Dreams On Wheels

Exhibition & Masterclasses in Moscow: The bicycle culture of Denmark June 1, 2009 at 20:31

DAY OF DENMARK 29.05.09 at The Central House of Artists, Moscow

For the annual architectural fair, ARCH Moscow, The Royal Danish Embassy in Moscow was privileged this year to present the Danish exhibition Dreams on Wheels which was displayed together with the architectural exhibition, Instants of Architecture. Dreams on Wheels was presented with support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, which made it possible not only to bring the exhibition, but also to invite the curator Thomas Ermacora, together with the traffic planner Troels Andersen and the journalist Michael Colville-Andersen.

A full day at the Central House of Artists was dedicated to the two Danish exhibitions under the tagline: “Day of Denmark”. The grand auditorium of The Central House of Artists, which holds 600 seats, was filled with bicycling enthusiasts. Thomas Ermacora, Troels Andersen and Michael Colville-Andersen held lectures about the Danish bicycling culture and how the experiences of Denmark could be achieved in other countries and cities all over the world.

During the day, the audience was invited to take part in discussions, and many took the opportunity to ask how these experiences could be implemented into the context of Moscow and Russia. The Danish ambassador to Russia, Per Carlsen opened the “Day of Denmark” together with the party leader of the political environmental party “Jabloko”, Sergei Mitrokhin and the director of Central House of Artists, Mr. Vassily Bychkov.

After the lectures and discussions at The Central House of Artists the Danish cycling experts had hearings in the Moscow Duma. They were invited by the Commission on Environmental Policy, the Commission on urban and housing policies and the Commission on future development and urban planning who all had prepared specific questions for optimizing the bicycle infrastructure of Moscow. These hearings went to show that the interest from Russian authorities to create a stronger bicycling culture in Moscow is very present. And the timing for these initiatives is impeccable. The new Moscow city plan is approaching; more and more articles about bicycling are getting column space in the newspapers, further more the youth is yelling for more sustainable transportation solutions, such as cycling.

The interest from the young Muscovites during the bicycling events was more than evident. The young audience was very visible during the lectures and after a short reception in the evening at the ambassador’s residence; the Danish guests went to join 200 happy young Muscovites at the new architect gallery “Mel” 1 km from The Kremlin. The gallery “Mel” hosted a Copenhagen Cycle Chic party (link) where a bike ride of more than 50 people was arranged. The Danish journalist and filmmaker Mikael Colville-Andersen shot video footage while the young crowd was riding around the factories of “Red October” and showing their beautiful bicycles for the whole city to see. Two short movies were made about the event (video 1 & video 2), and after the bike ride, the Danish cycling experts gave a short summery of the events of the day, after which the Russian architect and founder of the cultural platform theoryandpractice.ru, Mr. Askar Ramazanov, explained his view of the differences between Russia and Europe in the context of cycling.

For more information, please have a look at the homepage Embassy of Denmark, Moscow.

Press release from Embassy of Denmark, Moscow , June 2009

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