Field research

During the research phase regular exchange meetings will be organized in which participants will share their work and engage with invited experts in both parks. Bill Wei (RCE), senior researcher for Cultural Heritage will organize a number of expert meetings using the method of the ‘Socratic Dialogue’. The objective of this method is to create an open space for questioning, in order to understand each other and to deepen the research. These meetings will become a focus point for sharing the research and project plans of all participants, some of whom focus on both parks, some on just one of them.

In Rome, 13 international artists will work together with scholars and (master) students from VU/CLUE+ and other universities and academies, as well as with architects, practitioners and stakeholders from the Parco Regionale dell’Appia Antica. The participating artists will embark on a “research expedition” to develop concepts for their works, using ethnographic observation methods and working with local knowledge and oral history. During the research period (autumn 2018 and spring 2019) the artists have the possibility to work in the park and at the headquarters of the Appian Park, the ‘Ex-Cartiera’. Artists, scholars and stakeholders will be meeting regularly to exchange ideas with each other. In collaboration with the Roman Accademia di Belli Arti we also organize several expert meetings at the academy. Here the artists present the status of their research in exchange with students of the art academy.

The same sort of research expeditions will take place in the Amstelpark in Amsterdam with collaborations between the artists and designers with scholars, stakeholders, practitioners from CLUE+ and the park. Here, the aim is to study the history of the Floriade park, as well as its integration into the rapidly transforming urban context of the Amsterdam Zuidas. Between winter 2018 and spring 2019, the artists will develop their research in the park, for which we involve various experts including ecologists, park managers and gardeners, landscape designers as well as local knowledge, depending upon the specific research questions posed by the artists. During this period several expert meetings will be organized to allow for continuous exchange of information and approaches. In addition, artists and designers will be offered excursions through the park by several experts, in order to learn more about the different aspects of the material, ecological, social and architectural aspects of the park. In this way an enormous amount of knowledge will be collected about the Amstelpark.

Results

The research in Rome and Amsterdam will run simultaneously with lectures by specialists at physical locations, guided tours, exchange meetings, workshops and a project website on which all the research will be collected. Final presentations of the research will take place at both the Parco Regionale dell’Appia Antica and the Amstelpark in the form of talks, excursions or performances for which the public is invited to participate. On April 17, 2019 the research phase on the Via Appia Antica will be concluded with a final symposium at the Ex-Cartiera in Rome. Here the results of the research will be shared with the partners, stakeholders, artists as well as with the art students from the Accademia di Belli Arti in Rome, students from Urban Planning of the Sapienza Roma, as well as resident students of the Royal Dutch Institute (KNIR), and a wider audience. In the Amstelpark, artists will present their research in various forms, such as excursions, workshops, interventions or presentations.

The research that has been conducted will result in concrete proposals for new artworks and projects. For the Roman part, we will organize a manifestation in the late summer of 2019 at the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam. The projects resulting from the Amstelpark research will be realized in the autumn of 2019 in a two month exhibition in het Glazen Huis and various locations outside in the Amstelpark. In November 2019 we will organize a final presentation/manifestation in the Headquarters of the Appian Park in Rome (with exhibition halls, conference room and open air theatre). In this process we also include the municipalities which we hope to challenge with alternative views and perspectives on the future of the parks and their connection to a changing city. During this period a symposium will be organized in Amsterdam in which we will present and discuss the various methodologies and interpretative schemes for artistic research on heritage landscapes.