Friendly Zone #5

Friendly Zone #5, summer of 2014. 

A white inflatable house with an inscription “Friendly Zone” appeared in Kaunas neighborhood of Žemieji Šančiai. It popped up in the territory of the 19th century barracks playfully referred to as the “Warehouses of Sauerkraut”, during the months of July, August and September of 2014.

The inflatable house is a platform for a cultural project “Miesto tyrimai: viešumo patirtys. Draugiška zona #5“, continuing the research study of culture in Žemieji Šančiai that started in 2011. It includes the creation of the public space, where communication between people takes place, mutual connections are established, attempts are made to imagine a different everyday environment together and consider how abandoned territories in Šančiai can become useful to people.

This project aims at reviving the forgotten and abandoned territory of military barracks established in Žemieji Šančiai in the 19th century by increasing the contribution of people to the formation of their environment, creating new forms of self-organization, encouraging participation-based practice, and initiating new forms of creative expressions.

Project participants, artists, urban theoreticians and cultural activists Auksė Petrulienė, Darius Petrulis, Monika Žaltauskaitė Grašienė, Dionizas Bajarūnas, Viktorija Rusinaitė, Arnoldas Stramskas, Kotryna Valiukevičiūtė, Ed Carroll and Vita Gelūnienė have been initiating dialogues with local people since 2011, as well as joint artistic projects, analysing, comparing and assessing the local problems.

“Miesto tyrimai: viešumo patirtys. Draugiška zona #5” is a part of a project of culture and art called “Nematomos bendruomenės” (Invisible Communities), initiated by Vytautas Magnus University.

Project sponsors: Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, Kaunas City Municipality and Lithuanian Council for Culture.

Project organizers Public Institution Dvimiesčio kulka and Vytautas Magnus University.

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