Civic Matters – a reflection on the project and alternative model of residency program.

In January 2006, Civic Matters invited artists, designers, and crafts artists from Finland, Los Angeles, and Sweden to meet in Los Angeles, at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, for a cultural exchange program and to develop a site for the production of art, design, craft, and ideas. Together, participants will develop a range of projects – from design prototypes to all manner of social interventions – that address identified needs or concerns within various communities in Los Angeles and in Scandinavia.

Civic Matters provided a meeting point for participants to explore the dynamics of artistic collaboration; it is a dialogue-in-process and raises questions about cultural histories and traditions around the production and dissemination of art, craft, and design. Civic Matters can be said to have started in September 2005 with the launch of a blog (artleak.org/civicmatters) to encourage ongoing communication between the participants.

The project is characterized by its organically developing process, which reflects the personal and collective wishes and understandings of Civic Matters participants. Civic Matters embodies three distinct steps or phases of process ‹ communication, cultural exchange and proposal development, and proposal realization/production. From its inception Civic Matters has taken place in dialogue among the participants in Los Angeles, Stockholm, Helsinki and Turku and artleak.org/civicmatters.

Participants Bicycle Kitchen, Mike Blockstein, Jeff Cain, Fallen Fruit, Hjärta Smärta, IC-98, Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, Otto Karvonen, LA Forum for Architecture and Urban Design, Muungano, Outpost for Contemporary Art, r a k e t a, ROR, Sissi Westerberg, Sundown Salon