The name of the project covers a range of researches, events, exhibitions and interventions that started in 2015, about places, people and activities in the south of Bucharest, covering on the one side the difficulties and needs and on the other side the social, economic and cultural potential, and the actors who profit from this potential.
If the northern side is considered to be the “good side” of Bucharest, the southern part is its opposite, not only geographically but also as a social reality: less fortuned, hardly accessible, with apparent social inequalities, ethnic segregation and a negative image, with gaps of infrastructure, of social and cultural equipment.
Demolitions and the megalomaniac urban axis of the 80s isolated the area even more from the rest of the city, then the wild capitalism of recent years led to the collapse of the major industries that supported the economy of this area (Timpuri Noi, IMGB and others). But all this territory has enormous potential given the large green spaces, its organic way of development, the urban and social eclecticism, the energy and memory of the places and people, still kept intact.
The locals claim their fundamental right to culture and public space.
On the other hand in this part of town a lot of independent bottom-up initiatives have emerged in recent years. They respond to social, cultural, professional and sometimes political needs and situations that cannot wait any longer to get on the agenda of the authorities. The South is on the move.
In 2015, 12 independent initiatives and cultural entrepreneurs were part of the exhibition Carol Factory. Bucharest South (2015). They told their stories, they reported their undertakings, the details of their existence in this part of town, the impact that it had in the community and the difficulties they went through. A series of interviews brought in to the spotlight those who revitalize former industrial areas in the south of the city, creating cultural, economical and social content. The exhibition was followed by a seminar and a conference dedicated to the strategies and good practice on old and new industrial arhitecture.
In 2016, Zeppelin became co-author of the project Actopolis. The Art of Action / Bucharest-South. Build your own city! Organized by Goethe Institute, tranzit.ro and Zeppelin as a part of the internaitonal platform Actopolis. The Art of Action, the art and research project proposed an exercise of democratic urbanism, but also a portrait of the area seen thorugh its inhabitants’ stories, a documentary, an urban research and a mapping of the new cultural and social centers.
