KRAX* is a project that investigates, promotes and connects urban creativity in Barcelona with that of other cities. KRAX believes that Urban Creativity generates alternative proposals and reactions that are necessary to the city’s transformation. Autonomous initiatives emerge in response to the lack of value that public institutions place on the need for collectivism, participation and self-management in the process of building the city’s future. These initiatives exist at the cultural, social and economic levels, and we recognise the need to acknowledge and involve them.

KRAX promotes this creativity by bringing together and making known the creative experiences that arise from participative struggles and practices. KRAX unites these struggles, connects different experiences and develops new tools in favour of the participation and expression of everyone’s ideas!

For the second time, City Mine(d) is organizing the KRAX Meeting, a gathering of creative initiatives in Barcelona and other cities, from April 23 to 26, 2008. This year we are focusing on, and inviting urban autonomous cultural spaces, public spaces that support the creativity of a city’s residents, and generate debates about the way the city is managed. These are autonomous cultural production initiatives based on new models of (self)management and a coherent discourse in response to urban changes. There’s a need for political institutions to get to know and recognize these spaces and the value and richness they add to the city.

The KRAX Meeting program includes debates, workshops, presentations by guest initiatives, guided tours, meetings with local initiatives and a Documentation Centre (KRAX Cargo) with the material compiled through the research process.

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*: KRAX comes from the idea of cracks in the city, places that generate tensions arising from urban transformation in relation to social and cultural needs. These cracks are a point of attraction for new interests and creations. KRAX is an initiative of City Mine(d), centre of production for urban interventions in Brussels, London and Barcelona.

http://krax-jornadas.citymined.org/