“Eurokon” 2, Symposium for interactive recycling, Yekaterinburg 1996

For the organization of the festival I was granted the City of Zurich Popkredit Debut award.

With the financial surplus from the festival Eurocon in the Escher-Wyss-underpass we organized a second festival of interactive recycling in Yekaterinburg the following year. In the summer of ’96 we, together with a group of 24 artists from Germany, Great Britain, Denmark, Holland and Switzerland, and 12 local Russian artists, filled the refuse dumps of four partly disused factories with spectacular installations consisting of waste and scrap. Yekaterinburg residents might have believed we were off our rocker, yet our action triggered valuable local dialogue on the region’s catastrophic environmental conditions.

During the festival a documentary film by Alexander Golizdrin was shot that was subsequently aired on the Russian private TV channel NTV. Following the festival we put together an exhibition in the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Novosibirsk.

Participant artists:

Anne Bennike (DK), Patrick Blöchlinger (CH), Dmitry Bulnygin(RUS), Mark Divo (LUX), Oleg Elovoi (RUS), Silvia Fierz (CH), Alexander Glistrin (RUS), Octavio Gozalbez (E), Linda Herzog (CH), Michael Hiltbrunner (CH), Isabel Karpf (CH). Anja Kleidt (CH), Lennie Lee (UK), Miren Merkelbach (D), Slava Mizin (RUS), Gregor Portmann (CH), Michael Schmacke (D), Dominik Suter (CH), Maja Thommen (CH), Michael Tucker (CH), Guido Vanderbildt (NL), Luis Wäschle (CH)

LOCATION
Yekaterinburg Russia / National Art Museum, Novosibirsk

BUILDING TYPE
Four waste dumps in four different factories, Yekaterinburg Russia / National Art Museum, Novosibirsk

PROMOTION
Pro Helvetia, Oversea Bank, Fonds de la culture Luxembourg

INFRASTRUCTURE
Exhibition space

EVENTS
Performances, concert, exhibition

CONCEPT AND ORGANISATION
Mark Divo, Slava Mizin, Dima Bulnegyn, Linda Herzog, Alexander Golizdrin,
Miren Merkelbach

GRAPHIC DESIGN
Mark Divo, Alexander Golizdrin