FANCITY 2008 Program Series on the ‘Eventifying’ of the City
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26.3.-27.7.2008 – Rote Fabrik, Zurich
The international football tournament, like the World and European
Cups, has evolved into a mass urban event with the establishment of
zones known as “Public-Viewing” areas and “Fan Miles” in
representative places in the city: entire city centers are
transformed into consumer and experience zones. The host cities are
trying to actively use the growing popularity of football events for
their own location marketing; while the private event holders dictate
the marketing requirements and occupy the central city locations for
their exclusive sponsors’ advertisements. At the same time, the mass
events provide a reason to implement further surveillance and control
dispositives. This is done in the form of large scale police and army
operations, extensive “anti-hooligan” measures, police barriers and
access control in city spaces as well as the testing of new
surveillance technology. The FANCITY event series discusses massive
football events like the 2006 World Cup in Germany and the upcoming
2008 European Cup in Switzerland and Austria as symptoms of the
current neoliberal urban development. Furthermore, it will discuss
the effects on the city and public spaces with a focus on
commercialization and control.
A series of events by the Rote Fabrik in collaboration with Anke
Hagemann, Big Brother Awards Switzerland and the stadt.labor
Information: fancity@rotefabrik.ch
http://www.rotefabrik.ch/de/konzept/label_fancity08.php
(in German only)