GOOD SPACE – Political, Aesthetic and Urban Spaces

This exhibition project, organised by the art galleries of the City of Esslingen, focused on the appropriation, perception and construction of space. Presenting perspectives from the fields of art, architecture and science, “Good Space” examined the function and significance of public space and asked how these can be designed in view of finite natural resources and limited space. The artist Jasper Niens, for example, investigated how sites were redefined by manmade structures. Los Carpinteros explored impoverished urban areas in order to develop models of the future for cities and societies. Stephen Willats compared the dreams of those living in nondescript, large-scale housing projects with the reality of their constructed environment. And Hito Steyerl illuminated surveillance and invisibility in digital space. The exhibition also described how the study of plant evolution has resulted in future-oriented technologies in the areas of bio design and urban ecology. As an “exhibition in the exhibition”, a special installation titled "Everything is Architecture" historically presented the visionary and utopian spatial and architectural concepts of the 1960s and 1970s from a contemporary perspective.
“Good Space” aimed to appropriate spaces in the city itself; not only was the exhibition presented at the Villa Merkel, but also in the surrounding park and side buildings. The exhibition has been accompanied by lectures, workshops and concerts, while "walking expeditions" and cooperative projects with the university and youth organisations served to form an additional connection to the city.

Artistic director: Andreas Baur
Artists: Los Carpinteros (CU), Martin Creed (GB), Binelde Hyrcan (AO), Jon Rafman (CA), Hito Steyerl, Ryan Trecartin (US), Christoph Wachter & Mathias Jud (CH), Stephen Willats (GB), PNAT (IT), raumlaborberlin and others
Guest speakers (accompanying programme): Juliette Desorgues (GB), Christoph Wachter & Mathias Jud, Prof. Dr. Stefano Mancuso (IT), Cristiana Favretto (IT), Claus Baumann & Marco Trotta, Prof. Dr. Damir Barbarić (HR), raumlaborberlin