For the exhibition, Myvillages collaborated with the inhabitants of three villages: Zvizzchi and Pushkino in Russia and Zburazh in Belarus, and with artists and cultural managers. The aim was to investigate the nature of rural cultural production and how this is visible in the everyday life of a village. By filming, photographing and drawing together, participants learn to see their environment anew and discover how knowledge is exchanged through intergenerational and trans-local encounters. The photos, drawings and objects show how the villagers, young and old, see and shape their own environment; but can those images be read with our Western European-conditioned eyes? On this point, Myvillages sets the stage for public debate.
The exhibition is curated by Wapke Feenstra of Myvillages and marks the launch of the Rural School of Economics, a new trans-local and collaborative infrastructure for learning, for those who create and use rural economies. The launch will be celebrated with a special event on 3 February 2022.
About Myvillages
Myvillages was founded by artists Kathrin Böhm (UK/DE), Wapke Feenstra (NL) and Antje Schiffers (DE) in 2003, to advocate for a new understanding of the rural environment as a place of and for cultural production. Myvillages’ work addresses the relationship between the rural and the urban, looking at different forms of production, preconceptions and power relationships, whilst passionately questioning the cultural hegemony of the urban. The collective is involved in co-operative projects in various villages and landscapes around the world, with the aim of bringing a new dynamism to solidified notions of local resources and production, agriculture and culture, and internal and external perceptions.
