30-10-2003
Presentation of the Office of Alternative Urban Planning

THE OFFICE OF ALTERNATIVE URBAN PLANNING
MANIFESTA 5 IN COLLABORATION WITH THE BERLAGE INSTITUTE

As one programme within the larger Manifesta 5 Biennal, The Office of Alternative Urban Planning (OAUP) is launched on October 30th, 2003 and effectively activates the process of Manifesta 5.

At the initiative of the Manifesta 5 curators in cooperation with the Dean of the Berlage Institute, Alejandro Zaera-Polo, OAUP is part of Berlage's postgraduate laboratory and reflects the broader curatorial initiative of the biennial.

The programme refers to Manifesta 5 as an instrument to explore the city as a project. In consideration of Donostia - San Sebastian as a privileged social site and catalytic trigger, this proposal turns to the architectonics of the city in order to understand the city as a broader territory. The foreseen partnership between Manifesta 5 and the Berlage Institute, as a collaboration between architects and invited artists, proceeds as one of the trajectories within an interdisciplinary contemporary arts biennial that explores how contemporary art may extend and participate in the language of architecture and urban planning. At the same time, OAUP will reflect the real processes and debates endemic Donostia - San Sebastian and its surroundings. Similarly, the project lends to a conceptualization of various futures of a place without departing from the real factors and forces molding the possible developments of Donostia - San Sebastián and neighbouring cities. This way it aims to approach issues related to alterity, bifurcation, bipolarity, autonomy and fracture.

The Partners: Manifesta 5 European Biennal of Contemporary Art and the Berlage Institute Post Graduate Studio Programme. The studio is organized as a collaboration between the Berlage Institute and Manifesta 5 with logistic support from the City of Donostia-San Sebastián, the Diputación Foral of Gipuzkoa and the Basque Government.

The Office of Alternative Urban Planning falls into the curatorial programme of Manifesta 5. Its participants include an international group of six architects, urban planners, landscape designers enrolled in Berlage's PhD programme, and artists selected by the Manifesta 5 curatorial team throughout Fall-Winter 2003.

Manifesta 5 Curators: Marta Kuzma and Massimiliano Gioni

Berlage Institute Studio Programme Tutors: Bernard Caché and Sebastián Khourian

Berlage Institute Participant Architects: Veronica Arcos (Chile), Sannah Belzer (Holland), Constanze Hirt (Germany), Olga Skaba (Poland), Claudia Strahl (Germany), Monica Villate (Colombia).

Duration: The Programme will be developed from the time of its presentation on September 30th, 2003 at the Berlage Institute in Rotterdam and its presentation on October 30th, 2003 in Donostia - San Sebastian, through until the opening of Manifesta 5 on June 11th, 2004. Four separate research visits by the participating architects to Donostia - San Sebastian will be held throughout this period with the collaboration of the invited artists.

The results of this dialogue will be held during the opening of Manifesta 5.

The Logistics: The Studio programme of architects will be steered by the Berlage Institute with a flexible working group to be created in Donostia - San Sebastián The four separate field trips will be held in October, January, March, and April, with a fifth for the opening of Manifesta 5 in June.

The Office of Alternative Urban Planning will be held at the Manifesta 5 office at Arteleku (Kristobaldegi 14, 20014 Donostia - San Sebastián)

Satellite Progamme: Manifesta 5 is planning to schedule academic programming, lectures, and events in conjunction with the programme to explore issues relating to the architecturalisation of space.

The Aim: Manifesta 5's intention in launching this programme is to share the theoretical and conceptual results of the architectural and urban research with selected artists and with the city at large, in an effort to forge a real and substantive collaboration in the development of a shared discourse. The overall goal is to extend beyond statistical analysis and research in the realization of collaborative projects and interventions to be discussed throughout the duration of Manifesta 5 and within the frame of its exhibition in Summer 2004.