[LESS]In Designs for the Real World (Generali Foundation, 2002), Azra Aksamija presented her studies of Arizona Market. This market grew through a process of self-organisation in post-war Bosnia, when no regulated state existed and this was the only way people could get their essential supplies. It is now the largest black market in the Balkans and it employs over 30,000 people in over 2200 businesses. As the market grew to this size, problems regarding crime, disease and safety increased and needed to be addressed. The government responded by developing a masterplan to turn it into a shopping centre. The masterplan left no room for self-organisation.
In Designs for the Real World Azra exhibited video, photographic documentation, diagrams, maps and quotations to show the behaviour patterns that make up the market and to suggest interventions. Azra put forward a way of keeping the market that would allow for self-organisation. One intervention she suggested was a system of 'provocateur poles', which would offer an infrastructure for accessing water, electricity and so on while also encouraging the shops to cluster in these areas. This would then free up other areas for leisure activities and parking. The exhibition included a prototype of one of the 'provocateur poles'.
Azra's project for
International 04 continues to look at ways in which formal and informal systems can work together in urban planning. Her project
Bread and Games, Plant and Play proposes an infrastructural intervention for the St George's housing estate area in Liverpool 1. This is a residential area on the edge of the city centre. It borders on areas that have already seen big changes as part of the regeneration programme for the city. St George's housing estate mainly comprises local authority-owned social housing which is in a poor state of repair. Many of the houses are empty. A masterplan has been drawn up for the development of the area but, unlike the case of Arizona Market, here the local community have been involved in the making of the plans.
Bread and Games, Plant and Play will be realised as a series of 'navigator closets', units of stacked plastic storage boxes (in Biennial logo colours). These closets will be placed in various public spaces of the L1 area and are intended to provoke and initiate a process of self-organised and self-sustainable urban behaviour. The contents and uses of the boxes will be decided with local residents. The boxes are meant to be taken, exchanged or stolen.
The project builds on Azra's idea of 'urban navigation', the guidance of self organised urban behaviour, developed through her studies of Arizona Market into a practical application. What happens will be tracked and documented. Showing this in the context of an international exhibition will guarantee it attention.
An intervention such as
Bread and Games, Plant and Play offers a refreshing way for community development teams and urban planners to work with an artist. Art has already become a very familiar feature within regeneration schemes but on the whole it comes along with a pressure to succeed. This project presents an opportunity for the local community which they can take or leave. It makes no promises and sets no expectations.
Sharon Paulger
