Our workshop incorporated non-traditional ideas of mapping and games, using them as processes of investigation and to create interactive, educational outputs.
A high-profile site in the heart of Moscow with a rich legacy of manufacturing, in recent years it has emerged as a hub of media, arts and culture.
A vibrant market on the edge of Moscow (and a gateway between the old and new city), preceded by a history of markets as contested ethnic enclaves and informal economy networks. Slavyanskiy Mir represents a bordered yet borderless world on the edge of Moscow.
A gateway to Moscow located on the site of its former historic walls, the area around Kurskaya station is a great place for observational studies and to understand the impact of planning and architectural borders.
Our field visit to Slavyanskiy Mir revealed a place quite different from what we experience within the center or even the MKAD borders of Moscow. It exists in stark contrast to nearby global shopping markets which are also like mini cities, like Ashaan, IKEA, and Stockmann.
Today we zeroed in on a case study for our workshop – the Slavyanskiy Mir market, cafe and bus terminal eco system which lies just beyond the outer limits of Moscow, accessible by bus from metro Tyopliy Stan.
Evgeniya Nedosekina’s comprehensive research of the former Cherkizovsky market, which opened after the fall of the Soviet Union and operated as one of the largest informal markets – perhaps in the world.
Slavyanskiy Mir is an informal, partially open air market and bus station in Moscow. It sits at the “border” of what is considered old and new Moscow.
Marijka Semenenko shared her investigation surrounding the relationship between nationality and the state. Her research focused on the Friendship University in Yugozapadnaya.
Moscow is a city without ethnic enclaves, but it has ethnic nodes in the form of local cafe communities. Anna Rocheva has been working with a team to study migrants’ perceptions of Moscow.
Natalia Melikova shared the Constructivist Project whose mission is “to raise awareness of the threat to cultural heritage and to promote the preservation of avant-garde monuments.”
Petr V. Ivanov of the Higher School of Economics shared his experience studying courtyards using a hand-drawn visual.
20 years after the fall of the Soviet Union several young directors come to the borders of previously united countries. Their personal stories dedicated to people, who find a way to remain united, despite the new borders.
“Bodies in urban spaces” is a performance intervention which tries to uncover and challenge restrictions to movement and behavior in the city.
Great start to the workshop, with discussions about concepts and perceptions surrounding borders. We found a lot of interesting contrasts rooted in language and in culture, leading us to conclude that visible and invisible borders are highly socially constructed which need to be tactically addressed in context specific ways.
Imponderabilia (1977) was a collaborative performance by artist Marina Abramovic and Ulay, in which they flanked the entrance to the Galleria Communale d’Arte Moderna in Bologna, Italy—completely nude.
The New York Talk Exchange exhibition / project reveals transnational connections (and border crossings) mapped within a city.
― Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
I recently heard about this book which brings to light the fact that different people and communities will use and experience the city in different ways. How do we consolidate and map these experience? What will it reveal?
Maps are power projections. Adminsitrative jurisdiction and lines divide responsibilities for a space. But these lines made on paper force social processes into play with consequences in real space. Planning maps, as such, can be thought of as tools of violence, destruction and exclusion for their impact.
This post from Urban Omnibus is a great introduction to mapping as a critical, social practice. It is a short interview with architect and educator Louise Harpman, who teachers a course on Mapping at NYU.
Saskia Sassen’s research deals with the existence and formation of borders and of cities as frontier zones.
Thinking about maps, the first thing to come to mind is political borders. The delineations between countries, between spaces and between people which in an age of globalization make mobility more a challenge than one could hope.
A brief history of the walls, borders, dividing lines, and spatial practices that define Moscow. Map from 1836 (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamer-Kollezhsky_Val).