Day 8: Free Riga

On our third and final day in Riga we finished up our tour of the city, but we also had the privilege of visiting an new art exhibit a day before it was set to open. The exhibition put on by the Goethe Institut in Riga is is titled Weltstadt. This exhibit showcases cities around the world and explores the themes of "Who develops and builds the cities?" and "Who creates the cities' futures?".
Riga was of course one of the featured cities, and its place in the exhibit discussed the "Free Riga" movement, which Davis is an active member of.

The "Free Riga" movement has popularized a discussion about what to do with all of the abandoned buildings and 'spaces' in Riga. The movement is about trying to benefit not only the property owner, but also the local community by finding better uses for these spaces. For instance, turning an old warehouse into a community center could benefit the families and children of the community, create a few jobs, but also benefit the property owner by reducing taxes and helping to maintain or even improve the condition of the building. The project is designed as a win-win situation for all stakeholders involved, even the government.

"The exhibition builds not only a bridge between past and future, but also in between the multilayer urban spaces, on various continents and its involved actors. Empty Spaces, the Riga based Weltstadt project, focuses on the transition, the urban shift from classic industrialization times city textures towards new forms of settlements, urbanic spaces and its architectural realization. Abandoned spaces and buildings are tremendously dominating certain central areas of the European Capital of Culture in 2014. The working group has devoted itself to create an awareness about these left-behind post-industrial, post-soviet as well as Art Nouveau and wooden buildings with a high heritage value."
(http://blog.goethe.de/weltstadt/archives/156-Weltstadt-Exhibition-in-Riga.html)

"Occupy Me" stickering campaign.

Stickers were placed on abandoned houses in Riga to capture 

the attention of citizens in the community, generating

intrigue for the Free Riga movement.

The Free Riga movement recognizes that there is great potential for such neglected sites and does not intend on letting that potential go to waste. The project also draws connections to some of the other Weltstadt projects around the world. For me this was extremely interesting, as it also drew a parallel to the city of Detroit, where I am from. Detroit has been known recently for its extremely high number of vacant buildings and homes. These buildings have even brought photographers into the city just so they can take pictures of what has been called "ruin porn". And just as Davis has been working to put these empty spaces to better use, there are many people who have similar ideas for Detroit, my father being one of these people. My father, Jamison Brown, is a landscape architect who has big plans for how Detroit can transition from what once was an automobile-friendly city to a more people-friendly city through improved utilization of these spaces. Fo example, turning some of these abandoned areas into public parks.

As we saw again and again on this trip through the Baltic States, difficult economic transitions necessitate social transitions, calling for new and unconventional approaches to doing things. For some people, like Davis and my father, this is obvious, but for many others this is a difficult concept to grasp, making for a slow transition process.