Organhaus Chongqing – die Angewandte Vienna
PRINZpod/ fadenbrand

This publication documents the course and the results of the study project Sm art C Vienna – Chongqing, an artistic exchange between China and Europe. The students participating in the project came from various classes at the university. The confrontation between different artistic points of view and technical approaches provided a broad framework for thought and action. The main emphasis of the project was on dealing with what seemed to be “other” and endeavoring to comprehend that otherness at a higher, artistic metalevel. The students were called upon to summon up conceptions and ideas they had of China and to share these in order to develop concepts for an exhibition in Chongqing. The project was launched in the winter semester of 2014/2015 with a symposium held in Vienna’s Heiligenkreuzerhof. During the symposium, China was examined from very different perspectives. Although both the theoretical and the artistic contributions were chosen to cover the broadest possible range of topics, they ultimately centered on the subject of the so-called Smart City. Both Vienna and Chongqing appear to be very open to the idea of a new, digital, virtual, modern city and society. However, for a subject as complex as that of the search for the ideal city structure, it is difficult to come up with cut and dried formulas. Our partner in Chongqing was the Chinese organization for the arts Organhaus, with which we had previously held a symposium in China devoted to the theme Smart City. That forum examined the question of the many different ways in which the concept Smart City itself is and can be used and applied.