Townhall Meeting: Empathetic Exchange
Performances and discussions,
presented by the project SPACEX – Spatial Practices in Art and Architecture for Empathetic Exchange
The SPACEX
Townhall meeting in Vienna is a major public event at the final stage of SPACEX and focusses on "Empathetic Exchange“
as vital topic of SPACEX: To discuss and make the goals of SPACEX tangible, for counteracting right wing demagogies in Europe
and enhancing democratic values through artistic and socially engaged strategies and projects of art and architecture. Especially
in the perspective of our turmoiled political situation in Europe, this event – and the engagement of SPACEX altogether -
is more relevant than ever.
SPACEX responds to the troubling rise of populist nationalism and
conflict in European societies by engaging new publics and forging a culture that embraces diversity, difference, and discursive
exchange within cities, towns and urban sites. A lack of interdisciplinary knowledge among those working in the cultural sector
has significantly affected the way in which the social benefit of cultural activities is understood, articulated and applied.
SPACEX proposes that inventing new and inclusive ways of living together, requires implementing new transdisciplinary and
cross-sectoral practices and methods, that connect spatial practice with cultural sociology, cultural policy, critical pedagogies
and behavioural economics. The comprehensive transdisciplinary composition of the SPACEX consortium — comprising
29 beneficiaries including 13 universities and academies, 16 cultural organisations across 11 EU countries and 1 partner
in Palestine — will enable its researchers to undertake secondments at world-renowned academic institutions, research
institutes, arts organizations, biennials, urban agencies and a film festival.
"Empathetic exchange“ will
produce performative situations and various other artistic formats to engage and address the public as active participants.
In addition projects developed by SPACEX partners will be presented in various media. The event will create an overlay of
actions based on an experimental choreography, enhancing unexpected encounters and direct experience.The Townhall meeting
will be presented at AIL, the platform for interdisciplinary research and projects of the University of applied arts Vienna,
which is located in the Otto Wagner Postsparkasse. The originally preserved counters of the bank as well as a special booth
in the cashier hall will serve as spaces for facilitating dialogue on 'Empathetic Exchange' across the counters. While the
bank's counters were used for economic exchange, the SPACEX Townhall Meeting will use them to encourage and envision
an exchange of non-commercial values. Rather than directly promoting protest, 'Empathetic Exchange' will produce small moments,
modest gestures, ambivalence, silence and moments of reflection to encourage exchange on a personal level and create awareness
of taking care of one's own interests while respecting others.
Performative contributions by:
Jitka Hlavackova (Prague City Gallery/ GHMP, Prague), Susanne Prinz (Kunstverein Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin), Vittorio Iervese
(Università di Modena, Modena), Aline Hernandez/ Marianna Takou (CASCO, Utrecht), Emma Mahoney (NCAD, Dublin), Mel Jordan
(Coventry University) and Andrew Hewitt (University of Northampton)/ leaders of SPACEX
Further input:
Sofia Bempeza, Annette Krauss, Julienne Lorz, and others (University of Applied Arts Vienna)Barbara Putz-Plecko (former vice
rector and Head of the Dept. Art and Communicative Practice, hosting SPACEX on behalf of the University of Applied Arts Vienna),
and many more.
Kathrin Wildner (urban ethnologist, founding member of Metrozones, Berlin) will moderate and lead
through the event.
The event is conceived by: Barbara Holub (University of Applied Arts Vienna) and Paul Rajakovics (transparadiso)
as partners of SPACEX.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Actions (MSCA) Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE). 
