We are thrilled to be curating a series of artistic commissions exploring the concept of ‘openness’ in relation to city development for Guimarães 2012, this year’s European Capital of Culture.

As part of its cultural celebrations Guimarães is hosting a vast programme of artistic, performance, social and community projects. One of the elements of which is Watershed’s Open City programme, which explores ways cities can become more inclusive and tech-focused to encourage social, cultural and economic transformation and development.

Watershed’s involvement in Guimarães 2012 forms part of a knowledge exchange programme to help Guimarães take a leadership role for open city development in Europe. As part of this programme Watershed will generate and publish opinion, constructive dialogue, pop up artworks, artistic performances and audiovisual content – all exploring ‘openness’ as it relates to governance, design, technology and culture in contemporary cities.

The Open City programme launches this week with two commissions focusing on Openness as a methodology for achieving positive change. Internationally recognised thought leader on openness, cities and the new internet culture, Charles Leadbeater has authored a piece on city development and regeneration. People are invited to comment with the website acting as a platform for open dialogue about the various topics within Open City thinking.

In Guimarães itself artist, writer and publisher James Bridle will undertake a number of open source mappings of the cultural capital with the help and involvement of the public, through a series of dedicated workshops taking place throughout May and July exploring how technology understands and represents "our" world.

Watershed’s Creative Consultant Mark Leaver said:

“It is an honour to be invited to contribute to Open Cities, which aims to explore the idea of ‘openness’ as it relates to all aspects of city development – from personal to political, from infrastructure to innovation. Within this groundbreaking project Watershed’s commissions will explore the concept from different viewpoints – all seen through the lens of Guimarães, which is championing culture and creativity from a smaller city perspective, developing platforms, tools and ideas that resonate for small cities everywhere – particularly Bristol.”

Carlos Martins, Artistic Director for Guimarães 2012 said:

“The City programme is our urban laboratory, our ideas factory, our explorative tool for a future city where culture and creativity are to the heart of the economy and community.”

The project will run through to October, culminating in a Symposium in Guimarães, which will animate the debate with linked artistic interventions.

The full Open City programme will be announced soon, with discussions underway with diverse contributors from filmmakers to architecture networks, theatre designers to smart city technology experts.

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