© CYCLE UP!
CYCLE UP! connects artists, decision-makers, and communities who care about our climate to find creative ideas and solutions to bring more bicycles to our streets.

At the intersection of art, culture, and sustainability, we will inspire a shift in perceptions and behaviours towards cycling for people of all ages and abilities. We want to empower those who are involved in CYCLE UP! to see art and creativity as a tool to change existing political and social realities. At the same time, we will discover how artistic processes can be made more environmentally sustainable, through local and participative models and by reducing the footprint of our artist-in-residence programmes. Our vision is a future where art sparks conversation and action around bicycle culture and the climate emergency. 

Follow us on YouTube to see what we have been up to! 

 

CYCLE UP! Curatorial Board

The CYCLE UP! curatorial board plays an important role in shaping and overseeing the artistic vision of the project, including residencies, public programming, exhibitions, and events. The curatorial team will advise the CYCLE UP! steering committee for the duration of the project.  

Piotr Sikora © Viktorie Macánová
Chief Curatorial Advisor

Piotr Sikora

Piotr Sikora is a critic and curator of contemporary art. He has a master's degree from the Institute of Art History of the Jagiellonian University, Krakow and is a member of The International Association of Art Critics (AICA) in Poland. In his exhibitions, he refers to identity politics, stereotypes, and prejudices related to the region of Central Europe, and he explores the connections between pop culture, politics, and the art world. Currently, he is curator of the MeetFactory AiR Program and has initiated; The New Dictionary of Old Ideas and Other Edges of The World with Lucia Kvočákova. He is also a lecturer at the Anglo-American University in Prague and a devoted cyclist.

Lena Fliessbach © Private

Lena Fließbach

Lena Fließbach is an independent curator and author for contemporary art and an advocate for sustainability in the arts and culture industry. In 2020, she co-curated the international group exhibition Zero Waste at the Museum of Fine Arts (MdbK) Leipzig in Germany, which minimized its ecological footprint. For the program, she organised local cooperations with a repair café, a community garden and organised Zero Waste cooking events. In 2022, she curated the discourse series Zero Waste - Art and Knowledge for Urania Berlin with Hannah Beck-Mannagetta, combining experiences from science, art, and the sustainability movement.

Evelyn Grzinich  © privat

Evelyn Grzinich

Evelyn Grzinich is mixed-media artist and cultural coordinator, based in South-East Estonia.  She has participated, curated and organised cultural projects of local and international importance, from small to large scale since 2001. Co-founder and co-director of MoKS– Center for Arts and Social practice, a non-profit, artist-run residency center and project space in rural Estonia (active until 2019); She has also worked as a culture specialist in the local government association Põlvamaa Development Agency. Currently she is a freelance artist and the chairwoman of LOORE- Estonian Creative Residencies Network NGO.

John Hill

John Hill

John Hill is a writer and educator based in Prague, Czechia, where he leads the Fine Art Experimental Media BA at Prague City University and teaches Art Writing on the international masters at the Academy of Fine Arts, where he also co-curated the 2019 Diploma show Nejkrásnější věk. His writing has appeared in Frieze Magazine, PARSE Journal, Artalk, Blok Magazine and Camera Austria International. His practice-based PhD, which explored artistic collaboration inspired by network technology, was undertaken with LJMU's Uses of Art group, a partner of the L’Internationale museum network. His current work looks at organisational structures within and outside of art, including theatre, games, and activism.

Petra Marko ©

Petra Marko

Petra Marko is an architect and placemaking expert who focuses on shaping and promoting people-oriented cities, inclusive public spaces, and walkable neighbourhoods. She is co-founder of Marko&Placemakers with offices in London and Bratislava and the strategic lead on place projects at visual design studio Milk. She has led the research and co-authored ‘Meanwhile City,’ a how-to guide for temporary intervention and she co-authored VeloCity, a strategic vision to promote cycling and compact development for rural areas to create self-supporting communities. Petra is an active commuter cyclist and a member of the Pedelle women’s cycling network. 

Mgr. et Mgr. Martin Radoš

Martin Radoš

Martin is a co-founder of the WERKSTATT bike workshop in Brno, focusing on road and city bikes with an emphasis on cycling education and sustainable urban mobility. He graduated in Recreology from the Faculty of Physical Culture at Palacký University in Olomouc and holds a degree in Cultural Management from the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University in Brno. Before the WERKSTATT he worked for the Czech Centre in Berlin as a culture programmer and at the Moravian Gallery in Brno in a production and organisation role. 

Partners

CYCLE UP! is co-funded by the European Union and will be implemented in five different countries;
Slovakia, Poland, Estonia, Czechia and Germany by the following project partners.  

 

Goethe-Institut

Lead Partner
The Goethe-Institut is the cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany with a global presence. We facilitate international cultural exchange, promote access to the German language and support the unimpeded development of culture and science. For over seventy years, we have enabled international cultural exchange to take place, promoted access to the German language and supported the unimpeded development of culture and science. 
 
www.goethe.de/praha 

 

Czechia
The Czech Centres are a contributory organisation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. They are an integral part of Czech foreign policy and a key cultural diplomacy tool. They operate within the public diplomacy domain, whose mission is to promote and support the good reputation of Czechia abroad and to strengthen cultural relations between countries. The Czech Centres are a cultural institute understanding culture in its broadest sense. They also provide Czech language classes abroad and participate in organising certified language exams. 
  
www.czechcentres.cz 

 

Poland
Contemporary cities are places where civic movements are born, creative industries develop, new technologies are created and new ideas are born. At BoMiasto, we set ourselves the goal of collecting the best practices, provoking discussions about them, and trying to put these ideas into practice. We want to put equal emphasis on all these stages, because we believe that this is the only way to really influence the reality that surrounds us. Because it is important to us how and where we live. 
 
bomiasto.pl

 Tartu City Logo

Estonia
Tartu is a city in the South-East of Estonia with a population of 100,000. Tartu lies on the banks of the River Emajõgi and has about 39 square kilometres of land area. The Emajõgi River, which is one of the longest rivers in Estonia, flows for 10 km within the city limits. Tartu is Estonia's second largest city. Tartu is a regional centre of South-Estonia with a population of over 350,000 in the hinterland.   

Slovakia 
Civic association PUNKT was established in 2007 for the purpose of promoting and supporting research in the field of design, visual arts, architecture and urbanism. They have gradually expanded their intention to comprehensively support the development of the city at various levels, supporting community life and the local economy, linking the needs of residents with urban development, as well as responsible waste management and its reduction in practice. Due to the scope of their activities, they have become the only non-profit organisation of its kind in Slovakia. 
 
punkt.sk

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Estonia
European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024 is the main event in Estonia in 2024 and the most significant joint endeavour of Tartu and Southern Estonia. The title year is the culmination of five years of activity. The concept of Tartu 2024 is Arts of Survival, and it addresses burning topics in Estonia and Europe. The unique title year in Tartu and Southern Estonia will have a festive start on 26 January 2024. Find out more about the programme here!

tartu2024.ee

 

CYCLE UP! is co-funded by the European Union.

Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Education and Culture Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.