SLOW FESTIVAL 2021
ROOTING
It is not only plants that have roots.
People, organizations, communities, cities, and entire countries are living organisms. They develop and feed on the energy and resources from their foundation — the root system.
Roots are our strength. When everything dies away and disappears, only roots remain, from which life sprouts again.
Each city seems to have its own root system type. In Frankivsk, it looks like a rhizome. There is no clear hierarchy, a single core affecting the development of the whole. There is a united organism of heterogeneous, multiple ideas, which are always intertwined into one thing. The rhizome roots are an extensive system of individual elements maintaining constant connection. Therefore, they are able to communicate widely and adapt to any existence challenges. Such a structure allows the roots exist as a united organism or be painlessly divided to exist as separate parts.
Another feature of such a root system, and, hence, our city, is sustainability. If one part of the system is weakened and lacks nutrients, the other begins to feed it.
Frankivsk is a city of strong local ties and co-creation, where nutritious environment is formed together, resources are quickly mobilized for challenges, and there is mutual support and help to develop oneself, others, and the whole.
TOPICALITY
The pandemic, detachment from external factors, and focus on decentralization, local resources, and environmental friendliness are global challenges that have changed our lives and made us focus on the environment in which we live. Being “forced” to stay at home (or return to hometowns from capital cities), we have finally begun to consider the periphery as an opportunity for a more affordable, social, and ecological life and value it as a privilege.
Our city is a well-fertilized soil in which everything new can easily take root, and what has been growing here for years grows stronger and gives a good harvest, even in an unfavorable season.
With this year’s collaborative festival, we want to explore our own roots and soils, feed on where we are, learn more about the place, give back, and create something joint and, at the same time, create selves.
FORMAT
Local organizations (METALAB/Insha Osvita (Other Education)/Parasolka (Umbrella)/Detalizaziya (Detalization)/Teple Misto (Warm City)) have teamed up to hold a festival on the topic of “ROOTING”.
We are organizing a series of local offline and hybrid micro-events in the format of a “slow festival”, where city dwellers and local communities will be the main headliners.
We will focus on localization, environmental friendliness, and justice (to each other, nature, and ourselves). For example, we will explore and practice circular economy approaches in public spaces creation, craft and create ideas and products for the city’s and its communities’ transformation in the “Umbrella”, test ecological models of art production, update body-environment connections in smaller art groups and remote residences, and look for ways of non-hierarchical interaction within them (the Anthropocene theory).
WHAT WILL HAPPEN:
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“Parasolka” residences — an opportunity to work at the Open space “Parasolka” and implement a personal project in a month.
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“Parasolka” workshops — ceramics school, courses in woodworking and metalworking, and an experimental laboratory for plastic processing, where, within a short time, in the evenings, one can learn basic skills in working with materials.
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Performance Residence “Tilo na zemli” (Body on the Land) from Asortymentna kimnata (Assortment Room) and Insha Osvita — a residence for multidisciplinary artists, which will revolve around performativity, bodily practices, and somatics.
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Open space courtyard — design and construction of a pop-up space near “Parasolka” together with the Tbilisi Architecture Biennale team.
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Repairs Cafe — a weekend with flea market and access to all “Parasolka” workshops, where one can fix everything.
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“Product for the City” Laboratory — an experimental urban laboratory for public spaces design based on circular economy principles with British partners 00 and Studio Weave.
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Autumn fair FAIR FAIR vol2 — a meeting with local producers, inventors, artisans, artists, and musicians, and an opportunity to learn something new during the short workshops.
Follow the updates on our social networks.
The program of this year’s festival “City Scanning Session” is implemented by the teams of METALAB, Teple Misto, and Open space “Parasolka” with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation