Vilde Stampe Ödman’s proposition at Tiny Park Festival explores what navigation and negotiation would be necessary to open up a thoroughfare through a closed and private site and, for certain moments, to make it public. In doing so, the proposition questions how this gesture can, for short periods, open an area (and a sequence of movements into it) that will otherwise be inaccessible for the coming 10 years.

With the knowledge that, at some point in the future, this fenced off area will be opened for future residents, the proposition explores if this gesture can give ownership to the people in the area now – and even allow them to welcome the new neighbors in the future.

This proposal makes visible the (non)accessibility that shapes the spaces all around us, where we move freely without safety gear, accessibility ramps, or permits. In this sense, Vilde’s gesture – or the attempt behind the gesture – engages with the rules and regulations surrounding public space as material in and of itself.