Suggestion for the (Next) Day
Type of work: Project
Project: Awareness Campaign
Timisoara Biennial, 2019
Authors: Zephyr (Apolonija Šušteršič, Ana Kun, Livia Coloji, Victor Dragos and others)
Location: Timisoara, Romania.
Year: 2019
Curator: Maria Lind, Anca Rujoiu
Courtesy: Author
Photo: Author, Adrian Catu, Vlad Cindea
Concept:
Suggestion for the (Next) Day is a project that methodologically originates from the work that Šušteršič developed 20 years ago (2000) for the exhibition »What if: Art on the Verge of Architecture and Design”, at Moderna Museeet in Stockholm. That was an investigation of the city of Stockholm at its current issues related to the housing problems and segregation in the city. With an attempt to re-contextualize the work in Timisoara, the artist began her research in the city. She met several inspiring people that decided to collaborate on a project – starting an environmental campaign deriving from the situation of the city today and its most pressing issue, air pollution. The statistics show that every third person in Timisoara is suffering from lung cancer, which is a dangerous and disturbing reality of Timisoara today.
The group responsible for this project has chosen to be called Zephyr.
The group engaged with various public platforms to create awareness and encourage the citizens of Timisoara to join the campaign. Round table discussion at the city hall, art installation in the Tram Museum, forum theatre performance and public transport advertisements are the results of Zephyr’s efforts. The series of researches and actions took place during the Art Encounters Biennial 2019. As a conclusion of the efforts, a forum theatre was planned and took place at Basca Theatre, on October 26, 2019.
More information about actions and events are as following:
Environmental Awareness Campaign elements:
1) Round table discussion at the City Hall
Date: September 19, 2019 at 10.00 – 13.00 hours.
In addition to advertisement on the city tram and an art installation in the Tram Museum, Zephyr organized a round table discussion at the City Hall on 19 September. People in key positions within industries that are surrounding the city were invited, together with medical workers and researchers, environmentalists, activists, the mayor and representatives from the city administration responsible for urban planning and environment, architects, and landscape designers, artist and others interested in the subject of city environment and pollution.
2) Public transport advertising _tram: A simple question printed in black and white was pasted outside of the city tram, side by side to the posters of the general election campaign; calling out the single wagon trams that drives around the city. A measuring device was proposed to monitor the air quality on the tram route through the city but due to problems within the negotiation process between the organization and Tram Company the suggestion could not take place.
3) Art installation at the Tram Museum: A hub for people to gather, observe, read, collect data, present ideas and together debate about the current scenarios and future prospects of Timisoara.
Inspired by Naomi Klein’s book, “This Changes Everything, Capitalism vs Climate”(2015), we proposed a light wooden structure where along with adequate seating; we placed plants rich in oxygen and responsible for improving indoor air quality. Their names, description of their O2 production ability and other details were made evident to create awareness. The installation also contained reading material related to the issues of the environment, climate change and capitalism.
The space allowed us to conduct meetings, work together on ideas and practice and develop the forum theatre performance that took place at the end of the Biennale.
4) Forum theatre performance: Performed in the last week of the exhibition at Basca Theatre, on October 26, 2019, the forum theatre built upon the researches and processes that went behind the making of the project. It was developed and rehearsed during the exhibition at the Art Installation/ hub (3). Forum theatre is a form of participatory theatre where non-professional actors and audiences worked together on the issues presented to them during the course of the project. It promotes awareness and tries to come up with solutions through dialogue.
The ambition of Zephyr was to utilize a multitude of platforms available to them before and during the biennale to start something that will continue even after the exhibition is over.