E9 - Result Sharing with Policymakers - Vienna (Austria)

Our creative campaign benchmarking - colors of love took place under difficult conditions around the pandemic on September 11, 2020 on the Danube Canal on the district side of the 3rd district of Vienna in good weather. On this autumn day, 15 benches and 2 tables were redesigned. Neighbors, artists and politicians worked together on this day to redesign a space in the public space. Although the people implemented the action for themselves and individually entered into an open artistic dialogue with themselves, in the end this individual process was integrated into a larger whole.

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The added value of this campaign can be seen on different levels:

• It spread a good mood to take part in this active artistic activity. The participants were not assessed and did not need any previous knowledge - they were accepted as they are and what they designed was good. This point is very important after this difficult and uncertain time around the world around Corona in which people were afraid. The meaning of art should also be discussed here. Art can touch and move people inside, give hope and strength, we saw that on the designed benches and the joy that the participants showed during the event.
   
• People from different living environments have come together and have implemented a large project together, which will be maintained for a long time or will continue to develop. They say there is no one world, everyone lives in their own world that overlaps with the worlds of the others. On this day the most diverse realities of life met, from football enthusiasts, politicians, artists to neighbors. Each person has individually embarked on an artistic process, although not everyone was an avowed artist. The people faced their individual artistic challenge and went through this process individually. Therefore, one can also raise the thesis that everyone is an artist and thus also capable of artistic creation in a courageous, individual way. What also impressed was the mutual appreciation of the people involved in their actions and the resulting output. Even if each bank was individual, it was part of an entire project and an entire process.
• Public Art: benchmarking colors of love aims to temporarily enliven public spaces in an art campaign. Animate a public space with something new - public goods such as benches - animate it, make it more colorful, tear it away from the gray harmony and make it free for passers-by to consume. The action does not end when the action ends - even if the project is completed in one day, it continues with the participation of the people afterwards. How are the benches treated in sequence? Which days will be added over time? The work of art lives and is subsequently brought to life by people, in that it remains an art action and an art surface after the bank has been turned into an art surface. We see that art is a continuing process that is in development and changes through participation.
•  Added value from Public Art and BenchMarking - colors of love: By participating in this process, it was possible to make the City of Vienna tangible. In addition, it was possible to redesign and create a pre-determined environment for the existing park benches in an individual creative process. As a result, each participant was able to appropriately acquire a piece of public space through creativity and make it their own without stealing something from someone else, which is often associated with appropriation. A non-violent process of love towards creativity in public spaces.

This afternoon, as in the first workshop, it became clear again: Everyone is an artist and everyone is part of our social sculpture. Everyone has skills and talents and can use them creatively.

Everyone is an artist AND every bank is a work of art

Wiener SPÖ-Bildung