Edible
Playscape
Edible Playscape was an art proposal by Nils Norman for the City Centre roundabout,
St James Barton. The roundabout, which is characteristic of post war city centre
redevelopment, is an open area sunken below a network of highways. Nils Norman
proposed converting the roundabout into a community allotment where a large
sculpture would be sited, named The Monument to Civil Disobedience. The sculpture
would also function as an adventure playground, and would be connected to the
surrounding city by skywalks and bridges. The proposal, which takes the form
of a two-sided poster, asks viewers to consider their own aspirations against
the agendas of the organisations and agencies who determine the design and use
of public space.
The Arnolfini and Bristol Legible City commissioned Edible Playscape as part
of ‘Trouble Shooting’; an exhibition of the work of contemporary
artists that addressed the public sphere through re-imagining spaces of leisure
and considering the activities destined for those spaces.