Re:centering Periphery (RCP) is a multi format documentary project conceived by the ogino:knauss collective investigating the urbanisation produced by the modernist ideology, with a focus on peripheries and their everyday life. During the Tallinn Biennal, Lorenzo Tripodi, founder member of the group and coordinator of the project will present the overall concept and the RCP travelogues book collection, and introduce the most recent episode of the film series, Dom Novogo Byta.
ДОМ НОВОГО БЫТА (Dom Novogo Byta)
Re:centering periphery # 2 – Moscow (45 min., col. 2013)
A film by ogino:knauss
Directed by Manuela Conti and Lorenzo Tripodi
Dom Novogo Byta is the diary of an exploration in the imagined and built landscape of Moscow, confronting utopian visions emerged in the light of the October revolution with the reality of contemporary post-communist Russia. The film starts from the dilapidated Narkomfin building, hardly surviving today in a central plot of land appealing for real-estate speculators. Designed in 1927 by Moisei Ginzburg, this is one of the earlier projects to absorb Le Corbusierian modernist principles. The Narkomfin was a prototype for revolutionary communes to come, aimed at reforming the everyday life of Russian citizens together with their spatial environment. Its utopian aspirations were soon annihilated by the rise to power of Stalin. From the story of the Narkomfin, the film progressively traverse cinematic landscapes advanced by propaganda, finally getting lost into the newly built massive urbanisation of the harsh periphery of Moscow.
Ogino Knauss is a collective created in 1995 in Florence and based in Berlin since 2007. Started as mutant cinema laboratory, ogino:knauss has constantly drifted through languages, formats and communication practices. Its activity at the crossroad among art, research and activism comprises the production of feature and documentary films, live media and VJ sets, video installations, audio works, graphic design, books and photographic projects, participative workshops. Main aspects of the work of ogino:knauss are the open processual nature of its projects, the focus on urban landscapes and spatial transformation, and the investigation of experimental media and audiovisual formats.
Lorenzo Tripodi, architect, PhD in Urban, Regional and Environmental Design, works as an independent researcher in urban and media studies. His main topics are conflicts and transformation of public space, image production processes in the urban economy, new media and participatory practices for planning, sustainable urban development. Founder with Laura Colini of TESSERAE Urban Social Studies, multidisciplinary hub based in Berlin. Develops a parallel activity with ogino:knauss, art project dealing with experimental audiovisual research, authoring under this collective signature films, installations, performances and workshops with a strong accent on urban topics.