It has been a year since DK ROSE was forced to cease its work. Since the escalation of the war, the ROSA HOUSE OF CULTURE and the Engaged Art Workshops suspended all their public programs – our space became a place where we could all experience together the failure of our usual reality, prepare anti-war agitation, just gather, cook food, and talk openly about what was happening. Looking back, back then, in March-April 2022, we had not yet given up hope that the situation could change, that the people would rise, that “Putin” would disappear, that the war would end, that the sanctions would be lifted, that the trauma would heal. By the end of May, the mood was different, more desperate, and we decided it was worth it to leave a city increasingly steeped in militarism. We decided to establish a country commune-as it is now clear, looking from today’s perspective, it may have been our riskiest move in the history of our work.
<h5><em> photos from recent events at the DK ROSA in May 2022 </em></h5>
We were sure that there was no point in staying in the city at that moment, and the experiment with forms of common living promised some new opportunities for psychological and physical survival, as well as opportunities to continue the practices of resistance, reflection, and education. We were lucky – the police did not catch us at the anti-war film festival, the preparations for the actions, or simply at the meetings of the dozens of activists whom the place helped to survive that desperate summer. <a href=”http://chtodelat.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Commuzine_06.pdf”>
We publish the commune’s zine (see below) in English in a situation where all its participants are safe, but nevertheless we do not reveal the real names hidden in the publication under different nicknames.
Is it possible to continue DK ROSA in a new situation, when its participants find themselves in very different places and when they have very different tasks in life? We were lucky enough to get a space in Berlin, which we called Chto Delat Emergency Project Room thanks to the support of our friends – it is still very new and we are trying to make it a new community space – a gathering place, a discussion place, a residence, a place where we hold our Mad Tea Parties, dedicated to different emergency situations and the absurdity of the reality that we are facing. It can’t become a full-fledged social center-but that seems to be another challenge. If the School of Engaged Art, transformed into the School of Emergencies can continue to exist trans-locally, the House of Culture requires another concrete spatial assembly of bodies and interactions. In the meantime, it is important for us to keep our community alive and hope that at some not-so-distant point in time we can come together in that very city, and it will make new sense.
(text by Dmitry Vilensky)
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Commuzine_06
