2nd- 6th June, Old St Leonard’s Hall, Exeter

Urban development is usually driven by public and private stakeholders with their own agendas, constraints and priorities. Do they mirror the interests and needs of the people who live, work, act and play in a place? Who decides what public space is for and how it should be designed and experienced? Do we all feel that our voices are heard and the city is ours to inhabit and shape?

Between 2-4 June, the mobile “Alternative City Hall” installation will be roaming the streets of Exeter.

Run by pan-European artist collective Re:claim, it is structured around four departments:

The Department for Investigating City Errors by Alicja Nowicz [PL]

assumes that a mistake is never a neutral fact. A mistake is a diagnosis – and every diagnosis presupposes a norm. The question is therefore not simply: What is wrong here? The real question is: According to whom? Compared to what imaginary? Who gets to define correctness? The activities carried out within this office encourage participants to express feelings and contradictions that do not fit within technocratic frameworks.

The Department for Dreams of the City’s Future by Agnieszka Wolodzko [PL]

helps residents unleash their unconscious dreams and collective imagination, often suppressed and blocked by a purely utilitarian and functional understanding of space. The Department seeks answers to questions such as: What opportunities does open public space offer? What is the relationship between the body and space? Where is the limit of individual freedom in public space? What scope is there for residents to express their creativity in urban spaces? 

The Department for Vital Statistics by Citizen Architects [UK]

allows residents to register new arrivals and exits from to the city: the beings, places, objects and ideas that have entered or have been lost to the city. Residents can also register amalgamations, unions, mergers or cahoots. The department’s on-site celebrant helps immortalise the registrations through photographs. 

Department for Ongoing Frictions and Conversations by Sigrids Stue – Art Platform [DK]

recognises that conversations about the past, present and future of our cities are never ending and that simple truths rarely exist. Residents are invited to assist with maintenance works to the Re:claim collective’s manifesto for the just city by editing it in line with their own opinions. They can also contribute to the library of placards to express strongly held views, or take a placard from the collection for a march around the city.

Office architecture design: Carl Fraser / Countermapping [UK].

On Friday 5 June at 11:00-13:00 artists’ workshop “Re:claim and Guests. Public Space as a Challenge” will be held at Old St Leonard’s Hall, Roberts Rd, EX2 4HD. This event will be filled with presentations of various projects from the area of engaged art, and engaged design.

Then on Saturday 6 June, the Alternative City Hall pops up at Old St Leonard’s Hall for a highly unofficial forum for opinions, debates, and delightful chaos. Expect the Alternative Mayor’s Address, reports of the departments’ findings and a chance to make your own report to the Alternative City Hall.

Reserve a FREE spot here:

ART: Alternative City Hall – Exeter Tickets, Saturday 6 June  •  6 PM – 9 PM | Eventbrite

Exhibition Webpage:

OSLH – Alternative City Hall Exeter

Who is behind the Alternative City Hall? 

Re:claim is a long-term international network of artists, architects and interdisciplinary organisations with shared perspective on urban justice. Our aim is to challenge the norms implicitly written in the urban fabric that excludes segments of the population and control the way we navigate, experience and use public spaces. We work to reclaim our right to the city through different forms of resistance, such as local interventions in the city environment, protests or playful acts of re-appropriation. The network is a platform for collaboration, research, production and distribution of knowledge.