Fellows

GUrL (Gendered Urban Landscapes) - Carmel Keren

"GUrL", 2022, Illustration by Carmel Keren.

Carmel Keren ( United Kingdom )

During her residency, Carmel will work on the project Gendered Urban Landscapes (GUrL). GUrL’s purpose is to better involve young people in the planning of their cities, with a particular focus on teenage girls and young people of marginalised gender identities, who often feel most excluded from city spaces.

GUrL looks to address this inequity by empowering these young people as collaborators to explore, through spatial design and performance, how they can confidently occupy public urban spaces. It will examine the relationship between consumerism-driven spaces (such as shopping malls) and the certain freedoms they can provide to young people. Ultimately, the project aims to learn how as city-makers we can better design places for girls and young people of marginalised gender identities, outside of the frameworks of consumerism and capitalism. 

Throughout this residency, Carmel will also explore her personal connection to Berlin, the city her grandparents fled. As such, the project also becomes an exploration of alternative pasts and futures, imagining what it might have been like to grow up in Berlin.

"Kiezspaziergang workshop poster", 2022, image © Elisa Gregori, 2022
"Emoji mapping Alexanderplatz" 2022, image © Carmel Keren, 2022
"Kiezspaziergang mit Dünja " 2022, image © Carmel Keren, 2022
"Moabit collective neighbourhood portrait" 2022, image © Carmel Keren, 2022
"Moabit Street DJs Workshop poster" 2022, image © Carmel Keren, 2022

Supported using public funding by Arts Council England.