09 December 2008

U-hangover : summary

U-hangover : danke

I thank Ricardo and Nuno for inviting me to ECB's xmas party! It was a great excuse for taking Z-A to Frankfurt! Following the original idea from Nina and Lisa - several months ago - finally there was a good timing for travelling to Germany... Even if everybody was very busy at this point, Ricardo took control of the situation and contacted Club Voltaire - thank you for making it possible! The staff was very nice and very professional. I thank Lisa for being a great host, Diogo for the collage and Pico for overviewing the text. I send a big thanks to all of those who made part of a very nice xmas-mood-weekend in Frankfurt.

U-hangover : text

This event followed the European Central Bank's Christmas Party . The party was a success but it had – as predicted – a terrible effect on everybody's 'day after'. The U-hangover took place in the charismatic Club Voltaire, self-described as a 'politik kultur kneipe' – exactly what we were looking for! After the initial 'interaction' (Z-connection), there were significantly numerous audiences listening to the presentations given by the speakers we'd invited. We were quite happy to return to the strategy of the very first event, in which everybody present was encouraged to participate – we're not interested in always following the same concept.

A small number of people showed up to literally share their 'hangover' - something not supposedly done in public.

The nature of the space – something between an high-school classroom and a small library - helped sustain a friendly atmosphere in which people discussed random themes, put to the table with the support of virtual communication devices that helped make thoughts visible. It wouldn't be an easy task to describe everybody's contribution - and isn't at all necessary, in any case. We shared information and heard points of view from architectural, political, economic perspectives. Whilst most of us were drinking tea, music was played, videos shown and we saw presentations of on-going academic and professional projects (some of them quite 'secret'). We learned about the changes that Frankfurt is going through, and tried to understand how the current economic situation is affecting everybody's lives. As someone said, the 'hangover hasn't even started yet'.

Participants were born in Germany, Portugal, Greece, Italy and France and are currently living in Frankfurt, Berlin, London and Porto. Here is the list:

Arthur Saint-Guilhem
Diogo Matos
Giuseppe Mosele
Ioli-Georgia Georgila
Katerina Dimopoulou
Lisa Romswinkel
Michele Modugno
Nina Lampe
Nuno Queirós Faria
Paulo Moreira
Pedro Borges de Araújo
Ricardo Pereira
Silvia Margiocco


Paulo Moreira, Ricardo Pereira

U-hangover : video

08 December 2008

U-hangover : photos