In 2014 and 2015 we continued to curate ARTTOURS in Stuttgart, a three-year programme of city tours and experiments conceived by a group of local and international artists to explore new ways of interacting with an urban environment, while responding to the politics and potential of the tourism experience.
ARTTOURS concentrates on physical, sensual, intimate and unpredictable encounters with Stuttgart and its inhabitants, encouraging and nurturing an analytical and adventurous approach to navigating a city. The traditional expectations surrounding a ‘city tour’ are redefined and playfully subverted; the consumer becomes the service provider, visitors became guides, the foreign became the familiar, the mundane became the attraction, and destinations became places of departure. The tourist is an active participant, rather than a passive recipient: an explorer, researcher, detective, cartographer, collector, tracker and collaborator.
Tours have included an aerobic work-out-tour through the city centre, an underground adventure to a city that doesn’t exist, a street sweeping ritual rewarded with coffee and cake, a drive in the slowest Porsche in the world, familiar songs in unfamiliar places, a secret political palimpsest of Athens and Stuttgart, an audio tour for lazy days and blisters, and an excursion to the moments that write the every-day history of the city.
Since 2011 ARTTOURS have produced and presented over 30 projects with 38 local and international artists. Projects have attracted a wide-ranging audience demographic, including both international visitors and local residents. Activities have been presented in local, national and international press, in newspapers, magazines, publications, radio and television.
ARTTOURS works together with a range of local and transnational partners to fund and promote our programme and has presented papers and hosted discussions at international conferences and symposiums, such as the ‘International Research Forum on Guided Tours’ in Breda (2013) and ‘in fortbewegung’ in Leipzig (2012).
In the space of three years ARTTOURS has established itself as a national platform for innovative interdisciplinary public art on the boundaries between performance, live art, architecture, intervention and tourism.
Methodology
ARTTOURS present a mixture of new self-produced or co-produced work, existing work that has been re-contextualised for Stuttgart and externally funded guest productions. We work with artists from a range of disciplines, including interventionists, activists, sculptors, fine-artists, architects, video artists, sound artists and radio presenters. Each season of events has a thematic focus, but projects are not restricted to this discourse.
The majority of projects are selected from an open call for projects. This work is placed alongside continued collaboration with a core group of local artists. Each year we host a creative laboratory to help define the curatorial direction for the coming season. Proposals are reviewed, before entering into discussions with selected artists. Most new productions begin with a period of on-site research to develop ideas, prepare for the presentation of the work and establish connections with local artists and institutions. Throughout this process we offer curatorial and production support, assessing needs and negotiating legal or personal requirements.
Website/Facebook
http://www.stuttg-arttours.de
https://www.facebook.com/stuttgarttours
Artists: Sylvia Winkler & Stephan Köperl (Stuttgart), Julia Wenz (Stuttgart), Natascha Moschini (Stuttgart/Bern), Menja Stevenson & Hartmut Landauer (Stuttgart), Kaspar Wimberley & Susanne Kudielka (Stuttgart), Doris Prlic (Linz), qujOchÖ (Linz), Oliver Jungwirth (Graz), Myriam Lefkowitz (Paris), random people (Hamburg), Amy Sharrocks (London), Andrea Knobloch (Düsseldorf), Johannes Langeder (Linz), Mirja Wellmann (Stuttgart), Herbordt/ Mohren (Stuttgart), Andrea Greenwood (London), Chris Wood (London), Duncan Pickstock (London), Bill Aitchison (London), Kristina Förtsch & Co (Stuttgart), Phil Smith (Exeter), Anna Ohno (Stuttgart), Paul Matosic (UK), Heiko Giering (Stuttgart), Francois Lombarts (Amsterdam), Clemens Rudolf (Stuttgart)
Funding partners: Kulturamt der Stadt Stuttgart, Bürgerstiftung Stuttgart, Bezirksbeirat Mitte, Bezirksbeirat Süd, Bezirksbeirat West, Stiftungen Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, Fonds Darstellende Künste, Landesverband Freier Theater Baden-Württemberg, Stadt Linz, Land Oberösterreich Kultur, British Council
Project partners: ifa, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stadtmuseum Stuttgart, Stiftung Geißstraße, Stadtbibliothek Stuttgart, französische Wochen, Institut Francais Stuttgart, Kultur für Alle, Caritas Stuttgart, Fahrräder für Afrika, Kunstpension Anna Ohno, Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim, Stuttgart Nacht, flanerie, teilchen beschleuniger, Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Akademie Schloss Solitude, LIFT
