project by Zephyr (Apolonija Šušteršič, Livia Coloji, Victor Dragoș, Ana Kun)
commisioned by and presented during ArtEncounters Biennial, Timisoara
September 19 – October 26, 2019
Suggestion for the (Next) Day deals with the issue of air pollution in Timisoara, in a 5 step project:
1. round table with doctors, chemists, activists, environment, air quality and waste management specialists, local administration and C.E.O.s discussing the improvement of air quality;
2. public awareness campaign posters;
3. documentation room in one of the Biennial’s locations;
4. forum theatre play, at the end of the project, based on all research, discussions and development until that point.
Suggestion for the (Next) Day is re-contextualizing a project from 20 years ago called Suggestion for the Day by Apolonija Šušteršič, presented within an exhibition What if: Art on the Verge of Architecture and Design at Moderna Museet in Stockholm. At that time the issue of affordable housing and strong segregation in the city started to become a burning nuisance and the project managed to mobilize architects, urban planners, politicians and activists to discuss this issue and get engaged at finding ways for a constructive resolution.
The Zephyr group was formed in Timisoara by Šušteršič on the basis of her Stockholm project, where a new suggestion was developed, keeping at its core the round table discussion.
The documentation room contains a selection of plants known for their high production of oxygen (each has a label with name and approximate oxygen quantity per kilo), a monitor showing real time data of PM2.5 levels in Timisoara (atmospheric particulate matter (PM) that have a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers), books in Romanian and English on pollution and climate change, 3 binders with information on legislation (local, Romania and E.U., world wide), wall notations of the air chemical composition (source, save levels, neutralization) and several paragraphs on outside and indoors’ air quality management.
The data on the monitor is provided by uRADmonitor, a locally based company. All the plants are grown locally. The data used on the wall notations and in the binders was researched by Zephyr with the help of numerous advisors, sources were quoted. The wooden display was built with safe source wood, by the group and production team of the biennial. At the end of the project the room content was shared between the people involved.
Corneliu Miklosi Museum of Transport, September 20 – October 26, 2019
The poster made to raise awareness, mounted around town during a period of heavy smog in Timisoara which coincided with the last two weeks of the Biennial.
The initial plan was to have a tram with the content of the poster running during the biennial, but since the transport authority only allowed for PVC foil on the trams (as opposed to a non-toxic paint), Zephyr decided the benefits didn’t outweigh the environmental impact of a large quantity of non recyclable foil.
Să se facă (It should be made), a Forum Theatre play, shows an all-too-familiar scene of a doctor’s waiting room where a person from the company sponsoring the doctor cuts in line. The public is invited to take a role in the scene in order to change its outcome. After re-playing the scene a couple of times with different adjustments, the public and the actors discuss the situation. A short presentation of the entire project ends the evening.
