Exhibition "Topography of Happiness" in the gallery "On the Shabolovka"

February 25 at 19:00 in the gallery "On Shabolovka" will open the exhibition "Topography of happiness. Shabolovka. " This is a series of multimedia dedicated to the Danilovsky district, as a unique space in terms of history, culture and topography.

The exhibition will be held from February 26 to March 29, 2015.

The development of Moscow for a long time went on the principle of the opposition of the center and everything else. This led to some imbalances in the quality of life of people: the majority of the population works and rests in the center, but lives elsewhere. That was not always the case; for example, in the 1920s, Shabolovka began to be built up as a new type of district, as a whole: comfortable housing not far from the place of work, here there are work clubs, schools, baths, a crematorium, there is music in the courtyards in the evenings, etc.

Modern urbanism again implies the development of each part of the city as a harmonious unity, where a person is located not only because of economic necessity, but also because there is everything necessary for life.

But now we are talking not only about the construction of infrastructure, but also about the reconstruction of the collective and private history of this space, as well as its mythology.

The general history of the area is created from the private stories of the people who inhabit it, from their knowledge of the area, from their attitude to it, from their fears and hopes. Artistic comprehension of the most striking and amazing places and stories (real or imagined, private or collective) is the process of creating a historical context, based on which you can interpret the area as a unique, private place, different from all others.

Over the past century, the image of Shabolovka has undergone significant changes.

In the 1920s, a village near Moscow turned into a platform for experiments by progressive groups of architects. The place of detention of Patriarch Tikhon, the Donskoy Monastery, gave shelter to workers from the surrounding factories. The Apakov Tram Depot, once equipped with a revolutionary armored car, has become a meeting place for a loving couple. In a quiet, orderly neighborhood of a youth housing cooperative, the sounds of gunfire from a 1990s criminal showdown were heard.

Life shuffled the neighbors; the purpose of working and administrative premises, outlets has changed; habitual beaten paths to bus stops and shops have changed many times; undocumented odors and sounds disappeared forever. What events and transformations remained in the memory of the inhabitants, what invented images are accepted over time as the “true history”? How is Shabolovka reflected in the media, books, memoirs and newsreels? How do new residents and new companies that replace the factories develop the district? What is the emotional topography of the region made of, what do different people feel in the same place, and what do they know about it?

The Topography of Happiness project is looking for answers to these questions.

On the opening day, February 25 at 17:00, the "Mobile Studio" Portrait of a Citizen "begins work.

The project was made by:

Andrey Cherkasov & Ekaterina Sokolova, Dmitry Venkov, Olga Dmitrieva, Tasha Abramova, Irina Ivannikova (media artists)

Larisa Greenberg (curator)

Anna Selyanina (curator)

Dmitry Kavko (design)

Daria Zueva (sociologist)

Ilya Malkov (local historian)

Organizers:

Association “Exhibition Halls of Moscow”, gallery “On Shabolovka”.

The project is being implemented with financial support from the Moscow City Department of Culture and organizational support from the Moscow City Library for Cultural Development “MosART” 01

Project partners:

Documentary House "First Cinema" was created in 2001 in Moscow. The main specialization of the company is participation in interdisciplinary cultural projects, the development of documentary films and work in related genres: documentary theater, music video industry, web documentary. The works of the First Cinema were awarded national and international prizes in the field of cinematography and theatrical art. pervoe.ru

Urban Street 14 Design Bureau is a community of young professionals in urban development and socio-cultural design. www.urbanstreet14.ru

The flash mob “Portrait of a Citizen” is a sociocultural project, the purpose of which is to collect photo portraits of permanent and temporary inhabitants of a big city, followed by broadcasting images online, including on building facades. Heroes of the project receive photos by email absolutely free.

Address: metro Shabolovskaya, metro Tula, Serpukhov Val, d. 24, building 2, + 7 (495) 954-30-09

Gallery hours: Tue - sun. 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.