As you can see from the materials published at this section, long before Documenta 15 introduced the notion of Lumbung, the Chto Delat collective had been practicing what we always called, along with other comrades, commoning practices. They were all about supporting various local initiatives, primarily in St. Petersburg, that were somehow connected to our circle of alternative critical art and collective leftist autonomous practices.
With the development of a full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, most of the initiatives and their participants were forced to leave. Also, the DK ROSA and the School of Engaged Art, which had cultivated this environment and was supported by our foundation, ceased their activities.
There are still dozens of comrades who are trying to continue their artistic and social practice in Russia at the moment, despite repression, fear of persecution, and general psychological exhaustion. It remains an important task for us to continue to support them personally and their activities. In February 2023, we made a micro-grants program for the realization of artistic works and research that cannot be carried out in Russia for censorship reasons. We were able to support a total of 42 participants, and we hope that their work will be realized and made public at some point in history.
Now, we are severely limited in our ability to spend international grants within Russia, and can only rely on our own resources, as we have done with fellowships, and we continue our support through personal and confidential channels. At the same time, most of our comrades have found themselves abroad in very difficult situations and this new community also requires support and development opportunities. From November 2022 we have organized the mobile platform of the School of Emergencies as such an trans-local space for newly displaced people and the various new contexts of their lives. The first version was implemented in Stockholm in cooperation with Hägerstensåsens medborgarhus, and we plan to continue it in Hamburg, Yerevan, and possibly Belgrade.
We are also working on an online version of our School, which we hope to launch in September 2023.
