. Perhaps it is a subjective truth, but it is a truth that can be shared nonetheless. These truths can be unearthed in many ways. (Environmental) historical, economic, semiotic, ecological, sociopolitical, communal, speculative, obsessive, generative, embodied or personal investigations into space all are good tactics. To then intervene in public space, to hold tight to the truth one found and resonate with it, like an antenna, in a space shared by many others has the radical potential to draw others into a shared narrative - where a collective interpretation of space grows out of one’s subjective one. And in a period where people are increasingly atomized from their broader communities, living parallel narratives that rarely coincide, creating moments of shared presentness is particularly urgent. Today, on the grassy loop where prized thoroughbreds owned by the Jacobs coffee magnate once ran, one typically finds couples walking their dogs or neighbors out for a stroll. Even in its undefined state, the Galoprennbahn is a commons, with people interested in making something of it. We will join this commons, weighing carefully what it means and what unpredictable possibilities arise when invited to make art in a context that is not only ours to define. Small, quiet, ephemeral interventions may even converse better with the space than monumental gestures. The class is a block seminar and will be divided into three 2-day blocks spanning from July to September. Sessions will be in English and attendance is mandatory to all sessions. The first two blocks will be divided between practical/technical workshops (material techniques to build durable structures outdoors, and a workshop on writing project proposals to gain community, governmental and financial support for a public project), as well as discursive seminars reflecting on artistic strategies and texts about working in public commons. The final block will focus on installation and preparation of the one-week exhibition on the Galoprennbahn at the end of the class. Students will be expected to spend time present at the exhibition over its week duration, both to engage with passersby and maintain their works in this uncontrolled environment. The “care” of a work outside can also become an integral part of the work’s concept. The class size will be capped at 12 participants. --- The Galoprennbahn in Sebaldsbrück, what some have claimed is the best candidate to become Bremen’s Tempelhoferfeld, is a bizarre and intriguing site of contention in Bremen. Closed in 2018 and stuck in development limbo since, it has been administered by the ZwischenZeitZentrale and turned temporarily into a greenspace connecting residents of Vahr and Sebaldsbrück. In collaboration with the ZZZ, participants in this class will have access to the Galoprennbahn as a playground for the summer months, culminating in a one week intervention/exhibition/public-something on the race track’s 30 hectares of land. Drawing from various theoretical, practical and aesthetic methodologies to approach public space, the class is interested in how overlooked spaces in the urban fabric can become fertile ground for collective narratives to form. Every place in the city is the result of layers of natural and artificial forces converging on one spot. Each of these layers resonate, sometimes together, sometimes on their own, and each carries a small kernel of truth about that place. Perhaps it is a subjective truth, but it is a truth that can be shared nonetheless. These truths can be unearthed in many ways. (Environmental) historical, economic, semiotic, ecological, sociopolitical, communal, speculative, obsessive, generative, embodied or personal investigations into space all are good tactics. To then intervene in public space, to hold tight to the truth one found and resonate with it, like an antenna, in a space shared by many others has the radical potential to draw others into a shared narrative - where a collective interpretation of space grows out of one’s subjective one. And in a period where people are increasingly atomized from their broader communities, living parallel narratives that rarely coincide, creating moments of shared presentness is particularly urgent. Today, on the grassy loop where prized thoroughbreds owned by the Jacobs coffee magnate once ran, one typically finds couples walking their dogs or neighbors out for a stroll. Even in its undefined state, the Galoprennbahn is a commons, with people interested in making something of it. We will join this commons, weighing carefully what it means and what unpredictable possibilities arise when invited to make art in a context that is not only ours to define. Small, quiet, ephemeral interventions may even converse better with the space than monumental gestures. The class is a block seminar and will be divided into three 2-day blocks spanning from July to September. Sessions will be in English and attendance is mandatory to all sessions. The first two blocks will be divided between practical/technical workshops (material techniques to build durable structures outdoors, and a workshop on writing project proposals to gain community, governmental and financial support for a public project), as well as discursive seminars reflecting on artistic strategies and texts about working in public commons. The final block will focus on installation and preparation of the one-week exhibition on the Galoprennbahn at the end of the class. Students will be expected to spend time present at the exhibition over its week duration, both to engage with passersby and maintain their works in this uncontrolled environment. The “care” of a work outside can also become an integral part of the work’s concept. The class size will be capped at 12 participants.