Ormeau Park Bandstand

Where?

Description of chosen place

Currently the bandstand at Ormeau Park is (apparently?) completely unused. It is a small circular bandstand/elevated platform, about 2/3 steps off the ground (.75-1m), surrounding the exterior of the concrete platform is a railing which is covered in many layers of peeling paint. The roof of the structure is a large, actually quite irregular, dome/circus top which is now blue. Surrounding the bandstand is a significant paved area which has around four park benches, and a purpose-built chess table with chairs. This area is slightly off one of the longer walking routes around the park and seems often abandoned/ignored.

What do you imagine the space could be?

The distance between each of the supporting beams which reaches from pavement to roof is quite wide, I had always imagined large LED screen panels supported between each of these gaps. By placing a panel between each of the gaps, facing outward (and also maybe inward) it would create a very vivid spectacle with a large audience-base in the park. Could work really well for a kind of unorthodox video/film art installation/exhibition combining several lens-based artists' work. This could be pushed further by installing lighting and sound equipment inside the structure (potentially above the structure inside the roof area) this could make a very interesting immersive exhibition/viewing area for experimental sound work, videography, documented and live performance art, lighting etc. Multi-purpose, ephemeral, custom-built and also not, expandable, disposable… Urban, public, exhibitionist, and also closed-off, immersive, spectacle…

A potential venue for: a performance biennale, a meeting point, an immersive VR show, an educational screening/viewing room, a place to encounter, a place to accidentally stumble upon, a place to ponder alone, a place to vandalise and loiter, a place to hold an impromptu race, a place to stand out of the rain, a place to un-forget and install an exciting temporary exhibition resource for Belfast's (very) underrepresented digital art community and then deinstall and re-forget.

Submitted by

Reuben Brown

Date

February 19, 2023

About the ‘Forgotten Spaces’ project

We added a competition element and public voting mechanism to the exhibition to encourage engagement over passive viewing. From this process, two submissions – Short Strand Green Wall and Donegall Street Car Park – were allocated the ‘top prize’ of £100, racking up well over 300 stars between them. A discussion event and prize giving was held on Wednesday March 22nd at the Europa Hotel. We were joined by Sean Dolan, Senior Development Manager, Belfast City Council and Seamus Connolly, Group Manager, Neighbourhoods, Regeneration and Sustainability, Glasgow City Council for discussion on methodologies and policies in place for ‘How to Regenerate Forgotten Spaces?’. In the continuing spirit of democracy the event audience got to vote to give special commendations for ‘inspiring our collective imagination’ to a further three entries from a shortlist – those selected were Clandeboyne Corner, Inner City Forest (east) and The Church at Fountainville Ave.

With Forgotten Spaces we were interested in derelict buildings, waste-grounds, and development sites in that limbo-state, not because we were trying to address the myriad of complexities about land ownership, access or regeneration but rather because we were trying to draw attention to the vast number of neglected, unloved and underused spaces of the city which seem to get forgotten or ignored in top-level conversations. Imagination is a muscle – you need to feed it, feed it with ideas from other places, people, positive news - hopefully this project is feeding your imagination.

We’re not sure what the next stage will be (or if there will be one) but are always open to discussion ideas. Get in touch if you think we can help you or you can help us.

Meadhbh McIlgorm, Project Curator

Ormeau Park Bandstand

Where?

Description of chosen place

What do you imagine the space could be?

Submitted by

Date

Social

Contact

About the ‘Forgotten Spaces’ project