COMMUNITIES
Towers, sails, fines, empty walls, and spray paint: all of them can provide a basis and a reason for a community in places where society is out of joint. The question is, is there a community of cultural professionals?
COMMUNITIES
COMMUNITIES
Towers, sails, fines, empty walls, and spray paint: all of them can provide a basis and a reason for a community in places where society is out of joint. The question is, is there a community of cultural professionals?
—People are the most valuable asset. Be the visiting the Soviet Arcade Game Machine museum or joining sailing classes at the Windforce Club, taking up yachting or showing interest in history, they can provide unexpected solutions for Laba. Space, the tech cowork station we are also running. For instance, we held ship modelling classes there. Grown-ups and children came together, because we found an intersection between those who liked to build models and those who liked sailing.
We have strong and vibrant communities both around the museum and around the sailing club. There is even a tiny community around Laba.Space. But communities cannot choose what is best or most interesting for them. So one has to cultivate and follow them in order to be able to say, "Look, dear community, from now on you would like to learn twin-hull boats instead of the classic yachts." Or, for instance, "Let us play something more modern than Soviet arcade machines." The idea is to predict people’s needs to stay relevant. Otherwise communities will fall apart or reassemble somewhere else. They require a lot of attention at all times. And it is not just about communication but rather about paying attention to details, to the way people behave. Why is that guy over there not smiling anymore? What is the matter? Is there a problem with the instructor? Or with the entrance he’s been directed to by the guard? Or maybe he is hungry but there is no food to be found? Well, all of these issues need to be taken care of. If the security guard is not nice enough, he has to be replaced or accompanied by another smiling person so that they balance each other. And if people cannot bring their own food, there must be something to eat inside the club. Schedules and rates must be reconsidered if they prove uncomfortable. Superfluous or unnecessary staff must be left out and replaced by someone new. There is no place for rigidness: people can grow tired of some things and start wanting others. This is why our communities value us so much: we are trying to stay reasonable.
We have strong and vibrant communities both around the museum and around the sailing club. There is even a tiny community around Laba.Space. But communities cannot choose what is best or most interesting for them. So one has to cultivate and follow them in order to be able to say, "Look, dear community, from now on you would like to learn twin-hull boats instead of the classic yachts." Or, for instance, "Let us play something more modern than Soviet arcade machines." The idea is to predict people’s needs to stay relevant. Otherwise communities will fall apart or reassemble somewhere else. They require a lot of attention at all times. And it is not just about communication but rather about paying attention to details, to the way people behave. Why is that guy over there not smiling anymore? What is the matter? Is there a problem with the instructor? Or with the entrance he’s been directed to by the guard? Or maybe he is hungry but there is no food to be found? Well, all of these issues need to be taken care of. If the security guard is not nice enough, he has to be replaced or accompanied by another smiling person so that they balance each other. And if people cannot bring their own food, there must be something to eat inside the club. Schedules and rates must be reconsidered if they prove uncomfortable. Superfluous or unnecessary staff must be left out and replaced by someone new. There is no place for rigidness: people can grow tired of some things and start wanting others. This is why our communities value us so much: we are trying to stay reasonable.
—The locals flocked together on their own. The first community-building effort was the protection of the Shukhov Tower, and the second was the renovation campaign. As a result, the neighbourhood elected several municipal deputies who really cared about the things that were going on at their doorsteps, and some of the residents have become actively involved as well. They see the gallery as a place to meet, talk, and ask for advice. We have just discussed the action plan for restoring the original appearance of our buildings. Apparently, it is relatively simple: we just have to find the money and pay for the operation. Over the last five or six years, many new residents and tenants consciously chose to come to live here, because they want to belong to this community, and they are quite passionate about it. But all in all people tend to think that culture and activities belong somewhere else, not in their own commuter neighbourhood.
The exhibitions are welcomed, including the ones that deal with political repressions, but the Last Address plaques are problematic. Just like in other parts of Moscow, many people oppose them. But mostly no one wants anything of us, although I strongly suspect that as soon as we repaint the buildings according to the colour scheme we will end up being hated by most neighbours because the solution is rather radical.
The exhibitions are welcomed, including the ones that deal with political repressions, but the Last Address plaques are problematic. Just like in other parts of Moscow, many people oppose them. But mostly no one wants anything of us, although I strongly suspect that as soon as we repaint the buildings according to the colour scheme we will end up being hated by most neighbours because the solution is rather radical.
—Talking to like-minded communities is essential. In 2020, Memorial was fined five million roubles, and the only way to get this money was by asking people to help, to take part in a crowdfunding effort. It was primarily a matter of communication: how best to explain what we do, why we were fined, and why it was important to help us in our work? Why could we not just close up shop and reopen under a different sign? And that is exactly what we did. We collected five and a half million rubles in thousands of small donations of 500 or 1000.
In 1987−1988, our colleagues went out into the streets with sheets of paper and pens to collect signatures in support of a memorial of political repressions victims. Every signature represented a voice, a mandate, "I need this memorial, but I have other things to do, so I entrust you, the Memorial, to deal with it on my behalf." And we knew that behind our actions were thousands of people that trusted us. Then the Memorial grew big and stopped walking the streets. But working with thousands of individual donors was essentially the same. By giving you their five hundred roubles, people say that they mean to go on with their lives while you do your job. And it is not the same as donating for the treatment of a sick child. People are telling us, "We share your values and want you to uphold them in our society while I do whatever I need to do." It means commitment, participation. People vote with their money and tell us that they need us to do our job.
In 1987−1988, our colleagues went out into the streets with sheets of paper and pens to collect signatures in support of a memorial of political repressions victims. Every signature represented a voice, a mandate, "I need this memorial, but I have other things to do, so I entrust you, the Memorial, to deal with it on my behalf." And we knew that behind our actions were thousands of people that trusted us. Then the Memorial grew big and stopped walking the streets. But working with thousands of individual donors was essentially the same. By giving you their five hundred roubles, people say that they mean to go on with their lives while you do your job. And it is not the same as donating for the treatment of a sick child. People are telling us, "We share your values and want you to uphold them in our society while I do whatever I need to do." It means commitment, participation. People vote with their money and tell us that they need us to do our job.
—In Krasnoyarsk, for instance, there is an ongoing campaign for the beautification of libraries. Superficial as it is, it brought local residents to the previously neglected shelves. These people form communities on the basis of their own interests. By contributing these interests, they impact the agenda and the acquisitions. The profile of the library changes, evolving in function of the book market, human knowledge, institutions that disseminate knowledge, and non-institutional knowledge feeds.
Libraries have always considered themselves places of social protection, but they fail to understand the new social agenda. And yet, there are plenty of possibilities to set up labs, to become assembly points for all kinds of communities. But so far librarians have been having a hard time moving in that direction.
Libraries have always considered themselves places of social protection, but they fail to understand the new social agenda. And yet, there are plenty of possibilities to set up labs, to become assembly points for all kinds of communities. But so far librarians have been having a hard time moving in that direction.
—We decided to endorse collectivity. On the one hand, we do collective curatorial projects where all the different voices amplify each other. On the other hand, we like working with small artistic communities that are plenty in Novosibirsk. These are small collectives with three to five members that share a studio: photographers cooperating with poets, and such like.
—The best example of cooperation is found among graffiti artists. The authorities treat them as an established community: whenever there are walls to be decorated, these people are called for. This world produces celebrities in their own right, such as Stepan Shobolov, aka @one_vizio. His door designs are amazing.
Shukhov Tower — World Monuments Watch: wmf.org.
In 2017, the Moscow government launched a massive programme of renovation that involved pulling down prefab five-storey khrushchyovkas to replace them with taller prefab blocks. The protests were vocal but not massive enough for the authorities to rethink the policy. Read more: vocaleurope.eu. Image: Wikimedia © Andrey Surikov.
The Last Address is a civic initiative launched in 2014 to commemorate the victims of repressions in the Soviet Union: A small commemorative plaque (postcard-sized and paid by the residents) is installed on the buildings that are the last known residential addresses of those arrested. The plaques carrying their names and dates of life were designed by the architect Alexander Brodsky.
This is exactly what happened in 2021: when the Shabolovka Constructivist blocks were repainted brick-red and white, the design caused an uproar. In April, 2022 the municipality decided to get back to the standard yellow. Image: Yulia Seregina © theartnewspaper.ru.
Memorial had to pay a fine of about € 70,000 for failing to mention the status of foreign agent in several social media postings. In 2021, the entire organisation was dismantled by the Supreme Court.
Instagram @stepan_shabolov
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