For two years now you have been doing projects within Art-Ovrag. How did you start your participation in the festival?
In 2017, we, the Druzhba architectural bureau, the Horses on the Balcony children's architectural club and the City Friend public organization, came to Vyksa to conduct a study of the needs of local residents. Both Yulia Bychkova and Anton Kochurkin, the current producer and curator of the Art Ovrag festival, supported our idea. Within the framework of the interdisciplinary project “City for Children”, we gathered focus groups from children and parents, studied the city together, made mental maps, tried to feel what they needed. After all, a city for children is not only playgrounds, it is a whole set of parameters that determine how children feel in the environment, what they can do in urban spaces and what they cannot. As a result, we identified several of the most obvious problems, from which we then selected those that we were able to work with and solve. For example, the lack of proper lighting on the streets is one of the most obvious problems, but it takes a lot of use to solve it. about a bigger budget than what we could have counted on.
As a result, together with an active group of residents, we chose a different topic. There are many organizations for children in Vyksa: art, music, sports schools and clubs, and this is good news. But with the abundance of educational activities, the complete inadequacy of the environment around was striking. For example, you will never guess that you are in front of a sports school: at first glance, it could be a garage, a warehouse, clad with siding, a shopping center - anything, but not a place where children are engaged. And next to these institutions there is nothing where the guys could stay and spend time with pleasure.
The focus of this problem has become the site on Pirogova, 6. This is a real educational cluster: two music schools, a center for scientific and technical creativity, a sports school and a secondary school are concentrated in one place. Visually, it seems that this is a courtyard, but in fact this square is a compact, but full-fledged public urban space, in which several walking trails intersect. We were brought here by activists. People did not hide their displeasure: there is nowhere to sit to wait for the child from school, there is nowhere to walk with the younger ones while you wait for the older ones. And children, when they leave classes, have nowhere to stay, wait for their parents or just communicate with each other. So many questions and environmental problems that are quite possible to solve even with a small budget, using our capabilities and experience.
But first it was necessary to check: is it true "a place of power", will something really change there if something new appears?
Thanks to the support of the OMK Charitable Foundation “Participation”, in 2017 we launched a project, in the development of which local residents took the most active and constructive part. Several meetings were organized, at which we invited adults and children to fantasize about what could be here. The parents worked on the function, and the children worked on the image, on how everything would look. And this is one of our first experiences, when we absolutely gave in to childhood fantasy. We usually listen very attentively to children, but here all the aesthetics were left to them at the mercy. They have a very lively layout. It feels like sticks, snags, branches - everything came to life, looked at you, spoke. The children came up with the idea that music and sports left their schools, met and began a dialogue.
In the proposed fantasy layout, we isolated several key themes that children invented (haunted fence, hanging magic, entrance portals, rainbow colors), and which we took into the project and guided them to the very end. For example, they came up with different interactive ways to use the gray boring fences, of which there are a huge number. The idea of climbing benches arose: parents could sit on them and children play. At the same time, the parents said that they really want to have a place to "clump together." Also, the guys came up with a scene with a canopy, which we simply would not have imagined, the space of the square was too compact. But it turned out that both the music school and the teenagers who actively worked with us needed it. A local girl invented a mermaid cat as the object that personifies the courtyard. And this mermaid cat then inspired the artist Roma Ermakov, who joined our team in 2018.
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Three festival days in 2017, by the efforts of residents, as an experiment and verification of our common solutions, several objects were built and installed in the square on Pirogov from improvised means and the simplest materials: timber, hemp, ropes, branches, wire and ribbons. Of course, we realized that this is a momentary thing, that all this will inevitably be broken in the next few days. But it was important for us to see how the locals would react to this, and whether we really zoned the space correctly.
The reaction was mixed and rather violent. As if we have made a "social explosion". Within a few weeks, our temporary facilities were broken and taken apart. Nevertheless, we saw not only the negative, but also a sincere interest among residents, a willingness to participate and support the ongoing changes. When the installation was going on, several dozen children came running, who enthusiastically helped us, people came up, asked what was happening, we explained to them. Everything that happened became a reason for the development of a dialogue.
And most importantly, we were able to see in reality how this space works. I even had to rearrange the children's table several times to see how the behavior of the children would change. It turns out that in different places the same objects cause completely different reactions: somewhere around the table, companies immediately gathered, and somewhere they simply ignored it. The feeling and attractiveness of a place is highly dependent on the environment, the neighborhood with the trees, the presence of a busy passage nearby, and the like.
How did your project develop this 2018?
We suggested that the organizers of Art-Ovrag continue the systemic history: finalize the precedent at 6 Pirogova, and then deploy a full-scale case for the development of schoolyards and develop a long-term transformation plan based on a comprehensive social and marketing study of the city's adaptability to the needs of children and adolescents. We had a large enough team to come to several schools and, together with students and teachers, create objects on their sites from scrap materials. This could be integrated into the educational process, for example, in labor lessons. In general, a school is a very convenient cluster for such transformations of the environment. Here children can do something for themselves in order to understand and begin to perceive the environment in a different way, to feel that they can influence the city. This is a great educational work, and in Moscow we have a lot of requests and ready-made cases. Unfortunately, in Vyksa, only the project of a precedent went into action, for which there were enough resources and the implementation of which was very much awaited by the residents.
During the period between the two festivals, we conducted two research sessions. On one of them, we received feedback on last year's children's project and discussed the formats of how this space can be used: we came to the format of not a banal playground, but a square, a multifunctional public space. Together with the residents, we made lists of what they would like to do there. There were an incredible number of options there, including: holding birthdays, doing sports events, street concerts, children's fairs, and so on.
Unfortunately, in Vyksa, as in many Russian cities, there is no concept of public space as a value. Unlike, for example, understanding the value of a car. Therefore, parking is thriving. And the realization that public space can be something that makes you want to live in a city is not like that.
In order to promote the values of such places, we brought together principals and work collectives of the surrounding schools, residents and representatives of the administration for the session.
To the second session, in order to present the project on the terms of reference, we came for 3 days, and during this time, together with the local residents, we arranged a neighboring courtyard holiday -
Pie Day. We were faced with the task of testing a new format for working with space and showing how, without special financial investments, one can make an exciting event on our own, which can become an annual tradition.
How did the residents accept the new version of the project? Did they approve of everything?
To our surprise, they asked to clean the parking lot. There was a parking lot in front of the school and a U-turn around the pole. At the first session, residents disagreed about her. Some said: "Leave us our parking lot", - others - "Please, remove it." We made a compromise solution - we left parking for a small number of cars for employees. But already at the second session, people categorically asked to remove it. This was the most significant change. There were also minor comments on the routing of the passages, they asked to move the bench that blocked the long-established route. These are details, but they are essential. These little things are used to test the viability of the project and the new format of space development. But the most important thing is that the visual and functional decision was made by the residents unanimously.
What else is unusual about this project?
Despite its small scale, this square turned out to be very rich in meanings. And one of the most important meanings for me was the collaboration of architects and an artist. Of course, we, as architects, are great at creating images. But with the artist we did something that we ourselves would never have done.
The organizers of the festival suggested that we include the artist Roman Ermakov in the team. It was unexpected, and we rubbed ourselves in for a long time, because Roma is an absolute individualist, he is used to working on his own, separately, he has his own opinion, his own taste. But most importantly, initially he did not want to listen to what the residents were saying. Absolutely. He had a direct antagonism. And in the process of working on the project, we saw the miracle of rebirth. Roma very quickly became infected with this topic from us and was happy to communicate with all residents and even defended their ideas in front of everyone.
Roman Ermakov painted our main art object. Then we, together with him, carefully finalized it. In fact, it turned out not what we developed, and not what he painted. But the most important thing he brought to the project is the color code. Here people asked: "Please make very bright colors, make us a rainbow" and Roma found the right shades and place for this rainbow.
You have an object that is somewhere in the middle between the stereotype of a public space and the stereotype of a playground. Was that your goal?
Stereotypes or clichés are not always a bad thing. Thanks to them, the most successful and effective solutions can be widely replicated. But our task is to develop new, not yet existing solutions that we make, starting from a specific place and from the needs of people.
The fact that in this case we were able to break the stereotype and create something symbiotic, in our opinion, is just a plus, not a minus. There is a children's theme in our project, because we initially worked on the basis of the principles of "Cities for Children". But this is an environment in which there is a place for all ages: there is a workout area for teenagers, there is a multifunctional stage, there is an amphitheater where people can relax or listen to amateur performances, there is a canopy where mothers with strollers sit and communicate, there are benches for singles, for groups, with a canopy to hide from the rain, benches with a horizontal bar so that you can pull yourself up, there is even a playground for the elderly with swings and exercise machines. That is, completely different typologies of seating places and the space will be lived and used to the maximum.
How was the project financed?
The city took on the costs of creating standard and complex elements: covering areas and paths, typical objects, including carousels, swings, workout, space for the elderly, fences - something that cannot be mistaken. All individual objects were made at the expense of Art-Ovrag.
How did you solve the issue of imminent vandalism for yourself?
We initially prepared the residents and the administration for the fact that there would be vandalism, both intentional and accidental. Since the administration had to take the object on the balance sheet, such a system was immediately developed that would be convenient to operate. If chips are a familiar material for local services and they use it in other places, then they will be able to work with it on our site. It is important to remember and implement the “principle of toilet paper”: this is when rolls of paper appeared in public places in Moscow during perestroika times, at first they were all removed and taken home, but after a while they stopped. Here we said: please, fix, fix, fix - and they will stop breaking. It just needs to be fixed twenty times.
How does the project live after opening?
On this project, we saw a qualitative difference between projects made “without” and with the participation of local residents. A team of activists led by a local resident and mother of three children Olga Pogodina were able to use the place as an excuse to create and revitalize the local community.
The residents themselves came up with the name and logo of the park. Chosen by the whole world, on the basis of an open competition. Now the square is called "Rainbow World".
Three months after the end of the Art-Ovrag festival and the departure of our team, the activists, with the support of other residents, held several events in the park, of which at least 200 people took part in two - the Festival of Soap Bubbles on Family Day and the Festival of Yard Games. Residents were supported by the city administration, a music school, a technical creativity center and the Kiwi kids club, while local entrepreneurs provided gifts and sweets for the children. Other city organizations began to hold their events here. For example, the Association of Large Families, at the request of residents, held sports starts here. In the near future, residents are planning to collect recyclable materials, a children's disco and a clean-up day. A team of activists participates in the federal project of good deeds from the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation. But Olga says that the most important result is that children and parents, who used to communicate little before, have now learned to relax and solve problems together: “Children now independently keep order on the playground. Recently they organized and kicked out the hooligans who broke the swing."
How do you see the development of your project?
This was a precedent project that we hope will serve as an incentive to activate similar facilities elsewhere in the city as part of our City for Children interdisciplinary project. Our dream is for the topic of public spaces near cultural and educational institutions to develop everywhere. We would like to see a continuation in conducting normal research, sociological and marketing, which would take into account the specifics of Vyksa's children and adolescents, what creative and emotional capital they have, how they will develop later, where they go, what they need.
What, in your opinion, is the specificity of Vyksa as a city, as a community?
The vertical is very developed in Vyksa. There is an owner here - a factory, and residents of the city are simply not used to making decisions on their own, because all decisions are made by the factory. But thanks to the activities of the OMK Charitable Foundation "Participation", the city administration and the Directorate of the Art Ovrag festival, over these seven years in Vyksa, thinking has changed quite surprisingly: we discovered that we can speak our own language with any grandmother. Because for her, Art-Ovrag is a marker already built into the familiar picture of the world. You can approve or disapprove of it, you can say: "Raise our pensions, why do we need all this your business." But the public dialogue around art has been going on in this city for a long time, and when you say: “Art-Ravine” - you are understood and accepted. And most importantly, it is a very lively city. Despite the fact that there is crime and vandals here, when we come to Vyksa, we seem to be “energized”, feeling the flow of optimistic and creative energy coming towards us, coming from local residents, who every year more and more actively participate in changes and projects development of the city.
