British Council was invited by the Biennale curator Bart Goldhorn to participate and we immediately thought of some material object that we could show at the event. The Creative Cities team in Russia worked together with the UK urban designers from Technopolitan Studio to create the concept that would illustrate the main Creative Cities ideas.
The result was an interactive installation MERGED! that represents a hypothetical space in any city of the world that can fulfill several functions at a time. The large cube 3 meters high and 6 meters high really dominated the space that we were given by the Biennale organizers. It changed colors on the outside and inside it transformed from an art-gallery into a picture house into a night club and into an architects’ studio. More about the concept.
The visitors could experience any of these configurations when entering the cube and the sensory experience was created by the video projections, sound and lights. Interestingly enough, all the equipment was hidden within the walls of the cube, so you would not know how this big installation is living a life of its own.
The content of the installation was created or curated by the participants of the Creative Cities project. We are proud to say that this installation is a true result of the project work, while so many participants from different countries contributed to it.
It was a real technical challenge to build and run the installation, but we have to say that we coped and received some admirable comments from the technically-minded audience who knew what it takes to make it. The audience also seemed to enjoy the cube seeing it as a place to sit, relax, enjoy the video, chat with friends or network.
The space around the cube was also an interactive platform for professional ideas and experience exchange. The education programme put up by the British Council at the Biennale was unique in a sense that it was very different from the talks of architects that Biennale organizers set up. As the Creative Cities project the programme showed that people from different backgrounds have great ideas on how to make cities a better place to work, live and play. Urban designers Sander Lap from the Netherlands and Ed Morroe from France, UK photographer John Davies, Blueprint magazine editor Tim Abrahams, British VJ team D-Fuse and even Creative Cities Regional manager from Poland – all delivered great talks and gave interesting lectures. You may see how diverse and international it has been!
Some people said that this is the best and most interesting education activity taking place at the Biennale and they were really impressed by the work that British Council does in Creative Cities in RANE.
We could not miss the opportunity and not run a Future City Game during the Biennale. We did it at the Red October chocolate factory at the newly opened Institute for Architecture, Media and Design “Strelka”. The game took place on a bright sunny day and you could see the best Moscow sights right from the room window where the game ran. The participants enjoyed the sun, spent a lot of time networking, had a great tour round the Red October buildings with an opportunity to buy the famous chocolates and of course, came up with exciting ideas for the location development. The main architect of the Red October factory spent half of the day with the participants of the game listening and commenting on the ideas. The winning idea will be submitted to the Gutta Development company – owners of the venue and the local administration.
On the night of 31 May the cube left the venue and we hope it will travel to other RANE countries. From 1 till 8 June the Creative Cities films programme was on at the Biennale showing the films about the Future City Games that we ran in Russia, film from Denmark about a graffiti master-class and film from Hungary about the FCG TV series.
Overall, it should be noted that this project was pulled off by the effort of a truly international team. We ran a photo completion before the event that was promoted in all the RANE countries. The works of the finalists were included into the art-gallery installation (and you may see them on the Creative Cities website). We had films and photos sent to us from all the RANE countries and some of them were included into the Creative Cities programme that we screened from 1 till 8 June.
84 people from 12 countries worked with us on this project. Creative Cities at the Moscow Biennale was a truly collective MERGED effort with colleagues in British Council in the UK and RANE, project participants in Russia, speakers from different countries, British Council Russia contacts and staff from partners’ companies who made this event a success.
We hope that you have enjoyed the event if you were there and would welcome your comments and ideas! Please write to us.
| 
