Platz nehmen #3: Right of Passage - Wegerecht

Public space is an open and free space in the general memory. A space that does not have to be fought for, but is available to all and can be used equally. A lofty illusion. The right to maintain a public space has always had to be obtained. It is only by entering and passing through that a space is claimed and at the same time democratically negotiated. This "Right of Passage" is always also a political act. It creates a transition from the opening of one's own individual space to a social public space: I trust my counterpart and share a communal space. The public space is therefore the framework of trust and the shared understanding of accepting each other and giving each other space. This process must be protected and guaranteed as fundamentally equal.

The artists approach the freely accessible Schillerplatz, which surrounds the academy, with this awareness: to be politically active. We have a common understanding of the need to change communal space with artistic means. This does not require audible politicians or institutional languages, but rather a very own socialized artistic assumption of connected and consenting thought and action: By standing and walking together, we can grow, be audible and visible, can determine and shape social space. A small artistic revolutionary moment that produces fascial and synaptic growths and miracles.

With Platz nehmen #3: Right of Passage - Wegerecht we want to make visible how visual art uses its means to convey the concerns of democracy, the public sphere and public space and invite participation. In the first part of the event, British artist Hamish Fulton, who has been internationally renowned as a walking artist since the early 1970s, will hold one of his open movement performances in Vienna with the public at Schillerplatz. For 40 years, the artist has been planning his performances in public, urban spaces worldwide, which could not be more radical and simple in their approach to nature and people than perceiving the world by walking.

All of the following artistic contributions and projects by students at the event are curated by Miya Yoshida and complement the two-hour program.

Hamish Fulton, born in 1942, is a British photographer, conceptual artist, painter and sculptor. Since 1972 he has created works based exclusively on the experience of walking and the human walk in the environment and calls himself a Walking Artist. He realizes his walks and guided performances in a variety of media, including photography, illustrations and wall texts. His work is represented in major museum collections such as Tate Britain and MoMA. He has participated in Documenta 5, 6, and 7.