ДЕЛАЙ САМ: SOCIAL ACTIVISM & CONTEMPORARY ART IN A DIY URBANISM FESTIVAL IN RUSSIA

ADEOLA  ENIGBOKAN,  PhD  QUEENS  COLLEGE    DEPARTMENTS  OF  ART  &  URBAN  STUDIES  CITY  UNIVERSITY  OF  NEW  YORK  

ДЕЛАЙ САМ/ DO-IT-YOURSELF A BRIEF AND RECENT HISTORY

The last years of perestroika, and the first years of the Post-Soviet era(1980s – 90s) were characterized by extreme scarcity of common goods, and services. Russian people responded to scarcity with a strong practical intelligence, expressed in Delai Sam (DIY) projects. Artist Vladimir Arkhipov has conducted a long-term project to document the people’s everyday design solutions.

Remember, there was nothing at all then—everything had just suddenly disappeared. It was called perestroika. There wasn’t any point in making an extra trip to the shop, so when we needed a ballpoint pen, I went and made one.

After we had our daughter, Asya, she slept in a room, but the ceiling light was very bright, so we had to make it dimmer somehow. There was a dress leftover from some costume, so I took it and sewed it to the hat. It did the job—little Asya doesn’t screw her eyes up any more.

It might look like it’s good for nothing, but when I started clearing snow, I really appreciated it. It turned out to be really useful. We were in Kutuzovsky Prospect, everyone zooming past in their big Mercs. They couldn’t give a damn that you’re working, scraping up the snow. I got fed up with it and started holding up the face of the spade to them, vertical, so they could see the sign.

DIY CULTURAL PRINCIPLES

•  To meet the needs of everyday life

•  To combine practical, artistic and scientific know-how

•  To modify, or intervene into, systematic infrastructures with a personalized aesthetic

•  To quietly assert one’s own life values against the official conditions

•  To fill gaps in official system designs

•  To create a sense of “home” and comfort for oneself and one’s family

DELAI SAM FESTIVALS (2010 – PRESENT)

“Moscow: not the most comfortable city for living. Last year the Moscow [municipal] authorities presented a master plan for the city, which ignores a lot of its current problems. We want to live in a green city with convenient public transport, bicycle lanes, beautiful old and new buildings, tolerant mayor, authorities and residents. We must begin to build for ourselves a city in which we want to live.”

“MOSCOW 2020” October, 2010

Lamppost clothesline

Courtyard theater & meeting space

Really free market

Neighborhood lunch

MOSCOW 2020, A MANIFESTO

•  Critique of Moscow 2020 Official Master Plan

•  Promotes “people-centered” approach to design & planning

•  Promotes “green” transport solutions, including improving public transportation, support for cycling, making Moscow a pedestrian city

•  Promotes preservation of historic buildings from both pre-revolutionary & Soviet eras

•  Encourages citizens to take direct action through DIY approach

POLITICS & AESTHETICS IN THE RUSSIAN CITY

BIENNALE MAP

ART IS GLOBAL BUSINESS

Sportswoman Oleg Kulik

beyond questions of urban beauty and architectural style to a deeper confrontation over power—over who has the power to define and dictate what this city is, how it looks, for whom it exists, and who can benefit from living in it—in short, who owns the city. --ALEXEI YURCHAK

DESIGN COMPETITIONS & DEBATES GO FAR…

HOW DOES DELAI SAM (DIY) ART & DESIGN CULTURE FIT INTO THIS PICTURE? HOW DO DELAI SAM ACTIONS NAVIGATE BETWEEN THE NEEDS OF EVERYDAY LIFE AND THE POWERS THAT SHAPE THE CITY?

HOW ARE POLITICS AND URBAN AESTHETICS LINKED IN THE RISE OF MOSCOW AND SAINT PETERSBURG TO WORLD CITY STATUS?

BIG QUESTIONS

LET’S STAY IN TOUCH!

Adeola Enigbokan base: New York City enigbokan@gmail.com http://archivingthecity.com