Preview: This Is Not A Gateway

Dean Nicholas
By Dean Nicholas Last edited 173 months ago
Preview: This Is Not A Gateway

2010_gateway.jpg
Alexander Ivanov, Maison-monument, Bouzloudja (Bulgaria 2007)
A "platform for emerging architects, urbanists, artists, photographers and filmmakers whose first point of departure is the city and to offer them the opportunity to publish, discuss and present their work", the annual This Is Not A Gateway Festival of Urbanism begins on 22nd October at Hanbury Hall, Spitalfields.

Okay, so the organisers may go heavy on the prolix descriptions, but cutting through the verbiage, this is a three-day festival that looks into the experience of the city-dwelling modern person (that's you) and tries to explore the boundaries of what it means to be a contemporary urbanite, or "conturbanite", as they thankfully didn't style it.

The loose theme for this year's event is the Berlin Wall, which succumbed to the rotten core of Communism twenty years ago; one of the key events is a photography exhibition by Nikola Mihov that explores the architecture of Bulgarian cities built during the period between 1945 and 1989.

Check out the festival's complete programme (PDF) for a run-down of all the events.

Last Updated 21 October 2009