You'll Never Miss the Water Till The Well Runs Dry

The task at hand was to bring to the attention of other young people and citizens of Samara the loss history and culture due to the slow destruction of the historic wooden houses. While some of the houses were deliberately being destroyed, others were the casualties of neglect and abandonment. Either way, if nothing was done to save at least a few, eventually they will all disappear.

Without having a specific art object in mind we discussed what target audience and location would result in the greatest impact. Some of the artists thought that others like themselves should be the primary audience because they are the future and eventually their decisions will influence what happens in the city. Others thought that the older citizens- the ones with the money- should be the target audience. We eventually decided that the artwork should reach all age groups.

Now the question was, how and he brainstorming began.

We can put labels on the water bottles –No, that would take too much time and effort and people would think it’s an advertisement and not pay attention or drink the water from fear of it being tapered with.

We can cover one of the houses (a la Christo) and make it “disappear” – Great idea, but a building will be too big. Perhaps covering smaller “landmarks” throughout the city, making those disappear. There are no small landmarks. Let’s keep this one on the table.

We can use ourselves as the art objects like street performers who paint themselves to resemble statues or perhaps create a flash mob – great idea, we can actually do something like that to kick off the project but that wouldn’t be the project itself (the flash mod idea, not the painted statues).

The ideas kept flowing for the rest of the day. Some employing the use of video and photography, while others appealing to the emotions through stories of, and about the personal histories of the occupants of the houses.

At the end of the long day, we agreed that we would create plaques that and place them on and around houses throughout the city. Some of the plaques would tell stories about the former occupants, others about the building structure and meaning behind the ornamentation. Some could address the concerns of loss or be a sounding board for protest. We took that idea and let it simmer in our thoughts.