2011, Jan 28-29, Birkbeck University, London
Conference: LEARNING FROM BARCELONA: ART, REAL ESTATE AND THE PRE-OLYMPIC CITY
This two-day workshop brought together for the first time academics, social activists and artists from Barcelona and London to discuss, through position papers and the showing of participants’ artistic and cultural production, how the Olympic Games in each of the two cities influence the production of political cultures and art. The project has as its cultural horizon the 2012 London Olympic Games and the discussions around the phenomenal impact that winning a bid to host the games has on the built environment, heritage and conditions of living for the city dwellers, but also on the artistic and cultural production by and of the city. In a context of comparison and dialogue between its two cities, the workshop looked particularly at how local artists and cultural and political activists have joined forces to call attention to and help transform the way in which local lives are being affected by these big events.
Find a copy of my presentation below