Not Public!

Although I have been busy planning my up-coming wedding in Germany (9/27), I contributed ideas, time and a project to ArtistsMeeting's (AM) group effort at Conflux Festival here in NYC. In fact, my project -- "Not Public!", red barricade tape with the before-mentioned phrase to be used to temporarily block off privately owned so-called public plazas in NYC -- is the closest interpretation of AM's initial idea for this festival (for more information, see blog entry/press release below). I will share installation pictures as they become available.


Here is my "official" blurb:

In a more critical gesture, Daniel Blochwitz wishes to point out the ambiguous nature of the privately owned public spaces or POPS. He questions whether the trading of (prime real state) space for (public) space between developers and the City really creates valuable communal and green urban areas. After all, most of these so-called public spaces seem to be dark niches, corners and alleyways dressed up with a few mall features and shrubs, and often discourage leisurely use and lingering. And as gated, guarded, and surveilled as the POPS are, one has to wonder about their role within a larger system of control. To highlight this the group will use barricade tape marked with the words “NOT PUBLIC!” to symbolically block off several of the POPS spaces.
Not Public!, Date: Sept. 11-14, Time continuous, Financial District, various locations, Artist - Daniel Blochwitz