World Cafe: Democracy – Art Sopot 2011 project is a mobile structure that combines reflection on urban policy and artistic presentations as well as cultural and civic education.

Within 31 days we will reach places that are not traditionally associated with culture (marketplace, pharmacy, railway station). And the other way round – places of culture (such as the State Art Gallery or the Sopot Museum) will be transformed into the center of citizens’ debates. We will establish a metaphorical Participatory Office – a place of meetings, ideological disputes and reflections on the contemporary world.

Four thematic areas that we will focus on are:

• art and new media / free culture / open source / access to cultural heritage
• art and urban space
• art and ecology
• art and democracy of actions

The meetings will be held in a democratic, grass-roots style, without top-down programme. The essence of meetings and discussions organized within World Cafe: Sztuka i Demokracja project is sharing knowledge, exchange of experience, accessibility, openness and reconstruction of meanings. Everyone will be free to participate in these meetings. Every participant will contribute to them through involvement in discussions, presentation of works of art, critical analysis and reflection. We want to liquidate the division into experts and audience. Paraphrasing the message of Joseph Beuys: a city is a social work of art and its inhabitants are artists.

Thus, the outcome of our project will be works of art understood as an idea, conversation or neighbors’ initiative. All of the works will be documented under free licenses and software and constantly updated in the Internet (Facebook, Twitter, Blip, YouTube etc.). We are also planning to take advantage of multimedia carriers in shop windows, banks, ATMs and railway station bulletin boards all around Sopot.

World Cafe: Art and Democracy is an innovative project – live stream broadcasts of all actions will be available.

Curator: Lidia Makowska
Organizer: Kultura Miejska Association

The project is a part of coordinated by the BSCC Open Culture SPA.