Gap Filler wins International Award

Gap Filler wins International Award

Renowned educator, Francesco Tonucci, recently announced the winners of the International City to City Barcelona FAD (Foment de les Arts i el Disseny) Awards. Gap Filler were among the select group of winners with their project Eyes on the City. The FAD awards are an internationally focussed arts award based on a different theme each season. This year, ‘Learning Initiatives in the City’ were highlighted.

Three awards were announced earlier this week; there was one top prize and two honourable mentions. There were a total of 132 entries with 28 finalists. The recovery of the Cultural District in Lima, Peru won the top prize. Honourable mentions went to a refugee integration project based on Football in Hamburg, Germany, and Gap Filler’s project Eyes on the City.

Eyes on the City was an innovative project that saw Gap Filler tour the Grandstandium (a purpose built portable grandstand) around the city and park in view of a building construction site or area of road works. Throughout each series, spectators enjoyed watching the laborious process of (re)building the city, and learning more about proposed developments from on-site commentators. Contractors and other guests, including identities such as City Councillor Raf Manji, Public health specialist Lucy D’aeth and Belgian Peer-to-per theorist Michel Bauwens, were also invited to update observers on their activities or areas of expertise.

Eyes on the City was an opportunity for Gap Filler to get out on the streets and connect people, engage them in the rebuild and often share some much needed information – with the trademark Gap Filler sense of humour! The jury highlighted the original approach to research and debate on public space, from a collective, transparent and open point of view. The jury drew specific attention to the project’s “rigorous approach to public policy matters and it’s claim of a right often forgotten: the right of knowing what is happening around you and who is behind the changes in our habitat”.

“It’s interesting; lately Gap Filler has been receiving far more interest and praise from overseas and elsewhere in NZ than within Christchurch,” Ryan Reynolds, Gap Filler co-director and occasional Eyes on the City commentator said. “We’re so closely associated with the immediate disaster recovery here that it’s hard to convince locals that we might have long-term relevance.”

Gap Filler hopes that their current involvement in some major local public and private developments will show the value of incorporating community engagement and grass-roots innovation into the long-term development of the city. Their efforts have been internationally recognized since their inception in 2010 and, with the latest Barcelona FAD award, in an ongoing way as well.

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