Brunnenplatz, Hustadt

Apolonija Šušteršič, Brunnenplatz, Hustadt © Apolonija Šušteršič

Apolonija Šušteršič

Apolonija Šušteršič began working on her thesis at Malmö Art Academy in 2009, and takes her activities in the housing estate of Hustadt in Bochum, Germany, as her research object.

In 2008, Šušteršič was commissioned for a public work of art to be installed on the central plaza of the housing estate, Brunnenplatz. When she embarked on a survey of the area, she uncovered a number of interesting issues, on which she based her continued work. These issues related to the public space and concerned fairness in socio-political distribution and social work in general.

Hustadt was built in the late 1960s to house the staff at the university and the adjacent Opel factory. Today, Hustadt is an international community, where some 80 different languages are spoken and a large number of cultures interact daily. When Šušteršič arrived, she was told that Hustadt was a ghetto that people tried to escape from, but her own impression was that everyday life resembled life in a village where everyone knows each other. Apolonija Šušteršič initiated her project by organising workshops, where the inhabitants were invited to talk about their lives in Hustadt. In 2009, she embarked on the plans for a “Community Pavilion” on Brunnenplatz. The idea is that it will be activated in future as a natural meeting place, with everything from an outdoor kitchen to a local cinema and information centre. In her thesis, she seeks to examine the project with her own critical analysis of spatial relationships, a recurring theme in her art, but also to relate it to the strategies of other professions with regard to intervention practices.

Apolonija Šušteršič

Born 1965 in Ljubljana [SI]
Lives and works in Amsterdam [NL] and Ljubljana

Education

2008–2012 Fil.dr. Konsthögskolan i Malmö/Ph.D Malmö Art Academy, Malmö
2003–2008 lärare på Kungl. Konsthögskolan/professor at the Royal University College of Fine Arts, Stockholm
1994–1996 forskarstudier/postgraduate study, Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam [NL]
1992 examen från/graduated from School of Architecture, University of Ljubljana

Selected solo exhibitions, projects

2008 Hustadt Project, Bochum [DE]
2007 Relational Museum, Research Project, Bildmuseet, Umeå
2007 Garden Service (med/with Meike Schalk), projekt/project, The Common Guild, Jardins Publics, Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh [UK]

Selected group exhibitions

2010 Kafič, Galerie für Zeitgenossische Kunst, Leipzig [DE]
2010 Survival Kit, Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, Riga [LV]
2009 Projetaveis, Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre [BR]

Bibliography

Apolonija Šušteršič & Meike Schalk, ”Taking care of Public space”, Architectural Research Quarterly 13, Cambridge University Press, 2009: s./pp. 109-111.
Noah Chasin, ”Democracy, Deliberation a nd Hibridity in Three Contemporary Architectural Practices: Interboro, Apolonija Šušteršič and Stealth”, Journal of Architectural Education, 2009: s./pp. 116–122
A Cidade Interpretada, Apolonija Šušteršič’s Artistic Research (utst.kat./exh. cat.), (text: Peio Aguirre), 2006

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