Opening of 'Critical Mass - 2015'

OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE PROJECT 'CRITICAL MASS - 2015' 

On the day of the official opening, on September 11th, TOK organizes a community picnic in the Lopukhinsky garden with participation of architects from raumlabor, designer Rikkert Paauw, artists Kalle Hamm and Dzamil Kamanger, and performers Roman Osminkin and Anton Komandirov. Raumlabor will present the results of their deisgn workshop "Emma", during which local children and parents created an interactive wooden platform for communal events. Rikkert Paauw has built a wooden tea house, which is an architectural reinterpretation of the gazebo that stood in the garden in the early 20th century. The project by Kalle Hamm and Dzamil Kamanger refers to the plant Gromovia Pulchella, named after the first owner of the dacha and combines audio and visual research of the history of the plant. Roman Osminkin and Anton Komandirov will perform traditional Russian romance songs of the 19th century.  

​This year the main focuses of “Critical Mass” are preservation of historical heritage and studying of collective and personal memories. Therefore, the central venue of the project is the Gromov’s dacha, a wooden mansion built in the 19^th century, that had been numerously threatened to be demolished, and the Lopukhinskiy garden that surrounds the building. For these unique spot in St Petersburg the invited artists from Russia, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland and Estonia have created projects that appear to be the results of their research conducted over the last year when TOK first stepped into the Gromov’s dacha. Series of performative, exhibition and educational events will take place in the Lopukhinsky garden from September 4 to October 10. The main role in these events will be given to the community of the Petrogradksiy district of the St Petersburg, where the garden is located. The residents will be actively engaged in design workshops and creating art works together with the artists and performers. Unlike the two previous editions of ‘Critical Mass’, when we were more focused on the result in the form of exhibition of public art, this time we mostly concentrate on the living creative process open for the audiences to participate. The main goal of TOK this year is to form sustainable social connections within the city and connect different communities in order to create mechanisms of collaboration between cultural institutions, city administration, and citizens for revitalization of unique public spaces using art practices as an effective instrument.