banale potenziale
Jonah Burgsteiner, Momo Francesca Canzian, Fabian Fazio, Lena Flora Maierhofer, Max Benjamin Spamer (Eds.)
Graz / Hannover: Self-published, 2025
German, 265 pages
Thread-sewn binding, covered with gauze
Design: Marcel Backscheider
Available for voluntary donation here

Which embedded systems govern public space, and how do they shape our behaviour? By what means can we more precisely articulate the spatiality of these established (power) relations—such as those manifest in street-level environments—so that we can begin to understand and rethink them, whilst promoting alternative counter-practices? The above, as well as further questions, served as the starting point for a 48-hour nonstop programme featuring exhibitions, workshops, performances, installations, debates, and film screenings, which took place in October 2024 at three locations within Graz’s Annenviertel as well as in the public space between them.
 
In the end, a book was developed—engaging with the street—to be read on the street (or elsewhere). On the one hand, it serves as a retrospective of the 48 hours; on the other, it expands on the key themes addressed during the exhibitions and interventions by bringing together texts and (photographic) works that examine the aforementioned questions from various viewpoints. The book can easily be stowed away in a jacket pocket. It is slim enough to be perused on the bus, on a bench, in a queue, or on the pavement. If left lying around, someone else might just continue reading it…The result is a reader, intended to serve as a navigational tool, as a basis for action, as an initiation for interdisciplinary networking—not as an end-point and therefore without any claim of completeness.

In conjunction with the publication, the findings of the 48h research were displayed in an exhibition at the HDA in Graz and further built upon through new contributions. The booklet accompanying the exhibition is supplied alongside the publication.