BIG CAR SHORT DICK

Big Car Short Dick is a type of urban activism which reacts to the invasion of Suvs on the road “in order to sensitize individuals about pollution, promote sustainable mobility and spread an essential way of living.”

One only needs to choose a sticker, find a Suv, take a quick look around, and attach the sticker to the Suv. This is a simple action, which could appear irreverent and vulgar - but the Suvs are even more so.

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GUERRILLA GARDENING

Guerrilla gardening is a movement in which activists occupy a piece of abandoned land in order to cultivate plants and flowers in it. This movement “is fueled by the desire and necessity to bring back life to the degraded zones of metropolises which have been overlooked during times of momentary interest and left in a state of abandonment”*. This project, born in a small part of Manhattan called Loisaida in the 1970’s involved the appropriation of private a run-down plot of land and its transformation into a public garden by a group of artists and other people from the city. Thirty-five years later, the space has remained a garden maintained by its citizens and is protected by the Park Department of the city. Over time hundreds of other common gardens have been added and still today new gardens and parks are sprouting up all over the world. The gardeners cultivate and overlook the occupied green spaces autonomously. They not only cultivate the gardens but also organize initiatives which involve the participation of other districts and elementary schools, therefore giving Guerilla Gardening an important social and cultural role.

*Michela Pasquali, I giardini di Manhattan. Storie di guerrilla gardens, Bollati

BIG JUMP

A symbolic dive into rivers and lakes organized contemporarily all over Europe in order to sensitize the public opinion about the quality of water and to recover the capacity to swim in waterways. The Big Jump, which is a European campaign made by the European Rivers Network (ERN) and used specifically in large cities, invites citizens to take control of their rivers once again by simply going for a swim. This was a common and natural activity up until 30 years ago, but today, with highly polluted waterways, it has generated screams of dismay and protest. These protests are directed mainly towards local administrations who are invited to consider rivers not only as empty urban spaces, but as a precious natural resource. They are also invited to get involved in water purification programs which would allow citizens to swim in them once again.

The next collective dive is foreseen for July 12, 2009.

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PARK(ING) DAY

Parking day, an event which had its epicenter in San Francisco, took place on September 19, 2008. Here artists and people from all over the world occupied and transformed a parking space or a momentarily free parking lot into a small public park with plenty of grass, small trees and benches in order to give pedestrians and cyclists a space to relax in. The parking spaces were paid for, and the tickets were shown to law officials as evidence upon request. Once they expired, the activists quickly disassembled the parking spaces and transported the various parts of the “mobile flower beds” using carts pulled by bicycles toward other free parking spaces.

The activity of Park(ing) was invented in 2005 by REBAR, a group of creative individuals, designers and activists who operate in San Francisco and still today have the rights to the creative license.

This is a gesture of protest towards the urban mobility of large cities in which motorized means reign. It compels the officials who sacrifice green spaces and public spaces for parking lots and highways to change the planning of the city.

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