Cultural Cities > Speakers > Balfelt

Kenneth A. BALFELT

Abstract: 

First, I will give a tour at Mændenes Hjem (Home of the Men), a shelter for homeless in Central Copenhagen. With the artist FOS I have restructured and made the interior design of the public rooms in order to facilitate a more horizontal meeting between the social worker and the homeless. We will then go to the PH Cafeen to have coffee and talk about the square "En plads for alle" (A square for everybody) which is explicitly designed both for drug users, café and theater goers. Here we will discuss how we have worked with this and what the results have been.

As a visual artist I work with social interventions in public space. Through my work with socially excluded I have tried to make physical forms that make a platform for meetings between different people. I have developed a concept of "platform cooperation" as a different approach to user involvement in planning and generally investigate how "context understanding" can be equally or even more useful in (urban) planning than experts professional qualities. Please see http://www.a-r-d.org/ for more info.

Short background:

I work in the field of 'Socio-Political Context Related Functional Art'. I am concerned with how art can produce value and knowledge to society as well as research in alternatives structures that can work parallel to capitalism. I think of a form of resistance that work from within, in a constructive manner that produces rather than criticise knowledge. I engage in a discourse of the politics of the social. You could say that I make ‘social glue'.

I often use the build form, architecture and design, as medias for forming social space. Also, I often work collaboratively as well as enter a local context. Community and love are often present! By making functional proposals or solutions I try to engage art as a paradigm as well as profession that can work directly with societal issues. But as you can see from my projects many other aspects are also at play. 

I have a background in marketing planning where I worked for 11 years and have a degree in marketing. After deciding to make art I studied at Goldsmiths College in London and did a BA Fine Art and an MA Art History (Twentieth Century) specialising in cultural analysis and contemporary philosophy.
Please see my homepage http://www.a-r-d.org/ for more information.

Download PDF version of CV in English

Download PDF version of CV in Danish