Where is Heidenheim?

Abstract

Commissioned by Bildhauser Symposium, a sculpture Biennale in Germany. Artist proposed by Dr. Penelope Curtis - Tate Britain and selected by expert panel in Germany. The research was concerned with how and where an artwork can reside in the public sphere. Examining the changing role of arts practice in respect of a public engagement with art, the aim was to experiment with a global system of exchange in media. The relations between commodity of local and International news, the asserted disappearance of local voice in international news networks,as well as the limits to which participation by organisational bodies involved in public art were interrogated and made visible. The work was developed through practice-based engagement and researched by the artists with an RA, Venkata Vermuri a PhD student at Bournemouth University. Together we identified a range of Internationally based local papers and engaged them in an exchange with Heidenheim Zietung. Those taking part included papers from Utah, Lebanon, Ireland, Manipur, Namibia and Tasmania. A physical sign was erected on Heidenheim Zietung and the International papers ran a story on the project, in which they reflected upon and discussed their own involvement and responses. The full page of this was then re-printed inside the local paper in Germany. The public artwork existed simultaneously in different topologies and contexts as it was distributed in both the International locations and the commissioning town of Heidenheim. This research relates to other work around spaces of engagement and research in the area of public art and mapping, as well as further commissions.