COVID 1917 | between social compression and social isolation
2020 | video project | Russia | 25 min | 18+
New video project by Mêtre, presented for public program of Milan Triennale, 2020, section Città Ex Post curated by Bogdan Peric and untitled architecture at the panel discussion #4 «New normality — branding of the public space»
ABSTRACT:
The experience of being human
at the time of social compression and isolation.
Ву its definition, a city is а space of social interactions. When it finds itself locked down no matter for better (quarantine) or worse (iron curtain), it becomes a social and personal drama of claustrophobia and deprivation.
At the time of COVID-19, the world of digital communications has allowed people around the globe to unlock physical isolation through digital presence.
That was not the case back in 1917, when social compression and social isolation became dominant features of public and private life. They lasted for almost a century with no digital alternative.
For several years Mêtre (our project) has been collecting video interviews with people of various generations representing hundred years of social compression and isolation experienced by hundreds of millions of Soviet people, their hopes and beliefs at that time and their twisted paths to privacy.
From 1917, a year when our first speaker was born, to nowadays COVID-19 epochs, when a yard became the only public space available outside the apartment, and when we all started exposing our most private home scenes to the outside spectators on the other end of the line.
Listening to our speakers, we tried to reconstruct the drama of the compressed communal life of 1920-s, 30-s fiercely enforced by the young and cruel Soviet regime.
Then we go on and encounter the first touch of long-awaited privacy given to people by Khrushchev 5-stories multifamily houses of 1960-s with their "apartment per family" rule and large public yards.
And finally, we hear from lonely renters, aliens in a vast city, and their modernized visions of the communal life, their escapist hopes and beliefs.
Personal experiences of social compression and isolation shared in a zoom-like digital matrix generate a polyphony of senses, representing spatial and temporal elements of the culture of 'being human': shelter, kitchen, yard, balcony, custom, wall, rent, routine and Gagarin.
Nine narratives, nine stories of personal fights for urbanity, that happened to be severely locked and damaged by one of the most influential social quarantine ever, started over as a result of devastating political "virus" of 1917.
Isn't it something that we may notice, think of and digest in the nowadays urbanity, traumatized by the pandemic?
The experience of being human
at the time of social compression and isolation.
Ву its definition, a city is а space of social interactions. When it finds itself locked down no matter for better (quarantine) or worse (iron curtain), it becomes a social and personal drama of claustrophobia and deprivation.
At the time of COVID-19, the world of digital communications has allowed people around the globe to unlock physical isolation through digital presence.
That was not the case back in 1917, when social compression and social isolation became dominant features of public and private life. They lasted for almost a century with no digital alternative.
For several years Mêtre (our project) has been collecting video interviews with people of various generations representing hundred years of social compression and isolation experienced by hundreds of millions of Soviet people, their hopes and beliefs at that time and their twisted paths to privacy.
From 1917, a year when our first speaker was born, to nowadays COVID-19 epochs, when a yard became the only public space available outside the apartment, and when we all started exposing our most private home scenes to the outside spectators on the other end of the line.
Listening to our speakers, we tried to reconstruct the drama of the compressed communal life of 1920-s, 30-s fiercely enforced by the young and cruel Soviet regime.
Then we go on and encounter the first touch of long-awaited privacy given to people by Khrushchev 5-stories multifamily houses of 1960-s with their "apartment per family" rule and large public yards.
And finally, we hear from lonely renters, aliens in a vast city, and their modernized visions of the communal life, their escapist hopes and beliefs.
Personal experiences of social compression and isolation shared in a zoom-like digital matrix generate a polyphony of senses, representing spatial and temporal elements of the culture of 'being human': shelter, kitchen, yard, balcony, custom, wall, rent, routine and Gagarin.
Nine narratives, nine stories of personal fights for urbanity, that happened to be severely locked and damaged by one of the most influential social quarantine ever, started over as a result of devastating political "virus" of 1917.
Isn't it something that we may notice, think of and digest in the nowadays urbanity, traumatized by the pandemic?
От коммуналки к самоизоляции:
Город по определению – пространство социальных взаимодействий. Когда он оказывается в изоляции, не важно для борьбы с вирусом или из-за "железного занавеса", то становится пространством личных историй об опыте ограничений и лишений.
В период борьбы с ковидом мир цифровых коммуникаций позволил людям вырваться из изоляции физической, благодаря виртуальному со-присутствию.
Такое было невозможно в 1917-м, когда социальная несвобода и изоляция стали доминирующими чертами общественной и частной жизни. Жизнь взаперти длилась почти целый век без какой-либо альтернативы.
В течение нескольких лет мы собирали видеоинтервью с людьми разных поколений, представляющих сто лет социальной компрессии и изоляции. Их опыт помогает понять пережитое сотнями миллионов советских людей, их надежды и убеждения, их сложный путь к приватности. После 1917 года, когда родилась Людмила Чёрная, первая героиня нашего интервью, за 100 с лишнем лет до эпохи COVID-19, двор был почти единственным общественным пространством, доступным за пределами квартиры. Виртуальной открытости, позволяющей демонстрировать свое личное пространство зрителям на другом конце видеочата, еще не было.
Слушая рассказы наших героев, мы пытаемся понять драму коммунальной жизни 1920-х, 30-х годов, за которой стоял молодой и жестокий советский режим.
Затем мы сталкиваемся с переживанием долгожданной приватности, которую дали людям 5-этажные многоквартирные дома, построенные по программе Хрущева в начале 1960-х годов. Здесь действует правило «каждой семье по квартире», и создаются большие общественные дворы.
И, наконец, мы переходим к современным арендаторам квартир, экспериментаторам в огромном городе, с их часто меняющимися представлениями об общественной жизни и эскапизмом.
Личные переживания социального сжатия и изоляции, помещенные в видео матрицу, подобной зуму, порождают полифонию чувств, представляющих пространство и время как элементы культуры: жилье, кухня, двор, балкон, граница, стена, аренда, рутина и Гагарин.
Девять историй о личной борьбе за цивилизованную жизнь, запертую на замок устроителями одного из самых жестких социальных карантинов за всю историю страны и мира, последовавшего за распространением разрушительного политического «вируса» 1917 года.
Можем ли мы взглянуть на современную городскую среду, травмированную пандемией, через опыт прошлого?
Город по определению – пространство социальных взаимодействий. Когда он оказывается в изоляции, не важно для борьбы с вирусом или из-за "железного занавеса", то становится пространством личных историй об опыте ограничений и лишений.
В период борьбы с ковидом мир цифровых коммуникаций позволил людям вырваться из изоляции физической, благодаря виртуальному со-присутствию.
Такое было невозможно в 1917-м, когда социальная несвобода и изоляция стали доминирующими чертами общественной и частной жизни. Жизнь взаперти длилась почти целый век без какой-либо альтернативы.
В течение нескольких лет мы собирали видеоинтервью с людьми разных поколений, представляющих сто лет социальной компрессии и изоляции. Их опыт помогает понять пережитое сотнями миллионов советских людей, их надежды и убеждения, их сложный путь к приватности. После 1917 года, когда родилась Людмила Чёрная, первая героиня нашего интервью, за 100 с лишнем лет до эпохи COVID-19, двор был почти единственным общественным пространством, доступным за пределами квартиры. Виртуальной открытости, позволяющей демонстрировать свое личное пространство зрителям на другом конце видеочата, еще не было.
Слушая рассказы наших героев, мы пытаемся понять драму коммунальной жизни 1920-х, 30-х годов, за которой стоял молодой и жестокий советский режим.
Затем мы сталкиваемся с переживанием долгожданной приватности, которую дали людям 5-этажные многоквартирные дома, построенные по программе Хрущева в начале 1960-х годов. Здесь действует правило «каждой семье по квартире», и создаются большие общественные дворы.
И, наконец, мы переходим к современным арендаторам квартир, экспериментаторам в огромном городе, с их часто меняющимися представлениями об общественной жизни и эскапизмом.
Личные переживания социального сжатия и изоляции, помещенные в видео матрицу, подобной зуму, порождают полифонию чувств, представляющих пространство и время как элементы культуры: жилье, кухня, двор, балкон, граница, стена, аренда, рутина и Гагарин.
Девять историй о личной борьбе за цивилизованную жизнь, запертую на замок устроителями одного из самых жестких социальных карантинов за всю историю страны и мира, последовавшего за распространением разрушительного политического «вируса» 1917 года.
Можем ли мы взглянуть на современную городскую среду, травмированную пандемией, через опыт прошлого?
COVID 1917 :
between social compression
and social isolation
between social compression
and social isolation
2020 | video project | Russia | 25 min | 18+
New video project by Mêtre, presented for public program of Milan Triennale, 2020, section Città Ex Post curated by Bogdan Peric and untitled architecture at the panel discussion #4 «New normality — branding of the public space»
The experience of being human at the time of social compression and isolation.
Ву its definition, a city is а space of social interactions. When it finds itself locked down no matter for better (quarantine) or worse (iron curtain), it becomes a social and personal drama of claustrophobia and deprivation.
At the time of COVID-19, the world of digital communications has allowed people around the globe to unlock physical isolation through digital presence.
That was not the case back in 1917, when social compression and social isolation became dominant features of public and private life. They lasted for almost a century with no digital alternative.
For several years Mêtre (our project) has been collecting video interviews with people of various generations representing hundred years of social compression and isolation experienced by hundreds of millions of Soviet people, their hopes and beliefs at that time and their twisted paths to privacy.
From 1917, a year when our first speaker was born, to nowadays COVID-19 epochs, when a yard became the only public space available outside the apartment, and when we all started exposing our most private home scenes to the outside spectators on the other end of the line.
Listening to our speakers, we tried to reconstruct the drama of the compressed communal life of 1920-s, 30-s fiercely enforced by the young and cruel Soviet regime.
Then we go on and encounter the first touch of long-awaited privacy given to people by Khrushchev 5-stories multifamily houses of 1960-s with their "apartment per family" rule and large public yards.
And finally, we hear from lonely renters, aliens in a vast city, and their modernized visions of the communal life, their escapist hopes and beliefs.
Personal experiences of social compression and isolation shared in a zoom-like digital matrix generate a polyphony of senses, representing spatial and temporal elements of the culture of 'being human': shelter, kitchen, yard, balcony, custom, wall, rent, routine and Gagarin.
Nine narratives, nine stories of personal fights for urbanity, that happened to be severely locked and damaged by one of the most influential social quarantine ever, started over as a result of devastating political "virus" of 1917.
Isn't it something that we may notice, think of and digest in the nowadays urbanity, traumatized by the pandemic?
Ву its definition, a city is а space of social interactions. When it finds itself locked down no matter for better (quarantine) or worse (iron curtain), it becomes a social and personal drama of claustrophobia and deprivation.
At the time of COVID-19, the world of digital communications has allowed people around the globe to unlock physical isolation through digital presence.
That was not the case back in 1917, when social compression and social isolation became dominant features of public and private life. They lasted for almost a century with no digital alternative.
For several years Mêtre (our project) has been collecting video interviews with people of various generations representing hundred years of social compression and isolation experienced by hundreds of millions of Soviet people, their hopes and beliefs at that time and their twisted paths to privacy.
From 1917, a year when our first speaker was born, to nowadays COVID-19 epochs, when a yard became the only public space available outside the apartment, and when we all started exposing our most private home scenes to the outside spectators on the other end of the line.
Listening to our speakers, we tried to reconstruct the drama of the compressed communal life of 1920-s, 30-s fiercely enforced by the young and cruel Soviet regime.
Then we go on and encounter the first touch of long-awaited privacy given to people by Khrushchev 5-stories multifamily houses of 1960-s with their "apartment per family" rule and large public yards.
And finally, we hear from lonely renters, aliens in a vast city, and their modernized visions of the communal life, their escapist hopes and beliefs.
Personal experiences of social compression and isolation shared in a zoom-like digital matrix generate a polyphony of senses, representing spatial and temporal elements of the culture of 'being human': shelter, kitchen, yard, balcony, custom, wall, rent, routine and Gagarin.
Nine narratives, nine stories of personal fights for urbanity, that happened to be severely locked and damaged by one of the most influential social quarantine ever, started over as a result of devastating political "virus" of 1917.
Isn't it something that we may notice, think of and digest in the nowadays urbanity, traumatized by the pandemic?
The event took place online
_
23/07/2020
Milano Urban Center - Ideas for Milan 2020
Città Ex Post
_
19:30 #4
After the use of web as a global solution, the Covid19 pandemic imposed an international problem to which the certain cities were called to seek the answers. We therefore ask ourselves today if the specific domestic qualities of each city could adjust the environmental conditions in order to allow us to look at this theme as a "new normality".
With Maison d'être, Dvorulitsa; moderated by Bogdan Peric.
_
23/07/2020
Milano Urban Center - Ideas for Milan 2020
Città Ex Post
_
19:30 #4
After the use of web as a global solution, the Covid19 pandemic imposed an international problem to which the certain cities were called to seek the answers. We therefore ask ourselves today if the specific domestic qualities of each city could adjust the environmental conditions in order to allow us to look at this theme as a "new normality".
With Maison d'être, Dvorulitsa; moderated by Bogdan Peric.
