The Right to the Future City

10 November 2019, 13:00–14:30 / Casco HQ

“In urban social movements there is the potential to reshape the city in a different image from that put forward by its developers.” – David Harvey (2008)

Utrecht is developing at a dizzying pace and therefore facing urban issues such as rapid gentrification and (economic) segregation, as are many cities worldwide. Within the setting of Le Guess Who?, a city-wide festival at its core, we bring together six speakers who work on urban futures via artistic practices and research. How can we – through art and critical research – make an active contribution to creating a more inclusive social urban environment? Current systems of urban development exclude large groups of people. How could it be done differently? What does that require from the government? And what does that require from each other? Guests are: Minem Sezgin (No Seat At The Table), Adeola Enigbokan (environmental psychologist / Casco Art Institute), Jesse Hoffman (Urban Futures Studio / Universiteit Utrecht), Donica Buisman (RAUM), Irene Calabuch Miron (BAK – basis voor actuele kunst) and Rinke Vreeke (Le Guess Who?).

Casco HQ

Colophon:

Presented by Le Guess Who?, Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons, No Seat At The Table, BAK – basis voor actuele kunst, Urban Futures Studio (Utrecht University), and RAUM

~ Minem Sezgin (No Seat At The Table) is a (visual) storyteller and social innovator and also the founder, script writer and photographer of No Seat At The Table: a graphic novel about the local effects of gentrification on residents who are disadvantaged by this process in Turkish and Dutch cities.

~ Adeola Enigbokan (invited by Casco Art Institute) is an environmental psychologist. Using public engagement, she re-imagines the relationships between citizens, consumers, institutions and corporations. She combines deep knowledge of human behavior and emotional intelligence, with a sense of how social and spatial systems work and how creative change happens.

~ Jesse Hoffman (Urban Futures Studio) is a researcher and teacher working on the power of the imagination of the future and its relationship to socially inclusive societal change.

~ Donica Buisman is the founder of RAUM, a cultural city lab in Leidsche Rijn, Utrecht. RAUM aims to co-create our future city life with urban citizens through art and design.

~ Irene Calabuch Mirón is a cultural worker at BAK basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht. She is interested in radical housing models, city spatial politics, and DIY culture as an exercise of critical consumption. She is active in grassroots movements for housing rights.

~ Rinke Vreeke (Le Guess Who?) is an urban geographer and investigates new formats for cultural programming in which art and design are used to further explore activities related to key urban challenges of the 21st century.