#urbanperformance #artisticinterventation #ResearchAction #colletivespace #publicspace #urbancomunities #interactiveinstallation #citywalk
“ [...] we have considered the city not as an object in itself, but in the ways in which it is perceived by its inhabitants.” (Kevin Lynch, “The Image of the City”)
Street art, Reclaim your city. Photo De~jejum 02
DE~JEJUM PERGINE 2020
WHAT DE~JEJUM IS? DE~JEJUM was born in Lisbon in 2017 from the hands of two women who wanted to generate
a critical movement about the city and its urban dynamics.
Inspired by movements already rooted in other cities and countries, DE~JEJUM invites people and neighbors to meet together in different areas of the city, with the idea of rediscovering, reflecting and enjoying together, with a critical and conscious view of the city and the interaction between the people and the public space. It uses the moment of breakfast to live a day of conviviality, inviting people to share food and drink and have a good talk. Every session lasts 1 day and ends with an artistic intervention to appropriate the space where the DE~JEJUM happened. Through the DE~JEJUM we are called to ask ourselves about the role of public space today. What are the functions of the public space? How do we use it? How we live it? DE~JEJUM scratches on its history, characteristics and stories to deepen the knowledge about
our built environment.
Starting as a community breakfast, DE~JEJUM experiments with new dynamics to create active citizens who understand the value of urban space. This way, public space is recognized as a collective space defined by its spectators, that at the same time become actors. Since its foundation, several DE~JEJUM have been organized in different spots of Lisbon, trying to play with the public spaces to create a deep connection with them. Once, the breakfast took place on a stairs apparently valueless and, in another situation, the participants were invited to bring chairs and tables to occupy the main square of Lisbon. There was a case when, during a DE~JEJUM, a beautiful and abandoned place full of art and expression was discovered, and another when the participants camouflage themselves as tourists to watch the city with new eyes. An urban walk was also organized through a DE~JEJUM event, where people were invited to develop walking practice and investigate the city with its seemingly uninteresting spaces. Sometimes the city where one lives is the most unknown. A city where we will not visit new spaces, where we do not explore, we do not get lost, we do not expect to be surprised. DE~JEJUM challenges us to look at the city in a different way, finding new public space to be
discovered, interpreted and appropriate.
METHODOLOGY and NEW APPROACH The working way of DE~JEJUM is based on the trio observe- reflect- intervene. Observe the urban space, reflect about its potentialities and problems, and intervene in a specific place to share the reflection with friends, family, neighbors and with anyone who wants to join. While questioning the relationship we have with the public space, friendships are developing and the communities are strengthening. Relying on this community and inviting friends of friends, we succeeded in having an audience for every DE~JEJUM . In this case (Pergine Festival), the process has to be a bit adjusted, adapting to an unknown urban context and a limited period of time. While the proposal maintains the methodological bases of observe - reflect - intervene, the way people are involved and the way the informations are collected will change. Each moment will be characterized by a performative action through the interaction with the people. In this unknown space, the people who come to the event are locals and visitors, with a completely different relationship with the city. Nevertheless, both know what the public space is for them. We want to play on this common feeling. What does the collective imaginary really correspond to when talking about urban space? With what ways of living is it linked? What use is given? What social norms govern it? What‌? The questions are infinite, and DE~JEJUM wants to dive into its answers invites locals and visitors to do it together.
PHASE 1 : OBSERVATION In the first phase, we propose a performative action touring the main public spaces of the city of Pergine, conducting interviews, recordings and collecting information about the ideas, emotions and stories linked to the different urban spaces, inviting people to contribute with their point of view about the public space while a small breakfast is offered. In order to make the action visible, to attract people to participate and to help in the collection of different information, two devices will be designed to support the action during the exploratory walks. DEVICES: # SPECIAL GLASSES Made of recycled material. In a playful way, people are invited to prove these special glasses. They allow the wearer to see the urban context in a new perspective. They stimulate the imagination leaving people to explore the space as if they were kids.
#SNAIL HOUSE BACKPACK Made in wood. Consisting of a back part, with the function of transporting objects, and a front part that creates a table as a support for the activities. As a scientist backpack with all the tools to recognize Pergine´s public space, it would be provided with different elements -bottles for samples, notebook, recorder, polaroid camera, cases, containers...- in order to register all the information. On the other hand, the table* would help to take notes, process the samples and also to support the coffee and snacks.
the table*, design reference: www.2pigrecoerre.wordpress.com
PHASE 2 : REFLECTION After the observation, the second phase will come: the reflection. The accumulated information will be transmitted to the public space on a large mural, that will take shape thanks to the information of the festival community collected in the first phase. In the main square, a common wall, similar to a traditional notice board, will be placed. This will be an interactive panel that one side throws questions about public space to the audience and the other picks up all the information about DE~JEJUM ´s activities, how it works and how to join it. DEVICES: #COMMON WALL Made up of wood. This panel will be the common space to share opinions, words, images, pictures, natural elements all about the public space. Questions about public space will be released from the information collected in the first phase. At the same time will be also the notice board with which to communicate to the passers-by. This device will be autonomous and interactive, and will grow up day by day with the contributions of the participants. In days when walls are built to divide people, this wall has the objective to be a common meeting point.
PHASE 3 : INTERVENTION In the last phase, the intervention. All the people present at the Festival will be invited to share a communal breakfast in a carefully selected place of Pergine. The open call will be made using the common wall located in the main square and the selection of the place will be made using all the information picked up during the observation phase. This breakfast is a call for conviviality and for cultivate new relations with the inhabited place and the people we share it with. As it is made in all DE~JEJUM ´s events, food will be provided by the participants as the first act of sharing. To remember this moment, a dejejums kit will be offered to the participants with the “rules” to organize other dejejums in their own cities. Created a safe and relaxed space for discussing, DE~JEJUM will open the talk for the recognition of the selected place and its characteristics. At this point the final intervention, site specific, will be revealed and everyone will be encouraged to take part in it. DEVICE: #KIT The DE~JEJUM paper kit will be offered to carry the cup, the napkin and to have a map of the city. The rules written on the side of the kit, encourage participants to spread the DE~JEJUM movement.
#SECRET INTERVENTION This intervention will be defined by DE~JEJUM ´s team after the first phase, and will be prepared in a simple way so anyone one, local or visitor, kids or adults, could take part in it.
At this point, it is important to clear out that the project has a large improvisation component. Nevertheless, the process is established and only the interaction with the selected place for breakfast is open, being this interaction something adjusted to time and place requirements.
TIMINGS AND PROGRAM The program will be flexible, based on the availability and conditions of each city that host DE~JEJUM . In a schematic way it can be summarized in:
Phase 1: Observation (2 days) Phase 2: Reflection (1-2 days) Phase 3: Intervention (1 day)
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DO YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT DE~JEJUM?
Jejum (form Latin jejunus, -a, -um, who is in fasting, without eating, thin) 1. Deprivation of food for a period 2. [Figurative] Deprivation, abstention 3. [Informal] Ignorance of a specifically subject
De~jejum 01 The name itself speaks about the breaking of a deprivation. An abstention, not only literally understood by the lack of food, but also by the lack of contact and reflection on the space we inhabit. The initiative connects with the concept of dwelling – explained by the philosopher Henri Lefebvre in his book “The right to the city”:
“[…] to dwell was to participate in a social life, in a community, town or city”
With a breakfast as a starting point, DE~JEJUM invites always for an active conviviality in the public space: a simple, universal, daily act is transformed in a powerful moment for sharing and creation. “The quality of a square is certainly given by its space, the buildings that surround it, the surface quality of the furnishings and lighting, but it is mainly given by the people who live that place and feel welcomed like at home. People who consider themselves responsible for it and who feel committed to preserve it almost as if it were their living room” ( Luisa Collina for Temporary Urban Solutions, Davide Fossati)
De~jejum 02
One of the priorities is always to involve people from different ages in order to enrich the discussions and the knowledge exchange during the events.
To spread the movement, Facebook, as a social network, is used to launch the call for DE~JEJUM ’s events. At the beginning the places are secrets,. The exact location of the next actions is only revealed 48 hours before the event, after a series of clues and suggestions that are published in the page to encourage the community to investigate the city and join the initiative. An intervention that start in digital mode, turns in something real, like real is the human community that is created around it. People know new people, establishing new bonds that create new meeting spaces.
As an independent and self-managed movement, all the interventions, aimed at performing in the chosen public space, are self-build or made using recycled materials.
De~jejum 02
Since its inception, the urban themes worked through the DE~JEJUM have been varied. The first events were organised around the concept of no place. Updating the original definition that the French anthropologist Marc AugĂŠ elaborated in the 90s, DE~JEJUM invited to think about abandoned, forgotten, transitory or without identity spaces that exist in the urban context. Places that often become residual or are avoided by the population because there is no meaning between the inhabitant and the place.
What function do they play as space? And in the collective imagination? Can we assign a new identity to a space that has lost its own?
Even if DE~JEJUM cannot obtain an answer to all this questions, it is important to highlight the value of creating a safe space where discuss them and explore the different relations of the human life and the space where they are developed.
DE~JEJUM meetings up to now:
01 - “Sem identidade”- #nãoLugares
02 - “Abandonado” - #outrasProspectivas
03 - “Roubados” - #estaÉumaPraça
04 - Passeio Urbano!! - #flaneur
05- “A própria cidade”” - #turistaNaPrópriaCidade
DE~JEJUM 01- “Without identity� Rua das Farinhas The first DE~JEJUM took place in the heart of the neighbourhood of Mouraria. The selected place, a stair that allows the entrance to two residential buildings, occupies the line of the ancient wall that was built by order of Fernando I no ano 1373 d.C. Nowadays it is public space without identity, all its historical burden is forgotten and its use is reduced to access to the dwelling. We choose the stairs of Rua das Farinhas because, apparently without a value, it traces the history of the city. After an historical research that confirms the thesis, we decided the action to do: to recreate this invisible wall using a red tape. #Especial guest, Arquitecta Marta Viera, talked about the historical dates of the place #Urban gallery with old photographs and plans was created to show the transformation of the city center #Adaptated furniture, tables and seats were created in order to make the stairs comfortable for the breakfast #Recuperation of the ancient layout of the wall with a red tape #Collective Breakfast, the breakfast it made up by the sharing of all the participants
DE~JEJUM 02- “Abandoned� Cais Olho de Boi, Cacilhas The second event took place during the major festivities of Lisbon. With all the city upside down, we decided to take perspective and explore Lisbon in the distance. This way, our interest focused on the dock in front of the city, Cacilhas. Although it is really close to the capital, the development of the other shore was totally different. Lisbon’s docks are full of tourists, terraces, and movement. The Cais Olho de Boi, just in front, is empty, full of old industries and nobody goes there. Nevertheless, the historical facts are also fascinating. The chosen place, Quinta da Arealva, was built in the lands where a brick industry was located. Its origins go back until fort built during Pedro II kingdom. #Active exploration of the place and its limits #Taking perspective, cardboard triangles were prepared to frame the view or part of Lisbon that each participant loved. Sometimes it is necessary to take distance to appreciate the things. #Collective Breakfast, the breakfast it made up by the sharing of all the participants
DE~JEJUM 03- “Stolen” Praça do Comércio Nowadays, the public space is threatened by the capitalist system. “Stolen” makes reference to all those places whose use has been sold, for example, to touristic businesses or private investment and in a way have been “stolen” from the local community. The main square in Lisbon, Praça do Comércio, is a imperial square without shadows, branches or trees. A place that doesn't invites to enjoy the public space and where the shades are super coveted in the sunny days of the summer. No one really see it as a space for coexistence, but only as transit space. Only tourists frequent the square and its movement is limited to jumping from shadow to shadow, following the shadow of the main statue. As usually, we made a call to bring chairs and tables to occupy temporally the public space and live, at least for some hours, this space like a convivial square. #Moving shadows, as a critic to the imperial, inhuman scale and design, and lack of shadows for resting of the square, each hour the shadows of the central statue were painted in the floor to show the sitting movement of the people that visit the place. The table, the chairs were also moved chasing the shadows. #Collective Breakfast, made up by the sharing of all the participants
DE~JEJUM 04- “Urban walk” Bairro da Penha de França In order to involve the community around DE~JEJUM in the election of new locations for futures events, we challenge them by inviting for a urban drift, without boundaries, destinations, and rush. During this DE~JEJUM the clothes of Flâneur were dressed to wander in the city and to see it with new eyes. The idea was to get lost in the streets with the goal to live the pure experience of observe and discover new places and, consequently, knowing better the city where we were living.
“At least, it is clear that the urban design has nothing to do with the form itself, but with the form as seen and used by men” (Kevin Lynch) #Dynamic discussions, about the spaces founded and their potentiality. We had an open, common discussion where everyone spoke without hierarchies #Street photography, participants where encourage to take photos of all the elements that attract their curiosity and imagination and to share them with the community #Little Collective Breakfast, made up by the sharing of all the participants
DE~JEJUM 05- “A própria cidade” Miradouro do Recolhimento, Castelo de São Jorge The urban walk made us wonder if we really knew our city or if it was possible that someone visiting it finishes by knowing it better, being "informed" by tourist guides. So this time, through a DE~JEJUM , we invite participants to wear the “tourist glasses” and watch the city like the first time. We propose the meeting point in a new Miradouro of the city, located close to the Castle, which due to its short life and because is insert in the most tourist area of Lisbon normally is frequented only by tourist.
#Trivial Game about Lisbon and its history and traditions. Who knows more about the city, a tourist or a local? #Interviews made to tourists and inhabitants of the city asking for their way to life urban and public places #Collective Breakfast, made up by the sharing of all the participants
THANK YOU!