Arts: City Square Project Rip It Up, Start Again
by admin • February 16, 2010 • arts • 2 Comments
Ahead of a public debate on Union Terrace Gardens this Thursday evening, the City Square Project today announced they are ‘phasing out’ their original, undoubtedly expensive glossy PR brochure. It’s nothing to do with Annie Lennox, who spoke out against the scheme, being pictured in it (nor the even more inexplicable image of the London Underground). Oh no, they were going to do it anyway (sure they were). Fair enough, but it just shows up how little of the planned development is, erm, actually planned.
They haven’t a clue what would go in there: Italian Piazzas, Trafalgar Squares, Guggenheim Museums, underground tunnels, concert venues, babylon-esque gardens and various other nonsensical, reactionary ‘ideas’ have been mooted thus far, all with very little substance to them.
You just know that the huge funding shortfall would mean we’d end up with a half-arsed, embarrassing mish-mash which would cause irreplaceable damage to the city’s image and physical make-up. A piece in today’s Scotsman sums up the situation perfectly: The City Square Project is unworkable and threatens not only Peacock’s immediate future, but the future of arts and culture in the city as a whole. Roll on Thursday…
Update 17/02/10: The Annie Lennox picture story has been picked up by The Scotsman today
too true. It’s gone beyond “who’s building gets built” – it’s about the wholesale destruction of the local cultural providers. It’s about business not having a clue about what is involved in providing culture, it’s about the lack of support or belief in the local cultural providers.
I am very interested to see how much the DCA has grown and become a “big hitter” over the last 11 years – Thomas Hirschhorn’s first solo UK show in Dundee? (Thomas Who? I imagine Mr Oilpipe would say).
To have “Guggenheim” and “Louvre” banded around is amazing… It’d be lovely to have these established artistic bastions be represented in Aberdeen – no laughing at that – but the laughs come from knowing that someone who has no clue about “cultural provision” can think they’ll snap their fingers to bring these names to Aberdeen – “oh, and by the way, if you come, that’ll help us kill the local efforts to create a cultural building and infrastructure” – “zut alores! je nes dinnae want zat!”
I’ve not met a single creative that is “anti business” – it’s essential as we all know – for jobs and the economy… the galling thing is that ACSEF seem to want 100% of any market “opportunities”.
Surely, a vibrant and diverse Aberdeen would have a closely connected business / culture sectors – where the “experts” for each sector would provide their direction and input for their own areas (communicating ideas and directions to all the other parties?)…what a wonderful world that would be – eh – mutual respect and understanding that we’re all here to make life better “up here” for everyone living / visiting here…
let ACSEF look after the Enegetica corridor – a true incentive to get business / future investment “here” – and let the cultural body provide the “stuff that the workers would do when they are not working”… instead of having some Oil Boss tell them how & where to spend their time… in a plaza designed to “laud” the oil industry? connectivity? – more like a Monopoly.
Some great points there Phil, ACSEF aren’t coming out of this at all well, the local cultural sector will view them with nothing but suspicion from now on. Hardly the way to go about regenerating a city…