INVITATION TO A PANEL DISCUSSION ON THE EXHIBITION 'IDEAL CITY-INVISIBLE CITIES', on August 5^th, 2006 at 3 pm/15:00 h at the Consulatus Hall in the Historical Town Hall of Zamość
We would kindly like to invite you to another panel discussion in the context of the exhibition IDEAL CITY-INVISIBLE CITIES in Zamość, Poland. The project which includes 41 artists from 12 European and 6 non-European countries, is dedicated to one of the outstanding cultural themes: The Ideal City and its sibling the Invisible City. The artists comment and reflect on this idea in two European cities, Zamość and Potsdam, which today are still recognisable as ideal city plannings. Since the renaissance, visual artists have been intensely interested in the concept of the Ideal City, even though most of them remained unrealised, invisible cities. This continues until the 1960s. In the last 25 years, however, this idea no longer played a noteworthy role in artistic discourse although many artists deal with the thematic field of space/house/city in their works. The general absence of utopian thinking in the political realm and society seems to be also manifest in art. Especially today, when the discourse about form and development of urban space is governed by current themes like the ‘Megalopolis’ or ‘Shrinking Cities’, it seems necessary to give the concept of the Ideal City a fresh glance while also searching for traces of the many invisible cities.
Now at halftime of the exhibition’s first manifestation in Zamość, we believe it is a good time and opportunity to discuss issues which have been raised by and around the exhibition with some of the participating artists, organizers and partners. The exhibition has received a very positive echo by the art scene, by the Polish national press and as well as in international coverage while the local press has been rather reserved and critical, mainly based on hesitations about the nature of conceptual art and the funding of the exhibition. But also around the placement of art works in the Zamość Synagogue as well as the sculpture of Mirosław Bałka some controversial responses have been raised by press and audience.
The panel will give a brief introduction to the concept of the exhibition, have two artists speak about their site-specific art works and have statements by partners of the project about their motivation to cooperate with the exhibition. Foremost though, we would like to encourage the audience to engage in a conversation with the panellists.
With a greeting address by Mayor Marcin Zamoyski the panel discussion will include:

• Mirosław Bałka
• Monika Krawczyk and Malgorzata Bakalarz, Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland
• Anda Rottenberg, commissioner of the exhibition
• David Tremlett, artist participating in the exhibition
• Andrzej Urbanski, Director Muzeum Zamoyskie
• Sabrina van der Ley and Markus Richter, curators of the exhibition

 After the panel discussion the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland invites you to the Zamość Synagogue to view the works installed there and for further conversations.
For a preview of the exhibition please view the virtual tour by clicking on the numbers on the map: http://www.idealcity-invisiblecities.org/en/187/

Other dates to meet with the curators and artists of the exhibition in Zamość:

• 11-13 August 2006 (the curators will be available on these days at 3 pm in the Zamość Academy)
• 20-22 August 2006 (the curators will be available on these days at 3 pm in the Zamość Academy)

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