February 6, 2016, 12–18:30h
Shedhalle Zurich
Shedhalle Seestrasse 395
CH – 8038 Zurich
Switzerland
Central debates in critical urbanism are concerned with urban citizenship. While the term citizenship ties fundamental rights to the borders of a nation state, to the control of mobility, and permanent residency, urban citizenship is the adaptation of political instruments to the diverse norms of modern metropolises.
A quarter of all Swiss residents are, for the most part, excluded from legal, social, economic, and cultural participation in the city and society because they are not Swiss citizens. The dialogical art project The Whole World in Zurich, conceived at Shedhalle Zurich, proposes to implement urban citizenship in the city of Zurich and elaborates concrete concepts for its local realization, to make Zurich a safe harbour for everyone who lives there and those who will come.
Now, how can concepts of urban citizenship for Zurich articulate themselves? Which concrete interventions into current Swiss migration policies are necessary? Finally, what is the role of art in these processes?
The Harbour Forum The Whole World in Zurich. Doing City. is the third in a series of four. It discusses the urgency and the claims of the project through the lenses of political theory, urban sociology, and art theory and highlights Europe-wide “best practice” models of urban citizenship.
With contributions by:
Mary Jane Jacob (curator, theoretician, Chicago)
Nora Sternfeld (Professor for Curating and Mediating Art, Helsinki)
Oliver Marchart (philosopher and sociologist, Düsseldorf)
Henrik Lebuhn (urban sociologist, Berlin)
About the project
The Whole World in Zurich aims at developing concrete interventions into dominant migration policies; investigates how the concept of urban citizenship can be implemented for the context of Zurich; testing out the feasibility of mentioned interventions; and suggesting them publicly for implementation. In addition, it creates a space where—in the sense of a social utopia—it is possible to collectively contemplate, negotiate, and take political action beyond practical constraints.
The Whole World in Zurich intends to spark a debate on urban citizenship in Zurich and Switzerland, and to stimulate the formation of long-term alliances between various actors across the city. The project’s process-based and interdisciplinary character, the formats of group talks and forums, as well as the collaboration of a multiplicity of actors reflect this claim within the project.
The experiences of socially engaged art projects (focusing on the last 35 years as well as the history of the Shedhalle) are taken into consideration for the development and realization of the project.
During the project, several Harbour Talks are taking place. The harbour talks represent a non-public format, a space in which members of an expert group, as well as representatives of interest groups, decision makers, politicians or employees of public institutions come together, discuss and negotiate.
In three public Harbour Forums, each lasting for a day, local and international actors meet and debate, exchange experiences and learn from one another. The aim of the harbour forums is to enable public debates around the project’s topics and its claims.
The following persons are part of the transdisciplinary expert group:
Martin Krenn (executive artist)
Katharina Morawek (curatorial director/management Shedhalle)
Bah Sadou (activist, Autonome Schule Zürich)
Bea Schwager (director of SPAZ, contact point for Sans Papiers in Zurich)
Dr. Kijan Malte Espahangizi (director, History of Knowledge, ETH / Zurich)
Osman Osmani (trade union secretary for migration, UNIA)
Dr. Rohit Jain (sociologist, scientific officer NCCR—National Center of Competence in Research)
Tarek Naguib (lawyer, expert on protection from discrimination, member of the Komission für Integration der Stadt Bern (Commission for integration of the City of Bern)
In addition to broad expert knowledge, heterogeneous experiences, perspectives, and approaches to the demand for urban citizenship and democratization in Zurich come together in the expert group. All members of the expert group have diverse project experience and are well networked with cultural, anti-racism, and migration policy contexts or are a part of them. These networks should, no least, be activated for the project. The expert group is meeting regularly to define the strategic orientation of the project, and prepare the questions and direction of the harbour talks and harbour forums.
