Learning from Vancouver -- In dialogue:Bik Van der Pol and Urban Subjects
Bik Van der Pol
I confess I care emphasizes the growing limitations of the public realm. The brown box in the gallery of the Western Front is the creation of a space for forms of public speech that have been shut down in the Olympic moment (the present!). This box is a discursive vehicle. It accommodates one, or two, or three people, and can be closed off from the inside, creating an intimate space. But, the box is fully wired for sound -- everything discussed is recorded. Unlike the increasing types of surveillance I confess I care allows a choice to speak up and speak about, either individually, or in a dialogue with others, about the issues at stake in the city: the impact of urban developments, the excess of shrinking public space, limitations of civil rights and how this is experienced by citizens in their daily live. Does one accept this all, as a state of exception, trusting that it will all return back to normal once the air is cleared of the Games? I confess I care draws upon a public that is not passive but that is willing to become an active participant. In that sense they will disappear as general 'public'; they will become articulated. The recordings made in the box will be transcribed to text to appear as part of a publication after the end of the show, as a sort of bid book and rem(a)inder of this specific moment, activated by the public.