A live public arts intervention that opens dialogue
about the urban environment, posing the question,
‘How do we experience our city?’
City Running was founded by artist
Greg Daville in 2005.
Tragically he died in April 2008.
His work can be seen at: www.gregdaville.com
Greg led the creative vision of City Running, curating each event, acting as MC on the night, directing the artists, and running all seminar activity outside of core hours.
City Running’s inspiration
City Running was inspired by Parkour, the Situationist's idea of 'La Derive', and the basic tenets of the Bauhaus, which encouraged cross-disciplinary work. The City Running experience is more than a 'static' event, which is the commonly received notion of an exhibition. City Running reveals something of the creative process itself, and deepens the relationship between the artist, the art and the audience. City Running aims to actively foster communication and creative collaboration between artistic disciplines, thereby strengthening the city's creative infrastructure.
City Running was initially inspired by the international phenomenon of Parkour. 'Free-running' is a sporting event and spectacle, but its real appeal to me as an artist is that it is a spontaneous expression of, and reaction to, a specific urban environment. I used this approach as a working model for a means of creative production, with the intention of extending this to other cities and adapting accordingly. In the same way that Parkour runners asses a specific site, improvise movements in response to it, and then 'perform' the completed run, my intention was to give artists space where they could make new work in direct relation to their surroundings with absolute spontaneity.
Most artists established in their practice rarely have the chance to make that immediate response. The emphasis for those involved in City Running is on artistic development, working outside of normal parameters, and from this to imagine new ways of working. I intend the flavour of the event to have the same vibrant, chaotic sense of the city at night.
"What we found with the Brighton City Run was that the work made reflected back the personality of the city in a rough ‘n’ ready, honest, and immediate way. The fact that all the work had to be made, exhibited and discussed within four hours, and all in front of a peer and public audience, gave the whole project a sense of honest communication, and excitement, as well as deconstructing the creative process.
If the Brighton Run is anything to go by this will lead to interesting collaborations after the event; creating links between creative communities within and without the city. It is an aim of City Running to tour internationally and link City Runners and their cities in the creation of work and communication of ideas in the future.
City Running is not just a way of generating an exhibition of experimental work, it is a way of celebrating and reflecting each city’s differences, championing its artistic community, and investigating current art practice."
Greg Daville, founder of City Running