CITY LINK FESTIVAL | holdmedear

>>CITY LINK FESTIVAL _ FOUR CITIES, [EXTRA]ORDINARY PLACES

Hold Me Dear, a project curated by Edinburgh-based design studio HERE+NOW, were excited to partner with City Link Festival as part of their 2015 festival in Edinburgh from 24-27 September 2015.

People in each of the four City Link Festival cities - Edinburgh, Copenhagen, Hamburg or Istanbul were invited to celebrate their city by submitting a photograph and 50 word caption about the place they treasured. This exhibition is called Hold Me Dear: Four Cities, [Extra]Ordinary Places and saw individuals from around the world send in wonderful photos and touching stories of the places in their city they personally treasure.

Selected photographs were exhibited in an outdoor physical exhibition to transform Rodney St railway tunnel in Edinburgh for a month from 24 Sept - 20 October 2015. The exhibition and the workshops, design+build days and events leading up to it were organised by HERE+NOW as part of a 6 month process of community engagement and design with local volunteers and residents. This culminated in a launch event on 27 September as part of the City Link Festival programme of events in Edinburgh that weekend. The exhibition was subsequently displayed in the tunnel for a further month, transforming this space into an outdoor art gallery and venue for community events.

This project was curated, facilitated and managed by HERE+NOW and Hold Me Dear, and has since won two Scottish Design Awards and the Regional Award for Scotland as part of the UK-wide Planning and Placemaking Awards 2016. You can find out more and see photos from the event and exhibition here.

Many thanks to our Main Sponsor - Sustrans - as well as our Supporting Partners - the City of Edinburgh Council, City Link Festival, the Friends of King George V Park, and Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership for their support, as well as all those who contributed photographs, stories or their time in enabling this exhibition to happen.

Edinburgh //

Copenhagen //

Istanbul //

Hamburg //

WHAT IS HOLD ME DEAR?

HOLD ME DEAR is a primarily online on-going project that invites any individual worldwide to contribute a photograph and 50 words about a place they treasure and the personal story behind why. Together these form a poignant online gallery collection of beautiful photographs and personal stories about the places that mean a lot to us, but which we rarely share with one another or reveal the reasons behind why.

The project reveals the importance of these seemingly ‘ordinary’ everyday places and how the hidden personal meaning, memories or nostalgia make them [extra]ordinary. If you would like to submit a place that you treasure from anywhere in the world (not just the Four Cities featured in City Link Festival), you are welcome to do this via the main Hold Me Dear gallery page.

WHO ARE HERE+NOW?

HERE+NOW are an Edinburgh-based co-design and landscape architecture studio, and whom manage the Hold Me Dear project. HERE+NOW were thrilled to have been invited by Givrum to participate in this year’s City Link Festival.

HERE+NOW offer an experienced team of place-makers, landscape architects, urban designers, photographers and film-makers, who work to put people at the heart of place and design.

Through co-design workshops, live design sessions, exhibitions and participatory events HERE+NOW work with local communities, matching their local knowledge with HERE+NOW's design expertise, to generate more resilient improved design outcomes.

WHAT IS CITY LINK FESTIVAL?

The Hold Me Dear: Four Cities, [Extra]Ordinary places exhibition launched on Sunday 27 September as part of City Link Festival 2015. City Link Festival 2015 is composed of symposiums, workshops, exhibitions, concerts and performances, embedding transnational and interdisciplinary relationships. In 2015 the Festival took place between Edinburgh and Copenhagen, hosted in Edinburgh from 24-27 September 2015.

This year’s theme was ‘Democratic Renewal’, a topic around which City Link Festival connected the cultural and artistic communities of Edinburgh and Copenhagen and formed a framework for co-creation.

The festival is composed of three elements to create unique, inspiring experiences and cultivate new perspectives on culture and cities; Cultural Exchanges in the run up to the Festival, a one-day Symposium during the Festival, and City-Wide Events including events, workshops, exhibitions, and debates.

Find out more about the broader City Link Festival.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS

HERE+NOW, curators of the Hold Me Dear project would like to thank this exhibition's main sponsor Sustrans, and our supporting partners - The City of Edinburgh Council, Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership, City Link Festival and the Friends of King George V Park for their support which has enabled this project and the exhibition in September to take place.