Digital project What is common space and who creates it? What spatial impact do individual actions have on shared space? Can aesthetic chaos be overcome with better personal choices? The idea of commons may seem fundamental to Georgian culture, wherein family and social life play a central role. However, while the sense of collectivity is present in everyday life, notably in the form of various get-togethers and mutual care, the attitude to the common space doesn’t seem to be embodying this togetherness. Perhaps in the aftermath of the Soviet reality, the concept of public space – and the collective responsibility for it – remains quite abstract. Common space is often defined by a spatial chaos, largely produced by thousands of what we call dostroyka’s. The project was developed in the framework of Tbilisi Architecture Biennial 2020. The second edition of the Tbilisi Architecture Biennial, which is conceived under the name What Do We Have in Common proposes to take a closer look at the notion of commonness in our increasingly individualized and fragmented societies. Due to COVID-19 Tbilisi Architecture Biennial 2020 is carried out predominantly online. The project takes the form of an interactive platform, wherein the “visitors” of the Biennial get to construct a piece of a virtual building with the use of a photographic archive of existing Tbilisian facades. The result is an ever-changing “block” with a patchwork of dostroyka’s. The digital model is ready to be "inhabited" by the exhibition users by selecting a fragment of the facade and placing it in a chosen place on the facade of the building. The 3D model updates in real time according to the decisions of subsequent visitors, resulting in a constantly changing elevation. Complementary part of the project is a publication with the same title, including an essay of Stasia Budzisz and her interviews with Marika Pirvelli, PhD in Earth Science, lecturer at the Chair of Social Geography and Spatial Planning, specializing in the semantics of urban space and Aleksandra Czyżewska, an urbanist and expert on revitalization and development working as an adviser on cities and regions development in Georgia. The project was presented during the duration of Biennale 17.10- 08.11.2020 in Kiyv, Dnipro and Ivano-Frankivsk as a part of the exhibitions organized and curated by research center MetaLab. Curatorial and design team: Aleksandra Zawistowska, Anna Nauwaldt, Stasia Budzisz Full-stack web development: Krzysztof Nazar, Agnieszka Wardzińska Photography: Dina Oganova
2020
