Goethe Scenes

Using One's Head in Urban Building

On Kiev's Andriyivs’kyi uzviz, heads become bricks: while the people are being walled in, they discuss perspectives of the artistic and social renovation of the street and about philosophical foundations of building a city. With its performance Baue mit Vernunft!, the independent performance group TanzLaboratorium from Kiev aims to sensitize the public so that their cultural heritage is not destroyed by irrational and haphazard urban planning. Baue mit Vernunft! is part of the Spielstraße – Straßenspiele project that took place in Kiev this October. It focused on the radical change in the public spaces that has been observed in the cities of Central and Eastern Europe since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Together with the Soviart Centre for Contemporary Art, the Goethe-Institut Ukraine is using the example of Andriyivs’kyi uzviz, one of Eastern Europe's oldest streets, to show what innovative artistic and urban planning positions can contribute to modernizing and preserving cultural heritages.