The Potentiality Workshop II

“The Worldshaping workshop” is an artistic research project by Polish artist Agata Szymanek exploring the world not as infinite space but as a vessel, shared, finite, and full. This workshop continues the exploration initiated in February 2024, the outcomes of which are presented at the exhibition H2O.

It will focus on collaboratively creating a potential bust, sculpture, or installation to commemorate someone or something we collectively decide is worth remembering. The resulting work will be proposed as a potential contribution to Ilm Park.

Our point of departure will be the question of who deserves commemoration in the “official” parts of a city, and how political structures shape such narratives. Through collective processes, we will engage in imagining alternative monuments and how forms of commemoration might appear in Ilm Park. Together, we will ask what kinds of monuments or busts we, as residents or visitors, would like to encounter there, and what materials they should be made of.

The monuments in Ilm Park are situated along the river Ilm, and this setting plays a significant role in our reflections. Water, and its symbolic as well as material qualities, will serve as an inspiration.

The session will cover:

- A presentation on artistic and cultural initiatives addressing monuments and commemoration
- A collective creative process of developing sketches and prototypes for potential monuments
- The integration of our outcomes into the exhibition

Guiding questions:

How do we personally understand potentiality?
In what ways can unofficial narratives shape the potentiality of public space?

The workshop aims to create a space for shared imagination, dialogue, and creative practice, while contributing to broader discussions on memory, space, and collective agency.