may 2003 / PLAYGROUND / various gipsy camps in rome /
several installations for nomadic children made from recovered car tires, fishnet, metal waste /
in cooperation with ema nik, vanja bucan and denis oudendijk
BACKGROUND
The playground idea stems from a desire to offer a play space to Roma children that live in the middle of urban dust, in the rubbish on the fringes of Rome. We offer an infrastructure to this specific group of children, because we are interested in supporting the development of different living and playing habitats for groups that are being treated as a surpulus population of big cities. Groups treated as a surpulus without being considered as a people that bear a historical belonging to a culture. These groups are mainly locked in unattractive residual areas, and lodged in transitory dwellings, as part of each state's rational to save on public spendings. Most of these groups are waiting for a sort of rehousing or in extreme situations, a relocation, deportation. In such conditions, no responsible entity provides their habitat with basic facilities. This particular ethnic group of people usually ends up being put into container housing at best, which is an econnomic solution for the hosting community, this solution currently being considered one of the most luxurious ones.
BUILDING AND USE
We
intend to use building materials that can be found on location, in their habitats
and neighbourhood, or recycle the materials that we asses will be needed for
the building. We are preparing an architectural plan which would envisage
an ideology of " living dreamhouse", but still confined to materials
that are residual and harmless to health. The children should be as involved
as possible in the applications once the structure is built and the various
workshops will facilitate this. The playground should be a result of many
different artistic inputs, that is, we intend to invite outside collaborators
to help us with the actual design. We are preparing a preliminary base design,
with the help of an architect, but we will leave it open for a remake, considering
that local participants would want to give an input to this building .
We were using tyres, wood, metal, glass as the basic construction materials,
and added color, sound and movement application to the basic form. The playground
was not only a static physical entity, but a base for workshops, which is
its second function.
WORKSHOPS
The
space was dedicated to working with children on specific workshops such as
circus, games, movement
sensibilising as well as artistic genres such as photo, body paintings etc...The
aim of the playground is also to offer these kids attention that they couldn't
receive in their daily lives. The workshops were structured with the collaboration
of local volunteers and/or proffesionals and were lasting throughout and influence
the entire building process.
