PUBLIC ART AND CONTEMPORARY ART FUNDS OF THE CITY
AND CANTON OF GENEVA
COMMON REFLECTIONS ON PUBLIC SPACE
In order to redefine objectives related to a policy concerning intervention in urban space, the Contempororary Art Fund of the City and Canton of Geneva created a think tank comprising experts of their commissions and representatives of their services. These regular meetings become a laboratory of reflection and exchanges in which the methods, the goals and the areas of application of artistic intervention in public space are freely questioned.
Today the majority of achievements of public art managed by the Contemporary Art Fund of the City of Geneva (Fmac) come from requests from various entities of the City, particularly the services in charge of architecture, buildings and schools - urban developments. Sometimes the Fmac also suggests such interventions to these services. Two types of orders emerge form these numerous collaborations : on the one hand artistic changes to the architecture following the construction, restoration or refitting of a building (for example, the façade of l’Usine, the extension of the AMR, or the blind frontage of the school Hugo-de-Senger), on the other hand works of art to be conceived in the public domain (such as the sound garden of the school complex of Ouches launched on October 2007 or the Passage des Grotte, currently under study).
The requests addressed to the Contemporary Art Fund of the Canton of Geneva (FCAC) for artistic changes to the buildings built or renovated by the canton usually come from the architects agents, the users or the direction of the buildings of the Department of constructions of the canton (for example, the college CO of Montbrillant, colleges and commercial schools Emilie-Gourd, André-Chavanne and Nicolas-Bouvier, the Hospital for children, the former maternity Hospital and the college CO of Cayla). The commission of the FCAC can also answer requests of the communes or public law, real-estate foundations (for example, the buildings of the Foundation HBM Camille-Martin in both streets: Ferrier and Rothschild.
An obvious evolution can be seen through works of art integrated into the architecture and in the public space since 1980. Initially regarded and used as a decoration to enhance the architecture, the artistic order has evolved by privileging the artist/architect relation at the time of the conception of the architectural project, consequently binding more closely the work of art to its context. The projects of Fil du Rhône (Fmac) or Montbrillant (FCAC) exemplify that trend perfectly.
However, without wanting to give up this practice, which binds the artist to a place or an achievement, the Funds cannot limit themselves to adopt an exclusively reactive attitude. They wish to initiate projects in phase with the contemporary artistic questionings, concerning the public domain and urban space. The relation with private/public space, the area of the city, the development of new urban patterns, the critical and social role, esthetics and functionality form part of the concerns of the artists and their ground of investigation and enquiry.
From this point of view, the Funds wanted to undertake a large project which covers not only a municipal or cantonal building but a whole urban perimeter, and which makes it possible to provoque and to reveal the impact of some artists of today on the buildings and public space in Geneva. It is from this ideal that the joint project NEON PARALLAX was born. The first phase has been launched on May 15, 2007, the second on September 25, 2008 and the third on September 18, 2009. The last three luminous works of art will be inaugurated in March 2012 at the same time as an exibition, a public art symposium and a publication. These events shall close the project. The luminous works of art will remain on rooftops for a 10 years period.
 |
 |