WE ARE NEVER ALONE is a residency project curated by METASITU within the context of the second City Scanning Sessions urban festival, MANUFUTURING, in Ivano Frankivsk. We invite ten practitioners - activists, urbanists, cultural workers, artists, architects, researchers, writers, theorists, performers, scientists, among others - from Ukraine and abroad, to join us for one month to develop, reflect, criticize, experiment, and suggest new forms of urban participatory practices.

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During that time, we were able to establish porous communities, among ourselves, and with others; groups based on affiliations and affections that formed in the city - on purpose, as a necessity, or as a form of resistance. With WE ARE NEVER ALONE we sought to establish these new grounds for relating while understanding the limitations and threats of its own format and maintaining a grounded self-awareness. 
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— How do we understand, translate, and interact with these processes? 
— What can we expect?
— How do we measure success for these participatory practices?
— Can we challenge the role of the artist/practitioner within this context? 

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This year’s theme, MANUFUTURING, organized by the Metalab urban laboratory of "Teple Misto", addresses the potential futures of the Promprylad factory - a (post)industrial space in the center of Ivano Frankivsk which, as its industrial function gradually retreats, is undergoing a deep social and built transformation. How can collective strategies, tactics, and approaches facilitate the interaction between the current (and past?) workers/users in this (post)industrial territory and its adjacent neighbors, as well as potential futures? 

For the period of one month, the invited residents engaged with the territory of Promprylad and its adjacent neighborhoods through their research, proposed activities, public programs, and public events. 

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Some of the questions that we addressed were how the different types of participatory practices could contribute to understanding the territory of Ivano Frankivsk, who has rights to it, and what are the potentials (and limitations) of artistic interventions in determining and bringing social justice or questioning it.

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We want to understand Promprylad, and its transformation, beyond established dichotomies, aware of a constellation of interactions and interests, tensions, opportunities, and what potential affiliations and bonds can be formed between individuals and groups because we are never alone.