{"pk":58111,"title":"Enjoying Public Space in Swiss Cities","subtitle":null,"abstract":"From transforming fire-hydrants, to public snow-sculpting, to growing \"mini-gardens,\" Swiss cities and towns are undertaking initiatives to re-imagine the urban experience, in order to make it more pleasant, memorable, and relevant, for its residents. Here, I share several art projects that I have been involved in first-hand over the past several years, starting in the 1980s in the town of St. Gallen and in the village Braunwald, Switzerland, demonstrating how: a) through the re-painting of fire-hydrants as dwarfs, fairytales come alive in urban places, which re-energizes public places in rather unpredictable ways; b) through public snow-sculpting using scratched ice from a local ice-rink, discarded material is put into new, creative, and decorative use; and c. through guerilla gardening in public places, locals take care for a “mini-garden” set by the council in a wooden frame, creating a shared experience that will culminate in having a meal together, cooked from the vegetables grown in the mini-garden, and shared on the street, where the mini-garden is located.","language":"en","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[{"word":"snow sculpting, art, social gardening, fire hydrants, public demonstrations"}],"section":"Articles","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/16v3w7d5","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Beat","middle_name":"","last_name":"Brunner","name_suffix":"","institution":"Sculptura","department":""}],"date_submitted":"2016-01-19T13:36:34-08:00","date_accepted":"2016-01-19T13:36:34-08:00","date_published":"2016-10-21T15:52:53-07:00","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/ucdavislibrary_streetnotes/article/58111/galley/44273/download/"}]}