The projects of the grantees of the “Shared Future” open call are great examples of how in-depth knowledge and personal connection with the Swiss art scene during the design phase of a project remain essential.
In 2021 the independent curator and researcher Furqat Palvan-Zade was selected for the “Shared Future” open call for applications. After an initial research phase his idea of creating an online educational platform for architects, artists and urbanists came to life as the “Spaces” project on the syg.ma platform.
The “Spaces” includes materials related to the history and theory of architecture, cultural geography, visual studies of landscapes and infrastructure, with a curatorial focus on the post-socialist countries of Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
The following pieces have already been published on the platform:
- An interview with practitioner and architecture research collective Panta Rhei Collaborative (Zurich-London),
- Reflections by curator and historian Ana Chorgolashvili on the Soviet architectural heritage in Tbilisi,
- The text of the researcher and artist Anastasia Galimova about how urban architecture can shape human consciousness and emotions,
- The architectural and psychogeographic guide to Skopje by researcher Ilya Lobanov.
You can follow project updates here.
From Russia, syg.ma is accessible via VPN
One more project supported within “Shared Future” open call is the “Along the Invisible Rivers” by curators Christina Pestova and Anna Kozlovskaya.
“Along the Invisible Rivers” is an interdisciplinary project designed to reveal an alternative view of the city through a map of hidden rivers and related stories. Christina and Anna invited Russian and Swiss hydrologists, curators and artists to reflect together on the themes of invisible water and the fragility of water systems in large cities.
Nastia Volynova (Moscow), Monica Ursina Jäger (London) and Damian Christinger (Zurich), Natalia Zaitseva (Leipzig), Sarem Sunderland (Zurich), Rolf Weingartner (Bern), Ivan Kopeikin (Almaty) reflect in their texts and visual works on how water can become a sign system of the city and represent history, culture and ideology in the language of rivers and water bodies. The results of the project will be published in winter 2024. Follow the updates on Pro Helvetia Moscow Telegram-channel.
What is “Shared Future”?
“Shared Future” is an open call launched by Pro Helvetia Moscow in 2021 to support curators based in Russia who lack knowledge of the Swiss contemporary art scene and who would like to both accumulate such knowledge and receive support for their immediate implementation.