Public Arts Garage is an international seminar within the graduate network Creative Approaches to Public Space (EUR CAPS), coordinated by Université Rennes 2. The term “garage” stands as a metaphor for experimentation and playful prototyping.
The project connects MA and Ph.D. students from different disciplines, countries and academic cultures. In small teams, they co-develop collaborative methods for creative engagement with public spaces. Initiated in 2022 by Alex Toland and Martin Leibinger (funded by DAAD IVAC), the project has grown into a hybrid programme held in various European cities.
PAG continues to expand as a community of practice in socially engaged and public art, fostering collaborations both within and beyond academia. In 2024, the seminar took place in Rennes, France, under the theme Third Spaces as Intercultural Places for Commoning. Students conducted research through civic visits, vocal and scenographic practice, walking ethnography, and playful experiments.
Findings were published in an artist book – designed as an interactive, multidimensional medium that embodied and extended the research beyond the duration of the seminar.
Participants (2024): Bauhaus-Universität Weimar: Anıl Aydınoğlu, Anya Alayskaya, Dilşad Kurdak, Emily Tsz Ching Cheung, Erphaneh Sadeghzadeh, Giuliana Marmo, Jennifer Yuen Yu Yue, Jodie Wa Luk Lai, Jovan Turčinović, Kitman Yeung, Lalicha Lalitsasivimol, Negar Kablou, Raisa Bosich, Yaman Tohme University College Cork: Maxine Acton, Bob Grumiau, Ioannis Kaprosioutis, Kathleen Coker, Luyan Zan Université Rennes 2: Audrey Andriana Solomanana, Alice Baude, Alicia Goullet, Aya Chriki, Coline Pégeot, June Claire Baury, Manon Knockaert, Margot Buhler, Maria Esther, Miguel Parraguez Cinto, Shirin Jindani, Tristan Deplus University of Barcelona: Eki Irustar, Ana Ayuson
Media Production: Photography, video and editing: Anna Duval for CAPS
Partner Lecturers (2024): Université Rennes 2: Marion Hohlfeldt, Silvy Panet-Raymond, Taylor Still, Hélène Bailleul, Frédéric Sotinel, Tristan Deplus, Jodene Morand University College Cork: Yvon Bonefant University of Barcelona: Jo Milne Bauhaus-Universität Weimar: Alex Toland, Martin Leibinger
Partner Universities (EUR CAPS): Université Rennes 2, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, University College Cork, University of Barcelona, Queen’s University Belfast, Concordia University Montréal, University of Fine Arts Poznań
Funding: DAAD IVAC (2022), Bauhaus.Module Fund (2022), Erasmus BIP (2023–24)
Publication: Leibinger, M., Toland, A. (2023). Facilitating international transdisciplinary collaboration in a virtual academic exchange project, DOI: 10.4995/HEAd23.2023.16276
