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💥BOOK LAUNCH 💥 WE ALSO WENT TO RAVES, BUT WE DON’T TALK ABOUT THAT IN THIS BOOK 💫11 Years of Experimental Urban Practice by METASITU 🌐
Established in 2014 by Liva Dudareva & Eduardo Cassina, METASITU is a collective practice based in Kyiv/Athens, but operating globally.
METASITU was conceived to explore the ways in which people relate to the built environment across times and disciplines, to usher in a queerer tomorrow.
Through publications, gatherings, installation, and video, their practice is situated at the intersection of visual arts, urbanism, and knowledge-exchange formats.
Centered around non-hierarchical symbiotic pedagogies, their work spans a wide range of territories and approaches, from Donetsk to Dubai, from organising encounters to building large-scale installations.
Since 2015, METASITU has been developing different facets of The Degrowth Institute, a long-term project exploring how to masterplan for degrowth in post-industrial cities with dwindling population demographics. Rather than fighting against demographic shrinkage, The Degrowth Institute seeks to build conversations around ebbing populations, ruinification, rewilding and preservation.
METASITU’s work has been commissioned and exhibited internationally at Alserkal Arts Foundation (Dubai), MANIFESTA (Prishtina), The Biennial for Architecture (Venice), Ukraine's National Center for Contemporary Art - Arsenal Mystetskyi (Kyiv), Kunsthalle Hamburger Platz (Berlin), ZK/U (Berlin), Izolyatsia (Kyiv & Mariupol), among others.
Liva and Eduardo have curated numerous urban events and programs, such as the City Scanning Sessions in Ivano Frankivsk and 86 Film and Urbanism festival in Slavutych, Ukraine. They have taught and/or led workshops at Trojan Horse Summer School (Estonia), INDA Chulalongkorn University (Thailand), The Irish Architecture Foundation (Ireland), Innes Institute / TU Vienna (Austria), TUMO (Armenia), CANactions (Ukraine), and the Strelka Institute.
In 2024, they were joined by Lars Oschmann.
future(at)metasitu(dot)com
By Henry Ace Knight
By Agustine Paredes (Alserkal Arts Foundation)
By Urban Cerjak (LINA)
Liva Dudareva (she/her) was trained as a landscape architect in Jelgava and Malmö, before moving to London to work as a researcher at CHORA. She then continued her studies in landscape architecture at the Edinburgh College of Art, before joining the award-winning landscape architecture firm Gross.Max, where she worked conceptualising, developing and managing projects world-wide. She then moved to Moscow to explore new ways of representation and urban research at the Strelka Institute. In 2014, she co-founded METASITU. liva(at)metasitu(dot)com
Eduardo Cassina (he/they) is an architect and urban sociologist trained in Glasgow, Porto, Amsterdam, Beijing, London, Cape Town, and southern Norway. He has worked as a researcher, and exhibition designer for the Guggenheim museums in Venice, and New York, as well as for the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi - now Het Nieuwe Instituut), Rotterdam. After completing his studies in urban research at Goldsmiths, he moved to Moscow to join the Strelka Institute, where he continued his exploration of representation of territories and their inhabitants. In 2014 he co-founded METASITU. eduardo(at)metasitu(dot)com
Lars Oschmann (he/him) was trained as an interior architect in Detmold. He approaches spaces as catalysts for social change. His practice interrogates the inclusivity of public spaces and institutions, reconfiguring them as empowering invitations to participate in collective, open-ended processes. He joined METASITU in 2024. lars(at)metasitu(dot)com
OTHER METASITUATIONISTS: Teta Tsybulnik, Dana Kosmina
EXHIBITIONS
2024 /// Copenhagen Architecture Festival #Copenhagen
2022 Get Real! /// Het Nieuwe Instituut #Rotterdam
2019 Degrowth Institute/ Institute Degrowth /// Mala Galeriya/ Arsenal Mystetskyi #Kyiv #text
2019 METASITU: FOUNDATION /// DAS ESSZIMMER raum fur kunst+ #Bonn
2019 Decommuni_ation /// Kunsthalle Hamburger Platz #Berlin
2018 Volumes /// Zürich Kunsthalle #Zürich
2018 The Spring Thing /// Arc/Migros Foundation #Romainmotier
2018 A Better Version of You /// Goethe Institut #Beijing
2018 METASITU about METASITU /// Barriera #Turin
2017 A Better Version of You /// Sonje Art Center #Seoul
2017 One Hundred Ideas for the Future City/// New Museum #New York
2017 Arc Spring Party /// Arc/Migros Foundation #Romainmotier
2017 Speisekino /// ZK/U #Berlin
2016 METASITU: Ecumenopolis - The Whole World is One City///tranzit.hu #Budapest
2016 31 Chapter///P21 gallery #London
2016 VDNHk: Urban Phenomenon///15th Venice Biennale (Russian Pavilion) #Venice
2015-2016 Architecture Ukraine///Izolyatsia #Kiev #Mariupol #Venice
2015 Then & Now///Schusev State Museum of Architecture #Moscow
2015 Interlaced Structures/// das weisse haus & Kunsthalle Wien Extended #Vienna
2014 VIDEOBARDO///V International Festival of Videopoetry #Buenos Aires #Mendoza
2014 Instants VideoPoesie///Instants Video Art #Marseille #Milan
2014 METASITU:The Urbanography Series///The Lighthouse #Glasgow
2014 Invisible Places Sounding Cities #Viseu
2014 ARTikulacija///Hermitage Gardens #Moscow
2014 URBAN ROUTINES///Strelka Institute #Moscow
2014 FACK MSUV///Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina #Novi Sad
2014 OFFICE NEXT///Gostiny Dvor #Moscow
2014 DO IT!///Garage Museum of Contemporary Art #Moscow
RESIDENCIES
2019 Alserkal Residency #Dubai
2018 Zarya Art Residency #Vladivostok
2018 Arc /// Migros Foundation #Romainmotier
2017 Tokyo Arts and Space(previously known as Tokyo Wonder Site) #Tokyo
2017 Trauma&Revival /// Bozar,Pistoletto Foundation, kim?, Bunkier Sztuki #Moscow #Biella #Krakow
2017 Ideas City /// Luma Foundation + New Museum #Arles
2017 Harlan Levey Projects/ Bloom Hotel #Brussels
2016 Arc /// Migros Foundation #Romainmotier
2016 Transfer North /// CCA + Pikenes po Broen #Kirkenes #Glasgow
2015 ASEF SU #Pune
2015 Architecture Ukraine /// IZOLYATSIA #Kiev #Mariupol
2015 Studio Das Weisse Haus #Vienna
2014-2015 DAAR /// Decolonising Architecture Artist Residency #Beit Sahour #Bethlehem
2014 Ideas Camp /// European Cultural Foundation #Marseille
2014 Temporary Art Platform-T.A.P. #Meziara
2013-2014 Strelka Institute for Media Architecture and Design #Moscow
PUBLICATIONS
2025 We Also Went to Raves, But We Do Not Talk About That in This Book. 11 Years of Experimental Urban Practice / Hyperhouse Publishing
2025 We are (on) an Island - research essay & presentation /// Mies van der Rohe Foundation #Barcelona
2015-2020 The Degrowth Manual / artist book / self-published
2018 14th District - Book and Article / artist book/ self-published
TEACHING&TALKING
2024 Where The Soft Things Are - zine workshop & talk /// Irish Architecture Foundation #Dublin
2024 Panel Hosts /// Tbilisi Architecture Biennale #Tbilisi
2020-2022 Design Studio /// INDA, Chulalongkorn University #Bangkok
2019 #objectify_ur_rsrch DEX /// INDA, Chulalongkorn University #Bangkok
2018 The DeGrowth Institute/// Zarya Art Center #Vladivostok
2017 Ecumenopolis: Future Urbanism and Video Art/// (summer and winter schools) Innes Institute/TU Wien #Vienna
2016 Workshop ‘Expedition To Ecumenopolis’///TUMO #Yerevan
2016 METASITU artist talk, Arsenal /Museum of Contemporary Art #Kiev
2016 Looking for Zerzura: Redefining Luxury in Dubai’s Palm, Benaki Museum of Islamic Art #Athens
2015 Education Program ‘Hybrid Urbanism’///Strelka Institute #Moscow
2015 Workshop ‘Expedition To Ecumenopolis’///CANactions #Kyiv
2015 Workshop ‘Expedition To Ecumenopolis’///Strelka Institute #Moscow
2015 Welcome To Ecumenopolis:the city today-EiABC (department of architecture),Addis Ababa University #Addis Ababa
2015 Re-designing Jeevanjee Square///UN Habitat, Placemakers,INTI #Nairobi
2014 Performing the Public Sphere///Beirut:Bodies in Public,American University in Beirut #Beirut
2014 Emerging Public Spaces///International Symposium of Electronic Art #Dubai
2014 Yantra///EASA 2014 #Veliko Tarnovo
2014 Performing Data///Zarya Centre of Contemporary Art #Vladivostok
CURATORIAL&EDITORIAL PROJECTS
2019 WE ARE NEVER ALONE residency project/// City Scanning Sessions Festival #Ivano Frankivsk
2019 AFTER <ITY /// Symposium by and for Shrinking Cities#Mariupol #DE
2019 EARTHBUILDING /// contribution to Publication. Ed. Ahmad Makia pub. Ashkal Alwan #Beirut
2018 Directors of the Urbanism Program /// 86 Festival of Film and Urbanism #Slavutych
2017 Chief Curators + Artistic Directors /// City Scanning Sessions Festival #Ivano Frankivsk
2017 14th District ///taf and Slavutych City Council #Athens #Slavutych
2017 Marcin Knyziak CTRL+T /// taf #Athens
2016 Margin of Error (Magnetic Declination) CTRL+T /// taf #Athens
2016 Driewieler Collectief CTRL+T /// taf #Athens
2016 ARHI.TEK & Privateprint CTRL+T /// taf #Athens
2016 Are we Moving? /// taf #Athens
2016 Letters to the Mayor:Athens /// Storefront for Art + Architecture + taf #Athens
2015 Elien Ronse CTRL+T /// taf #Athens
2015 Welcome to Ecumenopolis/// taf #Athens
WORKS
2019 we were building sand castles_but the wind blew them away_FINALFINAL3.psd #ruinfolly #degrowth #Dubai
2019 AFTER <ITY #consensusurbanism #degrowth #Donbas
2019 WE ARE NEVER ALONE - #results #zine #residency #Ivano Frankivsk
2019 TOWER FISH PIGEON #podcast #qtarticleabouttheproject #degrowth #Dubai
2019 FOUNDATION #video #exhibition #Bonn
2019 AFTER LENIN, AFTER CAPITAL #Berlin #Kyiv
2019 The Degrowth Manual #consensusurbanism #degrowth #Donbas #book #tarot
2018 14th District - Film #consensusurbanism #Slavutych #Athens
2018 TDCU 1ZZ #ecumenopolis #video #SouthAtlantic
2018 Urbanism Residency #residency #Slavutych
2017 The Degrowth Institute #consensusurbanism #degrowth #Donbas #lectureslides
2017 SWARM #consensusurbanism #teaser #Seoul #Beijing
2017 Blue House #extendeddomesticity #stay #Athens
2017 Objects for Expanded Living #extendeddomesticity #book #Tokyo
2017 14th District - Book #consensusurbanism #book
2016 14th District - Workshop #consensusurbanism #podcast #article #Slavutych #Athens
2016 States, Status, Statues, and Statutes #video #Moscow #Venice
2016 Tora Bora #ecumenopolis #trailer #BeitFajjar #Hebron
2015 #mariupol will not die #itistheworldthatwillend #consensusurbanism #degrowth #trailer #Mariupol
2015 Memento Loci #ecumenopolis #consensusurbanism #trailer #Vienna
2014 Vocabulary for Ecumenopolis #ecumenopolis #video #Vladivostok #Beirut #NoviSad #Madrid
2014 The Visit #ecumenopolis #trailer #Meziara
2014 Weekend Routines #video #Moscow
2014 Stop Over City #ecumenopolis #trailer #Moscow
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✉️future(at)metasitu(dot)com
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