Debord wrote Situationist International using many of Lefebvre’s theories and in response to capitalism’s control of space. Sasha Kurmaz is an artist living and working in Ukraine and making interventions in spaces:

FROM THE WEBSITE:

“We are bored in the city, there is no longer any Temple of the Sun”.
Ivan Chtcheglov, Formulary for a New Urbanism (1953)More than some other post-Soviet cities, Kyiv has changed in the past decade. The time has come to forget about a peaceful, green historic city to the south of Moscow and the east of Warsaw that it used to be. New architectural and intellectual forms, new aesthetics and a new physics have taken over the mother of all Russian cities, together with its new permanent resident: big money.In April 2012 the Kyiv City Council decided to “reconstruct” Hostynnyi Dvir (Guest House) – a huge neoclassical building with spacious stairwells and a huge inner courtyard. In the past Hostynnyi has played host to public library, theatre, small shops, cheap cafes and miscellaneous “third places,” common spaces shared by students, artists, writers, intellectuals, residents and urban freaks of all stripes. Backed by City Hall, the Cyprus-based company Afidreko Holdings Ltd appropriated the building and the nearby public spaces, doing so with the intention to turn it into yet another sleek shopping mall. When illegal privatization schemes ran too far and the brutal “reconstruction” of the building started, Kyivans took a stand and organized in order to re-claim Hostynnyi. For a few months, it has become a platform for an unprecedented social experiment: a squat, an art space, a community centre and a durable civil protest united in the name of common good.

But all was not bread and circuses; a new community around Hostynnyi turned into a honeypie for right-wing leaders, let alone greedy developers and corrupt officials. Unlike the regular protesters, young right-wing activists were trying to convert successful grassroots protest into symbolic and political capital for their new and quickly expanding party. Together with historic preservation and public function of the building the burning issues at Hostynnyi now included xenophobia and homophobia and, more importantly, inclusivity and participation. The meaning of the protest became less and less clear: if not the facelessness of big money, then who, really, should have the right to Hostynnyi?

The Red Line was a political and artistic statement by the activist group Right to the Cityin response to the right-wing intervention at Hostynnyi. The title of the action is a reference to the historical practice of redlining, or officiating institutional discrimination, in American cities in the mid-20th century. In the course of the US redlining policies African American and gay neighbourhoods were purposefully disinvested and denied basic services (such as banking, healthcare, food services etc). Inspired by the civil rights movement in the States, art-activists in Kyiv decided to put a thick red line around the public building whose accessibility was questioned and conflicted. The aim of The Red Line was to visualize the invisible distinction between defensive actions and justification of exclusion.

Right to the City argues against commonsensical understanding of public space as an empty abstract place where “everything is fine”. The reality of post-Soviet cities consists in exclusion and misrepresentation of women, children, the elderly, the poor, people with disabilities, lgbt and other underprivileged social groups. The power of developers and officials is not only about the law enforcement and economic capital, but it is also deeply rooted in broader context social of cross-discrimination and systematic inequality. When organized homophobes are spoiling for a fight in the defense of public building it makes perfect sense to ask: who should and who should not have the right to city?

Upon closer examination, the story of Hostynnyi is about heterogeneity, multiplicity and the polyphony of urban voices. The many nuances of local urban conflict show that it is not enough to be against something, not even if only to convince oneself of one’s own mission. A city is a site of constant change, conflict and struggle. In autumn 2012, for the first time in Ukrainian history, the right-wing party Svoboda entered the Parliament, gaining 10% of votes nationwide; soon after, protesters were kicked out of Hostynnyi with the help of paramilitary troops. The red line, temporarily, remained. Recently, an green construction fence has seized Hostynnyi around the perimeter retracing the same path the red line took one year ago. The activists lost the battle and the building, which will now become a shopping mall, but the war is going on. Whose lead is it: the red line or the green fence?

Nadia Parfan

Other projects:

http://sashakurmaz.com/V-5

Check out more of his work on his website: http://sashakurmaz.com/

his blog: http://sashakurmaz.tumblr.com/

his vimeo:https://vimeo.com/user1420390