Suggestions for the City
Mission Statement
As we look at public perpetuation we mostly witness commemoration of a unified, hegemonic narrative. An agenda that was determined by the municipality or the state, for establishing a narrative for the city. As citizens of a city we are not always aware of the public space, and how the positioning of memorials, monuments, and public sculptures are affecting us; how they materialize into a collective memory of a specific narrative.
As we encounter the public space of the city with our own body and presence, we are facing another layer of existence: a live one, which comprises the inhabitants of the city. This layer is sometimes chaotic, multicultural and full of different occupations and bodies.
Eventually, even though the public sphere is an area for civic, political, and communal actions or interferences, it is dictated by an elite few, those in the higher ranks of power. Those who decide who and what deserves representation in the public space.
Most of the historical landmarks in the public sphere of the city are a result of a municipal perpetuation of
a unified narrative, targeting the construction of a collective memory. Urban spaces are saturated with the
commemoration of a history of violence: wars, conquests, and generals, or victims of all of the above. SFC (Suggestions for the City) aims to shed light on different narratives, and to indicate another kind of memory manifestation in the city’s
public sphere. This structure of alternative narratives, comes from the citizens’ points of view, most likely the ones who do not usually hold a mark in the city public sphere.
The decision to collect narratives from women residents of the city comes from the notion that throughout history, men have been in a position of power, hence the primary decision makers. Different from the hegemonic and known narratives that structure the urban and national ethos, SFC collects narratives from women who are not in a position of power. In a masculine, monumentalized space, SFC offers a place for new narratives, belonging to women living today. Differentiating between the historical sphere, and the possibility for a present one.