UrBC, Yekaterinburg, August 18, 2010. The 1st Ural Industrial Biennale of Contemporary Art (September 9, 2010 – October 10, 2010, Yekaterinburg) gives the locals a chance to voice their opinion of the city’s most hideous building. VOTE FOR DEMOLITION, the project of a Mexican artist Gustavo Artigas, is a study on how the local people see their own surroundings and on the democratic ways of changing the urban environment.
The project is a survey on which buildings Yekaterinburg locals would like to see demolished/ destroyed. This August, twelve buildings were picked out by a board of experts – well-known architects, culture researchers, anthropologists, and journalists based in Yekaterinburg and Moscow (names are withheld for professional reasons).
Among the selected buildings are the third extension to Antey Business Center, the seat of Sverdlovsk Region Legislative Assembly, the residence of Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian Federation President in Ural Federal District, Gringo Shopping Mall, and Alatyr Trade & Entertainment Center. Artigas is to create the demolition short list himself.
The results of the survey and the related papers will be placed with Mayor of Yekaterinburg in the form of a petition on having the least popular building pulled down.