there is beauty in the city : city visit to birmingham

During the post made to announce last month's Manchester visit, i made reference to the idea of the England's second city and posited that in many peoples eyes, and particularly in cultural terms, Manchester is the holder of that title over its more populous rival Birmingham.

In population terms, the figures speak for themselves - 2006 estimates put the population of;
Birmingham at 1,006,500 within the broader West Midlands conurbation totalling 2,284,093 and
Manchester at 452,000 within Greater Manchester which totalled 2,240,230.

But for the debate as to which claims the second city status to have raged for so long means that factors other than population obviously come into play - including geography, economic contribution, educational establishments,  "knowledge and transport infrastructure" and, most contentiously, cultural. It is this "cultural" area which often leads to Manchester's elevation to the second city status, but with no real hard facts underlying it. It has almost become an accepted truth that Birmingham is a cultural wasteland and Manchester is a Western Bohemia. Whilst it maybe fair to say that behind every generalisation lies a modicum of fact the truth is rarely so polarised.

And so it with this in mind that we here at There is Beauty in the City will head to Birmingham and take a walk around its cultural beacons, in search of England's undoubted second most populous city's beauty. In the meantime...some Birmingham facts -

It's council motto is Global City Local Heart
There are over 8,000 acres (3,237 ha) of parkland open spaces in Birmingham. In fact Birmingham has more trees than Paris, more miles of canals than Venice and more parks than any other European City.
Birmingham is the UK’s largest manufacturing and engineering centre and accounts for 25% of the country’s exports.
Birmingham is the home of the Balti curry.
Britains first ever 4 wheel petrol driven car was made in Birmingham by Frederick Lanchester in 1895
Major John Hall Edwards took the first x-ray photo in Birmingham in 1896
Birmingham has six twin cities

• Chicago, Illinois, United States
• Frankfurt am Main, Germany^[187]
• Johannesburg, South Africa
• Leipzig, Germany^[188]
• Lyon, France^[189]
• Milan, Italy

and finally, the following, all creatives, all hail from Birmingham

• Albert Austin – (Silent film star)
• Pato Banton – (Reggae artist)
• Blaze Bayley – (Musician - former vocalist of Wolfsbane and Iron Maiden)
• Sir Michael Balcon – (Film director)
• Alfred Bird – (Inventor of custard powder)
• Justin Broadrick – (Musician - Godflesh)
• Geezer Butler – bassist of (Black Sabbath)
• Pogus Caesar – (TV Director and Photographer)
• John Cadbury – (Founder of the Cadbury chocolate company)
• Ali Campbell and Robin Campbell – (Musician, UB40)
• Barbara Cartland – (Novelist)
• Jasper Carrott – (Comedian)
• Lisa Clayton – (Solo yachtswoman)
• David Cox – (Artist)
• Cat Deeley – (Television presenter)
• Oscar Deutsch – (Founder of the Odeon Cinemas chain)
• Hunt Emerson – (Cartoonist)
• Mick St Clair – (Pinjabi DJ/Producer)
• Ian Emes – (animator)
• Frederick Roland Emett – (Cartoonist, artist and kinetic sculptor)
• Niki Evans – (Singer)
• Trevor Eve – (Actor)
• Sid Field – (Comedian)
• Sir Francis Galton – (Scientist, founder of eugenics)
• Roland Gift – (Actor and musician - Fine Young Cannibals)
• Mark "Barney" Greenway –(Musician - Napalm Death)
• Rob Halford – (Musician - Judas Priest)
• Charlie Hall – (Actor - most famous for his work with Laurel and Hardy)
• John Hampson – (novelist)
• Tony Hancock – (Comedian and actor)
• Mr Hudson – (singer)
• Raymond Huntley – (Actor)
• Tony Iommi – guitarist of (Black Sabbath)
• Jamelia – (R&B singer))
• Edward Burne-Jones – (Pre-Raphaelite painter)
• Albert William Ketèlbey – (Composer)
• Denny Laine – (Paul McCartney and Wings)
• Jeff Lynne – (Musician; co-founder of the Electric Light Orchestra)
• Eric Maschwitz – (lyricist)
• Nick Mason – (Musician - Pink Floyd; did not reside in Birmingham)
• Zena McNally – (Singer - Mis-Teeq)
• Shazia Mirza – (Comedian)
• Henry Vollam Morton – (Journalist and travel writer)
• Constance Naden – (Poet & Philosopher)
• Ozzy Osbourne – singer of (Black Sabbath)
• Carl Palmer – (Musician - Emerson, Lake & Palmer)
• John Poole – (Sculptor)
• Enoch Powell – (Politician, poet and classical scholar)
• Michael Pinder – (Musician - The Moody Blues)
• Nick Rhodes – (Musician - Duran Duran)
• Pat Roach – (Actor and wrestler)
• Sax Rohmer – (Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward) – (novelist)
• Martin Shaw – (actor)
• Sukshinder Shinda – (English born Punjabi music producer and artist)
• John Taylor – (Musician - Duran Duran)
• Roger Taylor – (Musician - Duran Duran)
• Bill Ward – drummer of (Black Sabbath)
• Willard Wigan – (Sculptor)
• Toyah Willcox – (Singer, actress and television presenter)
• Steve Winwood – (Musician—solo artist and co-founder, Traffic)
• Chris Wood – (Musician; co-founder, Traffic)
• Roy Wood – (Musician - co-founder of the Electric Light Orchestra)

there is beauty in the city : the conversation - #10

this is the tenth installment in the ongoing cross-city conversation between there is beauty's glen stoker and bilbao photographer igor calvo of ph'a'ke. 

#10 - a reply from igor...

In conversation # 9, Glen reflected on the failure of many urban policies and the stubbornness of local governments and authorities to tell people where it may or may not walk, move, go…and he was absolutely right.

Not so long ago, the council inaugurated a new plaza/square “in the middle of a roundabout" in the center of Bilbao. Being the chosen site for the plaza/square already controversial (a place of relaxation surrounded by traffic), its design, with the benches looking at the road and the citizens who would seat in them breathing the bad fumes from the vehicles surround, seems like nonsense.

On the day of its “opening”, many were the citizens of Bilbao who came to show their disagreement with the design of the new plaza/square and, above all, to request the change of the benches location; so that, at least, they would look towards the centre of the plaza/square instead of facing the road. The city council shook its head with signs of disapproval, emphasizing how whimsical were their fellow citizens and, making a great exercise of kindness, moved "some" of the benches as citizens demanded.

Thus, Bilbao has gained a place that makes traffic to flow easier through the center of the city, but the council has wasted another chance to make the city more friendly for its citizens and pedestrians. All that, thanks to public money of course, on account of the same taxpayers who requested its modification.

there is beauty in the city - july visit to manchester

Saturday's visit to the Burlington Fine Arts Club in Manchester, saw us looking to create a small map of Manchester beauty. We all have our own idea of what constitutes beauty and similarly the things we find attractive or noteworthy about cities is a very subjective idea too. 


We chose the Burlington as our venue as they were holding their closing event, after a month of providing  local creatives with a space to exhibit, establish networks, discuss ideas and an opportunity to engage in Manchester’s grass routes contemporary art scene, and this promised a good range of interested parties to engage with us.

We produced a basic questionnaire which asked 4 questions;

1. What is your favourite thing about cities?
2. What is your favourite thing about Manchester?
3. Where is the beauty in Manchester?
4. Please direct us, in words or with a map, to this beautiful place.

 Once completed, the participant was then invited to place an umbrella ( a slightly cheeky nod to Manchester's famed inclement weather) in our specially produced city map. In return, they were offered a magnet pack. We're really looking forward to seeing the photographic responses.

 

A big thanks to everyone who took part on the day and engaged with us. we now have a much clearer idea of where to find beauty in Manchester. here's a selection of responses and some examples of creative direction giving...

Mr. Smith's dream

Thomas's Chop House

the old brewery building

there is beauty at the Burlington

This month's beauty field trip sees Manchester in the spotlight.

The Burlington Fine Arts Club, a pop up social space running parallel with the events of the Manchester International Festival,  aims to give local independent creatives a space to exhibit, to establish networks, discuss ideas and an opportunity to engage in Manchester’s grass routes contemporary art scene. Find out more here.

We'll be setting up a stand at the club on Saturday from 3pm and hoping to find a cultural map of the city's beauty.

sarah gee - jingdezhen, china

Jingdezhen is ceramic paradise, where even lamp posts and rubbish bins are made of porcelain. Tradition is still very important: brightly glazed BIG urns abound, and rickshaws are used to transport unfired pieces from workshop to public kilns.
 

Jane Howie - Manchester, UK

Thanks to Jane for these Mancunian images, taken whilst visiting Manchester International Festival.

there is beauty in the city:bilbao - draws to a close

After an exhausting 6 months, the trans-national exercise in urban beauty intervention has come to an end. Ph'a'ke's Igor Calvo and Susana Martínez Ximénez have ensured that the Anna Francis' project which started here in Stoke-on-Trent as a small but beautiful part of the city's 2008 Axis Festival, will live long in the memories of the hundreds of Bilbaoans who contributed to or viewed the project or even stumbled across a placed magnet as the project took the city by storm this spring and summer.

Here, in Igor's words, is a summation of the project.

There is Beauty in the City:Bilbao has been a wonderful project, born of the collaboration between the on line art gallery PhotoArte Komite in Bilbao and There is Beauty in the City in the United Kingdom (thank you so much Glen and Anna); a project which has managed that nearly 200 people (including participants, collaborators and organizers) had been involved in this non to profit project to perform a relational experience, a journey through the beauty of the city that has led to the creation of a choral art work  and, above all, of a very special map of the beauty of Bilbao, made up of 141 photographs of many other interventions, and 21 interviews collected in video.

More than 150 points of Bilbao which have been intervened by its citizens, reassessed to show the immense beauty the city hoarded; all this, only armed with a magnet and a camera. Thus, we have had the chance to discover many other faces of Bilbao, some less well known, others, sadly, in the process of disappearing and which, thanks to the citizens of Bilbao, will no longer be forgotten.

An art work of incalculable value, as the contributions of the participants in the project are priceless.

And also a big effort, the one made by the organization to carry out an exhibition that not only would reward the efforts of everyone participating in the project, but could be enjoyed by all the citizens of Bilbao and all the people who would come to Sala Rekalde, a great art gallery committed to contemporary art in the heart of the city. Thank you very much Alicia (managing director of Sala Rekalde).

The visits to the exhibition did nothing but increase the success of the project and its impact among the citizens of Bilbao. A huge success also due to the work of communication made by the department of culture of the city council of Bilbao, who contributed so much to disseminate the project.

But the trip of There is beauty in the city: Bilbao did not end after the exhibition at Sala Rekalde. Such was the interest generated by the project that the organization decided to extend the journey of There is Beauty in the City: Bilbao.

In this new adventure, we had the invaluable help of Ziortza Etxabe, from Eutokia, who involved in this project to ZAWP's Oihane Korres and Manu Gómez from hAcería. What is more, as a wonderful finale to the project, There is Beauty in the City: Bilbao will be exhibited at the Bilbao Museum of Art Reproductions until the next 17^th of july, in which it will share space with the Aphrodite of Milo amongst many other distinguished residents of so much beauty, thanks to the invaluable collaboration of Saioa Barrenetxea and Itziar Markija (the ones in charge of the Bilbao Museum of Artistic Reproductions).

The intention of those collaborations was to involve as many people and take the beauty map of Bilbao to many areas of the city as possible.

There is Beauty in the City: Bilbao has collected 140 interventions, in addition to 21 interviews, in which so many citizens of Bilbao have shown us those parts of the city where they have found beauty. There are many different views and notions of what is beautiful in the city, many areas of our city re-evaluated and re-valued thanks to Bilbao citizens. It was natural then, that the exhibition of the project will not remain just at a certain point of Bilbao and would leave the city center to take and spread the beauty to other areas away from the city centre, unfortunately, less favored by the urban development of Bilbao in recent decades.

Some of which have also been intervened by the citizens of Bilbao, who have wanted to show the beauty that is often found in those places that keep unnoticed or are less recognized by the human tide that floods along the city of Bilbao.

Therefore, There is Beauty in the City: Bilbao departed from Sala Rekalde, at the heart of the city, to reach Bolueta, Zorrozaurre and Bilbao la Vieja.

"After speaking several times with Photoarte Komite about the project of THERE IS BEAUTY IN THE CITY: BILBAO, and after taking part in the initiative in one of the interviews with the creative industries in our environment with the urban garden that we are doing in EUTOKIA as image, we decided to go further and made a proposal.
Being aware of the interest of the project: enhancement of our people, our environment, as well as another way of setting up, understanding, viewing and/or enjoying our citizen cartography, we decided to contact Joxean Sáez de Ocariz (EUTOKIA Project Coordinator) and assign the EUTOKIA headquarters in Boluetabarri to show the Map of the Beauty of Bilbao "

Ziortza Etxabe

"ZAWP Bilbao is a project located in La Ribera de Deusto-Zorrotzaurre within the context of urban transformation that will occur in the coming years in the area. ZAWP Bilbao claims to be the artistic look, innovative and creative of this process of urban transformation and, in turn, make this area a new standard of creativity and innovation. In this sense, it is interesting to bring to our environment the exhibition There is Beauty in the City: Bilbao, where the citizens of Bilbao themselves have photographed their special areas of the city. Among them, La Ribera de Deusto-Zorrozaurre has not gone unnoticed, as this post-industrial area, unknown to many citizens of Bilbao, has a surprising charm that never fails to impress any passerby to walk along the banks of the river "

Ohiana Korres.

Finally, There is Beauty in the City: Bilbao arrived to Bilbao la Vieja. Thanks to Saioa and Itziar the project has not only had the possibility of be exhibited at the Bilbao Museum of Art Reproductions, but also they have made it more accessible to all people by canceling the entrance fee to the museum during the exhibition of There is Beauty in the City.

Born at the beginnings of the last century, the Bilbao Museum of Art Reproductions is one of those "hidden treasures" among the museums of Bilbao and of which all the citizens of Bilbao should be proud. One of the few European museums (and it is not chauvinism) that can show off of having sculptures cast directly from the original works from the Vatican Museums, the Academy of Florence, the Berlin Museum, the Louvre, the British Museum ... The 28^th June, at the Bilbao Museum of Artistic Reproductions, the Map of Beauty of Bilbao will be the guest of such a famous hosts as the Winged Victory of Samothrace and the Aphrodite of Milo....and this time it is a bilbainada.

In this new set up, the exhibition adds two new creations related to the museum and two beauty icons of all time: The Aphrodite of Milos and the Apollo Belvedere.
Visitors will be able to admire the sculpture of Aphrodite of Milos, also known as Venus de Milo, one of the statues representing the Hellenistic period and whose original is in the Louvre in Paris. Besides, the Museum contributes with two photographs: one of Apollo Belvedere and another of one of the angels located next to the windows of the apse. In both cases, like the other photographs of the project, with a magnet that read "There is beauty in the city."

From the 17^th July onwards, There is Beauty in the City: Bilbao will leave the city, the three photographs produced to show the process of transformation in which the city is immersed will be delivered to its only possible owners: Elena, Rodrigo, and Erika, who intervened these urban areas and showed us the beauty they contained; and all the graphics, maps, pictures and other items that have been part of the exhibition will be removed.

However, this will not be the last journey of There is Beauty in the City: Bilbao. The video made up with all the submitted photographs of the 140 interventions will continue surfing the Internet to the more distant places we could imagine. And most importantly, we sincerely hope that There is Beauty in the City: Bilbao had contributed to add many people from Bilbao to the list of collaborators in the overall project of There Beauty in the City, so that they continue finding, intervening, showing and spreading the beauty armed with a camera and a magnet.

Farewell.

there is beauty in the city : the conversation - #9

Whilst on a walk of Stoke-on-Trent's ring road, looking at the way citizens are officially guided around their city spaces, I was drawn to this urban phenomenon, known colloquially as a "lazy line".

 In the last post in our conversation, Igor's depiction of Arriaga Square, showed how a city space is appropriated by its citizens for a use other than that imagined by the planners, politicians and authorities in general.

This image shows the formation of a shortcut from the pathway up a bank towards a large shopping centre. The authorities have repeatedly tried to dissuade the city's inhabitants to take this route, but have been repeatedly ignored and, over many years, a new, democratic, popular walkway has formed.

Cities are often full of these popularly formed objections to the inadequacies of urban plans, though it is very rare for the authorities to admit their error and formalise these shortcuts or "lazy lines" into properly constructed pedestrian routes.

Manuel Boado - bilbao, spain

My favorite part of Bilbao is one of the walls of the Guggenheim Museum which I call the fire by their shape.

Mi rincón favorito de Bilbao es una de las paredes del museo Guggenheim que yo le llamo la chimenea por su forma.

there is beauty in the city:bilbao - the video

As part of the bilbao exhibition last week, a looped film of all 140 or so images was shown on a huge 10 foot screen. here, for your delectation and delight, is the film.

vince o'toole - lisbon, portugal

three photos, two taken from the hilltop overlooking the city, the other was on the side of a tramline.

eleanor bennett - new mills, uk

thanks to eleanor bennett for these three great, evocative images - unfortunately although there is undoubtedly beauty to be found in towns, there is necessarily a difference between a town and a city!

All the pictures were taking in my favorite town - New Mills in Derbyshire.
I love taking images down there, I've done work for the local book shop and won an award with the WPO for an image I took of one of my friends there. Its a lovely place as well as the urban setting that also have a beautiful park and community garden.

there is beauty in the city - may visit to bilbao #2 - the insider

Part two of there is beauty in the city's visit to bilbao is a counter to that tourist view of a city. Ph'a'ke's Igor Calvo gives us an inside view of the city he has known all his life on a walk that lasted 4 hours, and took in 6 distinct areas, all close to Igor's heart for one reason or another and which, collectively, offer an overview of a city outside the realms of the traditional tourist view.

THE INSIDER

ONE - Abando Train Station

Although a coastal city with an airport, those two travel opportunities actually lie outside Bilbao in different municipalities. The airport in Loiu to the north of Bilbao, and the ferry port in Santurtzi, some 15km to the west. So Abando train station came to represent the possibility of travel for a young Igor who would visit this spot and stand and watch the trains coming and going.

TWO - Irala

Irala is an area of Bilbao which lies outside the centre - ostensibly a public square, surrounded by apartment blocks. The square was regenerated in the 1970's by the city council but is now tended and looked after by its residents. The square is characterised by the use of graffiti as a regeneration tool, open plan seating areas, and a some berlin-style public table tennis tables. For Igor, this is a place of beauty - an example of how a space can be used to its best advantage and somewhere he can come to sit and think.

Interestingly, though, he wouldn't come here at night, as the atmosphere changes - to one of foreboding and fear. He was struck recently by a tv news report of a demonstration by the square's residents about the rise in crime in the square.

THREE - RECALDE PLAZA

The geography of Bilbao, with the sea to the north and surrounded by mountains on all other sides means that its urban planners have to be creative in the ways they set out for the physical growth of the city.  The motorways coming into Bilbao are constructed on a series of huge concrete stilts, which allows for spaces underneath which are used in a variety of ways. Sometimes for much needed car parking space, but most often for areas of urban leisure.

One such space is Recalde Plaza, an area Igor has been coming to since he was a boy - a popular but tranquil park space where the peace is only interrupted by the ethereal rumbling of the overhhead cars. This is an area of contrasts - the chaos of the transport network against the tranquility of the park space, the colourfulness of the graffiti, the playground and the grass against the grey of the concrete and, as announced by one piece of 'green' graffiti, a contrast between the concrete structuralism and the green earth.

HALFWAY - LUNCH
In Bilbao, you're never more than 100 yards away from a bar serving a beer at perfect temperature and a selction of mouthwatering pintxos.

FOUR - MASUSTEGUI

Masustegui or Mount Caramel is a suburb of Bilbao, part of the district Basurto - Zorroza (District 8). It has a population of 4,069 inhabitants and an area of ​​0.81 square kilometers. This area of Bilbao has become home to a population of immigrants from Galicia in the North-West of Spain. In the 1950's they came to work on the estuary of Bilbao, and in the coal and iron mines. The area here was privately owned mining land and is situated  on the slope of one of the hills overlooking central Bilbao. The area has an autonomous feel, with the sort of white-washed housing type which is typical of Galicia but unlike anything else in Bilbao. Since the 50's the residents who had self built their community were living life in a sort of limbo, as there was a dispute over who owned the land, however, in 2010, they were finally awarded citizenship of the city and allowed to stay.

 FIVE - SAN MAMES

Spain is as religious a country as you'll find and Bilbao as a city is no different. There is a competition though, in the form of Athletic of Bilbao - the football team which selects only Basques to play for them - a modern day footballing anachronism. For Igor, the devotion is total. He says he cannot walk past this place without some form of overt physical acknowledgement - either a nod or a wave. " Each time I come I feel a chill and the hairs on my body stand on end" 

SIX  - THE RIA - LA RIA DEL NERVION 

Practically every major world city is built around or along, or is inspired by a major river, and for Bilbao the Nervion is a majestic presence. The river metaphorically resembles a vein running into the heart of the city - the lifeblood of a city's existence. A large part of the Nervion in Bilbao is surrounded by the degeneration of the city's post-industrialisation, but once into the centre, it becomes the focus for some stunning urban planning - a home to the boat-shaped Guggenheim and other municipal river-oriented museums and restored and preserved relics of the river's past , as well as a series of spectacular bridges.

For Igor, the river allows a space for relaxation and contemplation - it fulfills an instinctual need to find the calm of water - and many an hour is spent sat on one of the river-side benches.

Igor also chose this remnant of an old river taxi-stop as a symbol both of the river's importance and former glory.

POSTSCRIPT

It was a privilege to get Igor's insider's tour around Bilbao - to be shown the not-so-shiny parts of a city normally 'un-visited' by the city-break tourist - and towards the end of the walk, which lasted approximately 4 hours, we found ourselves walking out of the city centre, following the river. The street named Deustuibarra runs for miles out of the city, hugging the river, and is lined with the  run-down buildings familiar to all of us who live in post-industrial cities. This whole project was born as a response to how people who live in such cities  and  those charged with the task of regeneration  view their cities and so it was fascinating and appropriate to happen upon an artists collective's response to this area and this problem. The series of pink signs - and there were at least 50 or maybe more of them - were attached to successive buildings, and gaps and offered a series of suggestions -  possibilities of how this once thriving area, now deadened by the loss of industry, could be re-vitalised with, ok, a little bit of money but more importantly with a lot of imagination and vision. This artistic intervention was funny and inclusive in its approach but most importantly hit right at the heart of the problem faced by the post-industrial city.

this suggests the building could be turned into a flea market

this derelict building as we can see below could become a bar