For the last three days in Prague, I assisted toan international project about activism and NGOs as a possible dominant practice in the future. The English title (NGOs shaping cities) draws the attention on the fact that activism turn into a global trend as a reaction to world economy.
A panorama of the international practice shows that the issues and the methods are related, yet local cultural contexts generate responses, nuanced results which we should truly consider. This is an increasingly comprehensive topic for all kinds of ideas and movements which get together economics, salving ideas for the urban practice, production and rational consume of space or constructions.
Who andto whom they sell, and based on what?
Usually, those organizations live/survive (and are funded) through projects, that is various funds which are made available through competitions, sometimes through sponsorship and quite rarely through donations or direct sales. In most cases, collected money is invested only in people and in their projects, but through their missions, their methodologies and results become credible models of expression and income. Even if the money for which they compete is very little (not that we would not know organizations which run funds as a multinational corporation, but their actions are already subject to critique), and consequently their results hardly get visibility, yet they do get a public acknowledgement, a validation and support which may eventually turn into aformidable weapon. Credibility is a weapon based on truth, ethically and socially anchored, which NGOs get certainly a lot easier than any architecture office, let’s say, about which one could stay that is usually obedient to the client and which is meant to put contracts in force, and not question the project. Independent and financial support: that is an interesting topic which drew my attention a bit more than the usual presentations of architectural works.
In a way, the first reaction I had about the title was to transform it in “NGOs scratching cities”. The paraphrase tries tosay that now the administration builds the city along the private sector. Money and investments, development before anything else. Yet, the ideas articulated in the projects initiated by activists, their little great achievements qualify them in the future as unavoidable partners. Closer to the concept of consultation and participation, closer to the community, more rational about resources, they will be not only a consultation factor, but perhaps a needed stage. A thing to eventually happen naturally. If you remember the zeppelin project last year, “urban activations”, the selection proposed then was about remarkable initiatives which managed to go beyond the stage of a wish in Romania, 14 of them. One could say this is insignificant, yet looked on from Prague, I could honestly say that this is a good start.
Actually, one of the directions of the debates was about the association of that type of practice with the acupuncture: small stings which, well placed on energy meridians, may help the balance of the whole body. The effects of treatment through acupuncture are sometimes spectacular, comparatively to the few needles going superficially through the skin.
But you could expect a lot more from anacupuncture treatment. In the future, all those NGOs which offer the only resources they have, that is energy, patience and the intelligence of thei rmembers to accomplish small art installations in abandoned places, or sometimes a cultural organizations or a public space, will learn new survival techniques and, more than that, will probably go to a new economy based on social values andethics, not profit and an irresponsible consume. The most appropriate example of success for that kind of actions and perhaps the impressive size we go to is in New York, in the High Line Park which is featured in this issue. The progress from the community activism to an urban practice of such quality cannot be made without internalizing discourses and ways of thinking beyond a single perspective. You will see how public authorities, private investors and local activists manage to reach an agreement with the three winning parties. Perhaps something to learn from, beyond admiring the design.
