Creating a physical space for TEZA

This is a hard one for me because simply I have not researched it enough as of yet. I can see reasons for doing it both in the CBD and Aranui, so can't make up my mind on it yet. What do locals feel? Knowing this will help me decide. Time for me to visit there soon to find out through meeting locals I feel.

@jgrey thanks this is hugely helpful. I like the idea of building on what is working. At the same time if we had some key physical outcomes, like planting the Hampshire park, as @nathan suggested ... in addition to the more conceptual offerings of Mark Harvey's Productive bodies and Kim Paton's Waste forecasting we might get some more serious runs on the board in Aranui.

@kimpaton @markharvey @timbarlow I'd be interested in your views?

Hi all, I won't be able to follow things up here until next week due to us moving house - it's a large move and we're in the thick of it - Mark

Hi JG - Its always good to be cautious and thought the comment about aid fatigue especially interesting. This is the first time Aranui communities will have been involved in an art project Letting Space style however! In relation to 'an environment with apparent long term dysfunctionalities, external to the (arguable) scope of the project' do you know about Matthew Radune's Ice House in Detroit? Check out http://www.thewilding.com/

Finally to get back in on this conversation, heres my thoughts amongst so many others much more relevant (esp J. Gray!), I'm attracted to the conflicts and challenge of staging an art event essentially by outside artists and curators in Aranui. By creating a fixed base in Aranui only for a week or so, even with lead in time, poses a cocktail of issues around the accumulation of cultural capital. I'm sure there are better strategies (re-J.Gray) to spread a network, but I have no idea what this network is, I'm with Mark Harvey on this one, I have little knowledge of spatial politics in Ch.Ch., and won't pretend to. But why not push TEZA into a location that maybe difficult to operate or even justify? Isn't this something positive we could try. With lots of expertise we could radiate out a network from anywhere surely?.
Another idea I've been thinking about, with so much radical architecture happening in Ch.Ch., in terms of a physical structure we should tap into whats already there, like the guys I saw recently at makertorium with their kitset ply-shell mini-homes or the dino-sauna architect? (names please lets get in touch)

Hi everyone, apologies for my slow response to this discussion. I also feel like I’m also lacking in enough information about the area even though I grew up in Eastern Christchurchm- I guess I feel like I know Aranui geographically but not on a social or cultural day to day scale. My response to the question of Aranui's suitability as a site is this:

• I don’t think the Aranui site will work without already established meaningful connections with people in the 'community' - be that through Nathan Pohio, other artists or collaborators. Thinking about this has made me reflect on the Free Store project we staged in Henderson, West Auckland. The project was driven by social development staff at Auckland City Council who spent about 3 months recruiting volunteers and creating relationships with members of the exact communities we new we would be servicing in the store. When the doors opened (for 5 weeks and with queues 200 - 500 people deep every morning) I was completely out of my depth, the visitors to the store were all from varied and complex backgrounds - different languages, mental health issues, extremes of poverty etc. The volunteers (and also some of the local Council Staff) became the backbone of the project they could connect with customers in a meaningful and natural way – they understood the communities the customers were from and it made all the difference.
  

I think that if the context of one of the TEZA projects (Nathan’s) is anchored to Aranui then yes the location choice makes sense – but if were just looking for alternative possibilities to the CBD then I agree with some earlier comments regarding the wider eastern suburb area – areas like New Brighton, Dallington, Avondale, Richmond etc are worth considering.

I think the choice of Aranui risks framing TEZA in a limited way that doesn't express the depth of the project, unless as mentioned before the location choice is driven by the nature of one or more of the TEZA projects. My project for instance will potentially have no direct connection to our specific location – nor is it a response to the post earthquake situation (though there is a resonance with it.)

On my first trip to Chch, I went straight for the CBD.

The main impressions I had of the earthquake aftermath were the empty lots and the worn-out locals. The rubble and grief took it's toll on my spirit and I left feeling like I had paid a psychic tax for my visit.

On my second trip, I went to Lyttleton, where the locals were so generous I nearly swooned. The sense of community there is blinding, deafening, bursting out of the rumpled architecture, blanketing the streets, spilling down the hills. I left feeling totally nourished and enthused.

I don't know how this experience relates to the current decision but that's just what I've been thinking about.

Just thinking about Kim and Richards comments: By creating a free-store it would seem to invite the bare face of social welfare issues. TEZA seems to be ( I realise its a bit hard to define what it is!) promoting a variety of cultural/economic relationship in a location. I recognise Kim's point that it risks becoming tied to a particular 'community' by its location, but doesn't the very fact that artists like Kim are working beyond some simplistic spatial idea of communities destroy this idea? I think we need to separate this idea of audience and community! (and forgive me if I'm now deviating into my current obsessions). I think of 'community' as how local body politics constructs a fictitious group to agree with their polls (i.e. media studies arguments). Audience might be who in reality you are communicating with: your friends, other artists, people with similar interests. I guess what I'm trying to say here is lets move forward from having to think TEZA is going to be in this particular place because we just want to communicate with the place-based 'community' and try and combine the local with the network.