Futurecity and Pace are excited to announce more information about FUTUREPACE with the publishing of this manifesto. We look forward to working together to bring innovative commissions to life in the public realm
“THE NEW MAKERS: A pioneering approach to commissioning major artworks in the public realm
The New Makers operate in the context of public space, described as a ‘gallery without walls’ offering a creative dialogue between the curator, architect, artist, technologist, poet, community, engineer, viewer and client.
A growing international group of artists will bring original ideas and applications to our cities, urban by context, interventions in the architecture, infrastructure and public realm. The New Makers will collaborate with the designers of bridges, skyscrapers, parks, energy centres, hospitals, transport hubs and city centres. Their vision will add new layers of meaning and wonder to the built environment and public realm and engage a modern urban audience.
FUTUREPACE believe that culture is the key to unlocking the seductive power of city space and a catalyst and tool for defining a place’s individuality. Our artists see the city as playful, lucid, varied and beautiful, pleasurable, challenging and engaging but above all as a glorious idea, a symphonic experience from formal to spectacular, from creative and adventurous to breath-taking and emotionally charged.
The 20th century saw the Industrial City, Hygienic City, Information City and the Investment City. We now live in the era of the Cultural City, a place where cultural and creative genius is the new trading currency. In the Cultural City, factories, towers and housing blocks are central to urban development. But these things are no longer sufficient to attract us to one place over another, citizens are interested in the idea of their city as a canvas for beauty and creative participation.
FUTUREPACE believe a new cultural and creative art language is required to describe the transition of the city from place of manufacture to urban theatre. Alvar Aalto spoke of building as being “a synthesis of life in materialised form… not a splintered way of thinking, but all in harmony together”, a view that resonates with a contemporary and radical model of entwining the disciplines of art, architecture, science, master craftsmanship and creative engineering. In a world where the interchange of disciplines is becoming the norm, the New Makers seek to work alongside traditional urban practitioners.
Golden ages of creativity and cultural energy are brief. Special windows of opportunity open up, illuminate the world and then dim, leaving traces to delight succeeding generations, FUTUREPACE will open up new opportunities for creative teams to re-imagine bridges and buildings, boulevards and parks and in doing so, challenge the way art relates to the world.
FUTUREPACE believe it is time to re-examine the role of the public arts, in a ‘gallery without walls’. The New Makers are about making art a real time, real place event; about intervention, risk and experiment. After all, the necessary dreams, visions and hopes are about the here and now.
Mark Davy & Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst
Founders FUTURE\PACE, 2016″