Urban conference
TENDER CITY
October 1-2
If cities are patriarchy set in stone, glass, brick, and concrete, then what will it take to destroy their sexist nature?
The Tender City: Bishkek conference aims to foster collaboration between activists, researchers, architectural and urban planning professionals, journalists, and artists in the postsocialist cities who are interested in promoting an alternative vision for urban development and governance that is caring and sensitive to gender and other social inequalities.
We will explore issues such as safety in public and private spaces, sexist and ableist urban material fabric, privatization of public services, and the exploitation of urban nature. The participants will develop a framework for "caring" urban politics, which we call "tender urbanism”.
The Tender City: Bishkek conference aims to foster collaboration between activists, researchers, architectural and urban planning professionals, journalists, and artists in the postsocialist cities who are interested in promoting an alternative vision for urban development and governance that is caring and sensitive to gender and other social inequalities.
We will explore issues such as safety in public and private spaces, sexist and ableist urban material fabric, privatization of public services, and the exploitation of urban nature. The participants will develop a framework for "caring" urban politics, which we call "tender urbanism”.
If cities are patriarchy set in stone, glass, brick, and concrete, then what will it take to destroy their sexist nature?
The Tender City: Bishkek conference aims to foster collaboration between activists, researchers, architectural and urban planning professionals, journalists, and artists in the postsocialist cities who are interested in promoting an alternative vision for urban development and governance that is caring and sensitive to gender and other social inequalities.
We will explore issues such as safety in public and private spaces, sexist and ableist urban material fabric, privatization of public services, and the exploitation of urban nature. The participants will develop a framework for a "caring" urban politics, which we call "tender urbanism”.
The Tender City: Bishkek conference aims to foster collaboration between activists, researchers, architectural and urban planning professionals, journalists, and artists in the postsocialist cities who are interested in promoting an alternative vision for urban development and governance that is caring and sensitive to gender and other social inequalities.
We will explore issues such as safety in public and private spaces, sexist and ableist urban material fabric, privatization of public services, and the exploitation of urban nature. The participants will develop a framework for a "caring" urban politics, which we call "tender urbanism”.
Preliminary program
September 28-29
September 28-29
- September 28, 15:00 - 19:00: Collective collage session: "My, your, our Tender City".
Where: Synergy Studio, microdistrict 12, 20/2
Collective collage session at the "Synergy" exhibition "Pictures from Life" on the theme "Tender City" with the participants of the conference.
For a collective collage session we invite all participants to reflect on the theme of the city, the urban environment, ecology and the sense of self in the space of the city.
We will perceive the materials for the session as the fabric of the city, which we ask you to reassemble with good feelings, warmth and love. In the Synergy creative workshop we are constantly experimenting, trying and exploring new forms and mediums in art, one of which has collectively sunk into our hearts, that is collage. Collage is an entertaining and interesting experience that we find very therapeutic and resourceful, an attempt to create and tell your story from pieces of magazines, postcards, colored paper, glue and scissors, to assemble, to mount those materials or fragments that existed on their own, at some time carrying their message.
The session will be led by Adel Ismailkhanova, “Synergy” Creative Workshop participant, collage artist, DJ
- September 29: Walk "Memory and Art in the City through the Creativity and Images of Women" as part of the exhibition of contemporary art "Pictures from Life".
16:30 - 17:45 — G. Aitiev National Museum of Fine Arts: a walk through the main exhibition of the museum with a focus on the works of female artists of Soviet Kyrgyzstan (painting, sculpture and information about medium graphic artists).
17:45 - 19:45 — Walk in the city center with a focus on monuments and places with stories/images of women (5 points).
19:45 - 20:30 — Tea conversation on the basis of a guided tour about the politics of memory, the creation/manifestation of its history, and the politics of representation (in the space of the contemporary art exhibition "Pictures from Life").
The tour is led by Diana Uhina, “Synergy” Creative Workshop participants (researcher, curator, artist) and Alima Tokmergenova (researcher, artist).
Preliminary program
September 28-29
September 28-29
- September 28, 15:00 - 19:00: Collective collage session: "My, your, our Tender City".
Collective collage session at the Synergy exhibition "Pictures from Life" on the theme "Tender City" with the participants of the conference.
For a collective collage session we invite all participants to reflect on the theme of the city, the urban environment, ecology and the sense of self in the space of the city.
We will perceive the materials for the session as the fabric of the city, which we ask you to reassemble with good feelings, warmth and love. In the Synergy creative workshop we are constantly experimenting, trying and exploring new forms and mediums in art, one of which has collectively sunk into our hearts, that is collage. Collage is an entertaining and interesting experience that we find very therapeutic and resourceful, an attempt to create and tell your story from pieces of magazines, postcards, colored paper, glue and scissors, to assemble, to mount those materials or fragments that existed on their own, at some time carrying their message.
The session will be led by Adel Ismailkhanova, “Synergy” Creative Workshop participant, collage artist, DJ
- September 29: Walk "Memory and Art in the City through the Creativity and Images of Women" as part of the exhibition of contemporary art "Pictures from Life".
16:30 - 17:45 — G. Aitiev National Museum of Fine Arts: a walk through the main exhibition of the museum with a focus on the works of female artists of Soviet Kyrgyzstan (painting, sculpture and information about medium graphic artists).
17:45 - 19:45 — Walk in the city center with a focus on monuments and places with stories/images of women (5 points).
19:45 - 20:30 — Tea conversation on the basis of a guided tour about the politics of memory, the creation/manifestation of its history, and the politics of representation (in the space of the contemporary art exhibition "Pictures from Life").
The tour is led by Diana Uhina, “Synergy” Creative Workshop participants (researcher, curator, artist) and Alima Tokmergenova (researcher, artist).
Main program of the conference. Day 1.
October 1: Patriarchy in Stone and Concrete
October 1: Patriarchy in Stone and Concrete
Main program of the conference
Day 1
October 1: Patriarchy in Stone and Concrete
Day 1
October 1: Patriarchy in Stone and Concrete
10:30 - 11:00
Registration
11:00 - 11:15
Opening
TENDER CITY: ATTUNEMENT
11:15 - 12:15
Lecture: "Tender City: time to make the city feminist!"
How are urban space and patriarchy connected? In this introductory lecture, we will examine how urban space shapes gendered power relations and vice versa. While the idea that crosswalks and bus stops are sexist may seem absurd, this lecture will show who and what makes them so. The main purpose of this lecture will be to describe an alternative approach to urban politics based on the feminist concept of caring. It's time to build a gentle and caring city!
Lecturer: Nastya Golovneva (Halauniova)
Lecturer: Nastya Golovneva (Halauniova)
POLITICS AND PRACTICES OF THE FEMINIST CITY
12:15 - 13:00
Lecture: "Fair Shared Cities: The Vienna Approach to Gender-Based Urban Planning"
The lecture will introduce the concept of gendered urban planning, Gender Plus concept, and an urban planning tool the "fairness check".Using examples from pilot projects, the lecture will address the preconditions, potentials and challenges of a consequent rollout from a feminist perspective and the perspective of an institutionalised women policy.
Lecturer: Eva Kyle
13:00 - 14:00
Conversation: "Women Politicians and their politics"
The Peshcom Civic Initiative deals with urban mobility and public spaces in Bishkek, and works with decision-makers in municipal bodies. "In all my work I have never had to deal with women, because all the key positions are held by men," says Rada Valentina kyzy, founder of the "Peshcom"
At the panel discussion, we will talk with invited guests about why women's representation in city and ayil keneshs, the cabinet, mayor's office and parliament, is important. We will discuss how to challenge the established approach where cities are planned from the perspective of men, and how to do this in the context of gender inequality in a country that has never had a single female mayor in its history of independence.
Curator: Rada Valentina kyzy
At the panel discussion, we will talk with invited guests about why women's representation in city and ayil keneshs, the cabinet, mayor's office and parliament, is important. We will discuss how to challenge the established approach where cities are planned from the perspective of men, and how to do this in the context of gender inequality in a country that has never had a single female mayor in its history of independence.
Curator: Rada Valentina kyzy
14:00 - 15:00
Lunch
GEOGRAPHY OF FEAR
15:00 - 15:45
Lecture: "Gender and Safety in the City"
In this lecture we will look at the gendered aspect of safety in urban space and approaches within feminist urbanism. We will analyze how it came to be that women and queer people feel unsafe in the city, what social relations and historical conditions shape these feelings of fear, discomfort and insecurity. We will also look at the experience of urban planning and design on dealing with the problems of fear of city dwellers in different countries, examples of grassroots activism and everyday strategies that also work with this theme.
Lecturer: Nastya Krasilnikova
Lecturer: Nastya Krasilnikova
15:45 - 16:30
Lecture: "Feminist Urban Design”
Cities are one of humanity's most important inventions, and we should design them for the most vulnerable people who use them, rather than for the privileged. By making the city safer for women and girls, we ensure their full participation in social, economic, cultural, and political life as equal citizens. So how should we design feminist spaces in cities?
Lecturer: Constanța Dohotaru
Lecturer: Constanța Dohotaru
16:30 - 17:30 Parallel walks
- Walk: "Urban Weave: Make, Feel, Change"
Knitting is a feminine practice tightly associated with home and the inner circle. Today, however, yarn-bombing or street knitting is a powerful public statement about women's right to the city. Knitwear can be changed by unraveling the yarns and coming up with a new pattern, leaving it up to the knitter to determine the extent to which the change is radical.This is exactly what we will try to do in the group walk. Its task is to identify what everyday practices and emotions are intertwined to form individual places in Bishkek, and how they can be changed by creating a new pattern from already existing practices and sensations.
Bringing together local and foreign participants in groups, their joint walk and subsequent analysis will allow them to feel what the citizens experience in their movements around the city and in their daily activities, and in what ways they try to compensate for the imperfections of the urban environment, their feelings of discomfort and insecurity. The result of the walk will be suggestions for supporting existing practices and drafts for desirable urban improvements.
Curated by: Oksana Zaporozhets
Bringing together local and foreign participants in groups, their joint walk and subsequent analysis will allow them to feel what the citizens experience in their movements around the city and in their daily activities, and in what ways they try to compensate for the imperfections of the urban environment, their feelings of discomfort and insecurity. The result of the walk will be suggestions for supporting existing practices and drafts for desirable urban improvements.
Curated by: Oksana Zaporozhets
- "A Walk through Gender Landscapes"
Our walk through the familiar and beloved places of the city is a way to bring to life the theory that has been articulated in lectures before. We will look through a feminist lens and discuss whether the places we study respond to gender equality.
With a checklist we will try to capture those decisions that provoke inequality. The aim is also to highlight the gendered power structures in environmental design and to show how imperceptibly the city affects our possibilities.
Curated by: Anel Moldakhmetova
With a checklist we will try to capture those decisions that provoke inequality. The aim is also to highlight the gendered power structures in environmental design and to show how imperceptibly the city affects our possibilities.
Curated by: Anel Moldakhmetova
17:30 - 18:00
Coffee break
18:00 - 18:30
Discussing results of the walks
18:30 - 20:00
"It Was Forever Until it was no more": Presentations from Post-Socialist Cities and Grassroots Initiatives
In this session, we will have short presentations from collegiate women from 9 cities. These cities are situated in different countries but they have something in common - they have been socialist cities for a long time and were developing according to the rules of the socialist city. As a result, they inherited the material forms and processes associated with the socialist concept of urban development, which today is often criticized. One might hear: "Oh, what a pity that we inherited such garbage instead of a normal city: micro-districts, grey houses, dirty entrances, a modest-sized road network, large-scale transport interchanges, and so on".
This session will reflect on what we have inherited from the socialist city, what social and political processes are key in these cities today, and most importantly, what feminist ideas and projects we can find there. So can post-socialist cities become feminist?
This session will reflect on what we have inherited from the socialist city, what social and political processes are key in these cities today, and most importantly, what feminist ideas and projects we can find there. So can post-socialist cities become feminist?
Additional program on October 1
20:00 - 21:00
20:00 - 21:00
In winter, the air quality in Bishkek can be hazardous to health. Coal-fired power plants and furnaces, as well as suffocating traffic jams of vans and cars, all contribute to toxic smog. Unregulated high-rise construction and tree felling hinder the free circulation of fresh air in the city center.
#BishkekSmog is a reflection on the statecraft and other political processes in the region, where poverty and corruption turn into an ecological disaster. What are the causes of smog? The eternal dispute - who pollutes the air more? CHPs, cars, new buildings, development - these are specific polluters, but while governmental agencies shift responsibility to each other, people breathe hazardous air, putting themselves and their children at risk. Air and water pollution caused by rapid growth and unregulated mining also threaten public health.
But a new generation of young civic activists say it's time to clean up the city and fight for a better future. Iskender Aliyev and Bermet Borubaeva have joined forces to create a documentary-research film about Bishkek's smog. The film shows smog as a complex issue. They look at it from different angles, meeting and talking with experts, doctors, activists, and residents of the city.
#BishkekSmog is a reflection on the statecraft and other political processes in the region, where poverty and corruption turn into an ecological disaster. What are the causes of smog? The eternal dispute - who pollutes the air more? CHPs, cars, new buildings, development - these are specific polluters, but while governmental agencies shift responsibility to each other, people breathe hazardous air, putting themselves and their children at risk. Air and water pollution caused by rapid growth and unregulated mining also threaten public health.
But a new generation of young civic activists say it's time to clean up the city and fight for a better future. Iskender Aliyev and Bermet Borubaeva have joined forces to create a documentary-research film about Bishkek's smog. The film shows smog as a complex issue. They look at it from different angles, meeting and talking with experts, doctors, activists, and residents of the city.
In winter, the air quality in Bishkek can be hazardous to health. Coal-fired power plants and furnaces, as well as suffocating traffic jams of vans and cars, all contribute to toxic smog. Unregulated high-rise construction and tree felling hinder the free circulation of fresh air in the city center.
#BishkekSmog is a reflection on the statecraft and other political processes in the region, where poverty and corruption turn into an ecological disaster. What are the causes of smog? The eternal dispute - who pollutes the air more? CHPs, cars, new buildings, development - these are specific polluters, but while governmental agencies shift responsibility to each other, people breathe hazardous air, putting themselves and their children at risk. Air and water pollution caused by rapid growth and unregulated mining also threaten public health.
But a new generation of young civic activists say it's time to clean up the city and fight for a better future. Iskender Aliyev and Bermet Borubaeva have joined forces to create a documentary-research film about Bishkek's smog. The film shows smog as a complex issue. They look at it from different angles, meeting and talking with experts, doctors, activists, and residents of the city.
#BishkekSmog is a reflection on the statecraft and other political processes in the region, where poverty and corruption turn into an ecological disaster. What are the causes of smog? The eternal dispute - who pollutes the air more? CHPs, cars, new buildings, development - these are specific polluters, but while governmental agencies shift responsibility to each other, people breathe hazardous air, putting themselves and their children at risk. Air and water pollution caused by rapid growth and unregulated mining also threaten public health.
But a new generation of young civic activists say it's time to clean up the city and fight for a better future. Iskender Aliyev and Bermet Borubaeva have joined forces to create a documentary-research film about Bishkek's smog. The film shows smog as a complex issue. They look at it from different angles, meeting and talking with experts, doctors, activists, and residents of the city.
Main program of the conference. Day 2
October 2: Geometries of Power
October 2: Geometries of Power
Main program of the conference.
Day 2
October 2: Geometries of Power
Day 2
October 2: Geometries of Power
10:30 - 11:00
Registration
11:00 - 11:50
Lecture: "Magnanimity as Strategy"
In today's world, the relationship between man, nature and the city inherits a patriarchal and colonial model, involving capture, possession, asymmetries of power and exploitation, tensions between center and periphery, militarism, and the mediation of repressive institutions. In the patriarchal city, parasitic on nature understood as a resource, militarism is present as a potentiality, as its structural element. Feminism can form the basis for a different paradigm in which the remodeling of space will take place in accordance with giving на gift.
Lecturer: Oksana Timofeeva
Lecturer: Oksana Timofeeva
A TENDER CITY IN THE POSTCOLONIAL ERA
12:00 - 12:40
Lecture: "Who 'produces' labor migrants? The City, Social Reproduction, Migration, and Care in Times of Collapse"
If workers (migrants) produce services and goods, who "produces" workers (migrants)? To answer this question, we must look at the underside of the capitalist economy and the invisible everyday activities that reproduce life. Usually we tend to think of work as something to do with paid activity. In this lecture, we discuss recent debates in social reproduction theory and feminist political economy to move away from an understanding of work as related only to wages and employment. We will discuss the connections between social reproduction and coloniality, looking at examples of Central Asian migrant workers in Russia and Ukrainian migrants in Poland.
Lecturer: Daria Krivonos
Lecturer: Daria Krivonos
12:45 - 14:00
Panel Discussion: "Towards a Trans-Socialist City: Imagining Decolonial, Depatriarchalised Urban Future"
Did socialism - and the socialist city - really "collapse" in 1989-1991? Or do socialist cities (and the spaces they produced) in fact temporally transcend the collapse of socialist regimes? How is war, patriarchy, (sexual) violence, urbicide, genocide and displacement implicated in the collapse of the socialist city and its infrastructures? And what is the relationship between post-socialist (or still-socialist, or zombie socialist, or trans-socialist) cities and architectures and post-patriarchal and post-colonial (and de-colonial) ones? Between de-colonisation, de-communisation, de-sovietisation, de-masculinisation and de-russification? What kinds of (radically different, decolonial) socialist futures might be exhumed, de-frosted or sublimated from these traumatic pasts and tragic presents? This workshop brings together scholars, artists, activists, architects and others from Bishkek (and beyond) to discuss concrete ways in which patriarchy, coloniality and various modalities of violence, hierarchy, hatred and fear are written into the (post-)socialist city; and to envision and strategise how they can be perverted, resisted, ridiculed and undone.
A short presentation by Michał Murawski - focusing on Warsaw, Moscow, Yoshkar Ola, Grozny and Kyiv - will be followed by interventions from workshop participants zooming-in on concrete examples of urban patriarchy and urban violence from Bishkek. Participants will be invited to present their own thoughts spontaneously during the workshop; or to come prepared with short presentations referring to how patriarchy, coloniality - and their actually-existing or possible negations - are embodied in the plazas, parks, palaces, monuments, mosaics, and other mundane and magnificent urban fragments of the city.
Moderator: Michal Murawski
A short presentation by Michał Murawski - focusing on Warsaw, Moscow, Yoshkar Ola, Grozny and Kyiv - will be followed by interventions from workshop participants zooming-in on concrete examples of urban patriarchy and urban violence from Bishkek. Participants will be invited to present their own thoughts spontaneously during the workshop; or to come prepared with short presentations referring to how patriarchy, coloniality - and their actually-existing or possible negations - are embodied in the plazas, parks, palaces, monuments, mosaics, and other mundane and magnificent urban fragments of the city.
Moderator: Michal Murawski
14:00 - 15:00
Lunch
JUST CITY: RESEARCH
15:00 - 16:40
Research results presentations:
"Urban justice beyond the Just city"
The topic of spatial/urban justice is gaining popularity both in the academic debate around the Just city concept and in the practice of urban planners. However, how do those for whom architects redesign cities understand justice? Based on the research conducted in Bishkek, Liuba will talk about how citizens understand justice and compare these ideas with the "western" concept of the "just city" and the issues raised by spatial justice researchers.
Presenter: Liuba Chernysheva
Presenter: Liuba Chernysheva
"Beyond the Fringe: How Women Live in New Housing Estates"
Why do women in new buildings in Bishkek have additional burdens and insecurities in the already unfair conditions? This is a research paper on the living conditions of women in new buildings, their safety and labor. There will be an exhibition of drawings and photographs as a way to reflect on the theme of the city, its shortcomings and livability.
Presented by: FemSoc
Presented by: FemSoc
"From Kirpaks to Metropolis. Transformations of Independence: Almaty through the Eyes of Women Urbanites"
A visual exploration of a small neighborhood in Almaty and its transformation over the past 20 years, with an attempt to look at these changes through the eyes of different groups of women urbanites and city residents.
Presenter: Zoya Falkova, artist, architect
Presenter: Zoya Falkova, artist, architect
"Femactivism in Bishkek. Who, what and how?"
The feminist movement in Bishkek is one of the most active in the region. This part will include information about urban femactivism and feminists who are making a great contribution to the fight against the existing status quo.
Presenter: Nurzada Sadyrbekova, femactivist and researcher / Bishkek Feminist Initiatives.
Presenter: Nurzada Sadyrbekova, femactivist and researcher / Bishkek Feminist Initiatives.
"Heavy Lungs"
Presentation of the study on air pollution in Bishkek by districts of the capital. Who suffers most from smog and why? In which areas the air in the capital of Kyrgyzstan is the most polluted, and how does this relate to the idea of the just city for all?
Presenter: Inna Brusenskaya
Presenter: Inna Brusenskaya
16:40 - 17:00
Discussion of Presentations
PARALLEL KRUZHOKS (WORKSHOPS): "THE TENDER CITY WITH YOUR OWN HANDS"
17:15 - 18:30
Writing kruzhok for women and non-binary people: "My Ideal City"
It's not hard to imagine an ideal city — think of fantasy movies and books, where cars fly, skyscrapers shine, everything moves and works according to some perfect script. But more often than not, the authors of these books and movies are men, and the algorithms that make such a city work only consider their needs. A writing workshop for women and non-binary people will help you, on a new, more sensual level, to imagine another, your ideal city that takes care of you and your family and friends.
Curated by: Elmira Kakabaeva
Curated by: Elmira Kakabaeva
Reflection on the collage "Tender City" created as part of the exhibition of the Synergy creative studio
18:30 - 19:00
Coffee break
19:00 - 20:00
“Tender City” Manifesto
The final event of the official part of the conference is the collective creation of a manifesto. For two days we explored and discussed how urban space shapes gender relations of power and vice versa. We saw and came up with our own alternative approaches to urban politics based on the feminist concept of care. It's time to leave a message for the future, describing in our manifesto how to build a gentle and caring city!
The long program
22:00
22:00
Synergy Showcase
Synergy residents and guest DJs will create the atmosphere for the evening that concludes the tender City conference. In the atmosphere of sounds, dancing and informal socializing, all the participants will get to know each other more and at the same time say goodbye to each other, given they return to their cities in the following days.
Synergy is a Bishkek-based experimental techno-rave venue that prioritizes people with female socialization and voice amplification through deejaying, which has been in existence since March 8, 2021.
Synergy is a Bishkek-based experimental techno-rave venue that prioritizes people with female socialization and voice amplification through deejaying, which has been in existence since March 8, 2021.
Synergy Showcase
Synergy residents and guest DJs will create the atmosphere for the evening that concludes the tender City conference. In the atmosphere of sounds, dancing and informal socializing, all the participants will get to know each other more and at the same time say goodbye to each other, given they return to their cities in the following days.
Synergy is a Bishkek-based experimental techno-rave venue that prioritizes people with female socialization and voice amplification through deejaying, which has been in existence since March 8, 2021.
Synergy is a Bishkek-based experimental techno-rave venue that prioritizes people with female socialization and voice amplification through deejaying, which has been in existence since March 8, 2021.
Registration for the conference!
The conference will be held in a hybrid format: for those who can not come to Bishkek, we will launch an online broadcast of all presentations and kruzhoks. So when registering, please note whether you will be attending in person or online.
Registration for the conference!
The conference will be held in a hybrid format: for those who can not come to Bishkek, we will launch an online broadcast of all presentations and workshops. So when registering, please note whether you will be attending in person or online.
Conference Speakers:
Bermet Borubaeva
artist, researcher, member of KyrgyzSocial and co-founder of the Bishkek School of Contemporary Art. Participated in many regional international art events, co-organized the TRASH environmental festival, has a number of publications on urban ecology, art, food production and urban research.
Inna Brusenskaya
PhD in Geography, Associate Professor at the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University in Kyrgyzstan, expert on air quality (NGO "MoveGreen")
Liuba Chernysheva
Urban sociologist, PhD, works at the University of Amsterdam, is a member of the «Tender urbanism» collective and co-organiser of this conference. Liuba studies mass housing, neighborly relations, urban space contestation, and urban commons. She teaches courses in urban sociology, conducts applied research within participatory design projects, edits translations of books on urban studies, and creates art projects based on research results.
Constanța Dohotaru
is a Moldova based feminist and urbanist, running a vlog on communities and cities, Omul face locul, a woman's perspective in patriarchal and post-socialist context. Constanța is the program coordinator of the Community Center 151, a safe space for local and refugee women in Chisinau, implemented by the NGO Laolaltă for the initiative Moldova for Peace, with support from UNHCR. She is a board member of Genderdoc-M and Platzforma and a member of Gender Equality Platform in Moldova.
Zoya Falkova
artist, architect.
Nastya Golovneva (Halauniova)
is a feminist and urban researcher based in Amsterdam, member of the «Tender urbanism» collective and co-organiser of this conference. Her research focuses on the social aspects of architecture and urban infrastructures. She teaches feminist urban methods and urban sociology. She also makes activist actions at the intersection of artistic practices and feminism.
Janybek kyzy Aizharkyn
activist, member of the KyrgSoc and the co-leader of the FemSoc women's wing.
Elmira Kakabaeva
is a writer, social anthropologist and journalist. After ten years working in advertising in Kazakhstan, began working on educational projects at the Strelka Institute, the Rybakov Foundation, and the Moscow Urban Forum. She was published in the short story collections "Without Permission" and "A Little Book of Stories about Female Sexuality" (No Kidding Press) and in Appolinarium (Kazakhstan) and Mumbermag (USA) magazines. She wrote texts for Taus Makhacheva's installation Seismic Jitters (Lahore Biennale, Pakistan).
Nastya Krasilnikova
feminist researcher, co-founder of the feminist educational project FEM TALKS, and the author of fem walks in Moscow.
Daria Krivonos
is a feminist and sociologist based in Helsinki, Finland. Her research concerns migration, social reproduction, feminist political economy, racism, and labor. She writes popular texts for blogs and contributes to podcasts on labor and migration.
Eva Kyle
is an urban planner based in Vienna, Austria. She has popularized gender mainstreaming in urban design and has developed over 60 projects related to gender equality in housing, transportation, planning and urban design. Her work is widely cited and broadcast around the world.
Olga Mnishko
is an activist and producer of participatory and cultural projects, member of the «Tender urbanism» collective and co-organiser of this conference. Last 10 years she has worked with urban research, educational and cultural events like art interventions in public spaces, tactical urbanism, etc.
Anel Moldakhmetova
researches architecture and the urban environment, advises projects aimed at developing local communities, and develops participatory design.
Director of the Almaty Management University Urban Center, strategic communications specialist, co-founder of the Urban Talks discussion platform, participated in the creation of the Almaty Urban Center, the Alliance of cyclists and pedestrians. Graduate of the Institute of Media, Architecture and Design Strelka, resident of the Creative Producers International program (UK), participant of the Playable Cities project, co-founder of the CITYZEN space bureau.
Director of the Almaty Management University Urban Center, strategic communications specialist, co-founder of the Urban Talks discussion platform, participated in the creation of the Almaty Urban Center, the Alliance of cyclists and pedestrians. Graduate of the Institute of Media, Architecture and Design Strelka, resident of the Creative Producers International program (UK), participant of the Playable Cities project, co-founder of the CITYZEN space bureau.
Michal Murawski
is an anthropologist of architecture and cities. He is Associate Professor of Critical Area Studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London. His first book, The Palace Complex: A Stalinist Skyscraper, Capitalist Warsaw and a City Transfixed was published by Indiana University Press in 2019; and he is currently working on completing his second book, a critical study of politics and architecture in post-Soviet Russia. He is Director of the UCL SSEES FRINGE Centre for the Study of Social and Cultural Complexity; and convenor of PPV (Perverting the Power Vertical: Politics and Aesthetics in the Global East), a seminar and events platform based at UCL.
Rada Valentina kyzy
urban activist and researcher, expert and trainer on urban interventions, founder of the media-activist initiative Peshcom, resident of Urban Hub Bishkek. Rada explores the city and its inhabitants through classic research and experimentation in urban spaces. She Promotes the right to the city through informational and educational events of different formats among citizens and employees of the municipality. She lobbies the interests of different groups of citizens in the mayor's office and the Bishkek city council.
Nurzada Sadyrbekova
femactivist and researcher from the Bishkek Feminist Initiatives.
Prostorož collective
Prostorož is a non-profit urban design studio that connects people with public space. The practice aims to address the environmental and social challenges faced by cities in Slovenia and abroad. Prostorož was formed in 2004 out of a desire to explore and understand open public space. Today, the team consists of architects, social scientists and technical assistants, who approach the social and environmental challenges of urban space in an interdisciplinary manner.
Zala Velkavrh is project and communications manager at Prostorož since 2012.
Zala Velkavrh is project and communications manager at Prostorož since 2012.
Oksana Timofeeva
Doctor of Philosophy, professor at the Stasis Center for Practical Philosophy at the European University in St. Petersburg, member of the What Is to Be Done group, author of This Is Not It (Ivan Limbach Publishers), Solar Politics (Polity Press, 2022), Homeland (M. : Sigma, 2020, How to Love a Homeland, Kayfa ta, 2020), History of Animals (Maastricht: Jan van Eyck, 2012; Bloomsbury, 2018), Animal History (M.: UFO, 2017), Introduction to J. Bataille's Erotic Philosophy (M.: UFO, 2009).
Anna Vasilenko (Vasilenka)
Urbanist, urban researcher and member of the Minsk Urban Platform team
Oksana Zaporozhets
is a researcher at the Institute for European Urban Studies, Bauhaus University Weimar. She studies Russian and German cities, focusing on the contemporary stage of urbanization and resident mobility, the digitalization of the city, and urban imagery, including graffiti and street art.These themes are united by her interest in city dwellers, who are seen as creators and transformers of urban life. Oksana is the co-editor of the books "Microurbanism. The City in Detail" (2014) and "Networks of the City. People. Technology. Powers" (2021), lecturer of courses in social theory and urban studies at the European Humanities University (Vilnius) and until March 2022 at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow).
Inga Hajdarowicz
sociologist and Ph.D. candidate at the Jagiellonian University. In her research, she explores the topics of participatory democracy, grassroots initiatives, and feminist movements. Between 2012 and 2016, she studied and implemented participatory tools aimed at increasing the influence of residents on decision-making processes in the city and the inclusion of previously excluded groups in the co-creation of the city. Since 2015, she has been using similar methods in organizing with refugees. She is currently completing her Ph.D. thesis on grassroots strategies to support refugee women on the example of activities of Syrian feminist initiatives in Lebanon.
Where will the conference be held?
The Tender City conference will be held Oct. 1-2 at the Technical School of Innovation (TSI) at the American University of Central Asia (AUCA).
The college opened in the renovated building of the former Kyrgyz National Agrarian University canteen in 2019. Schoolchildren after 9th grade can receive the equivalent of a university education there.
The college has several differences - inclusive environment, which appeared there after the reconstruction of the building - installed ramps and elevators, as well as energy-efficient insulation and the use of solar energy for the college.
Address: 161a Mederova Street
The college opened in the renovated building of the former Kyrgyz National Agrarian University canteen in 2019. Schoolchildren after 9th grade can receive the equivalent of a university education there.
The college has several differences - inclusive environment, which appeared there after the reconstruction of the building - installed ramps and elevators, as well as energy-efficient insulation and the use of solar energy for the college.
Address: 161a Mederova Street
Where will the conference be held?
The Tender City conference will be held Oct. 1-2 at the Technical School of Innovation (TSI) at the American University of Central Asia (AUCA).
The college opened in the renovated building of the former Kyrgyz National Agrarian University canteen in 2019. Schoolchildren after 9th grade can receive the equivalent of a university education there.
The college has several differences - inclusive environment, which appeared there after the reconstruction of the building - installed ramps and elevators, as well as energy-efficient insulation and the use of solar energy for the college.
Address: 161a Mederova Street
The college opened in the renovated building of the former Kyrgyz National Agrarian University canteen in 2019. Schoolchildren after 9th grade can receive the equivalent of a university education there.
The college has several differences - inclusive environment, which appeared there after the reconstruction of the building - installed ramps and elevators, as well as energy-efficient insulation and the use of solar energy for the college.
Address: 161a Mederova Street
About us:
Tender Urbanism
Tender Urbanism is a collective that explores how to awaken tenderness in the city. Nastya Halauniova, Olya Mnishko, and Liuba Chernysheva explore everyday urban life through texts, events, and art projects, create a podcast, teach urban sociology, and build networks of like-minded people in post-socialist cities. Tender Urbanism seeks to make everyday urban care visible, exploring how to make our urban life fair, egalitarian, accessible, and non-sexist.
If you want to be a part of our collective, write to us here.
Peshcom Media Activist Initiative
Peshcom is a civic initiative. We are fighting for the development of the pedestrian environment in Bishkek, cycling infrastructure and public transport. We want Bishkek to become an inclusive city, which takes the needs of all people without exception into account. We want the capital to have more comfortable, accessible and safe public spaces. We want to live in an environmentally friendly and socially just city.
We promote the right to the city - we implement urban interventions, create media content on urban themes, conduct research, interact with the state and city agencies.
About us:
Tender Urbanism
Tender Urbanism is a collective of Liuba Chernysheva, Nastya Golovneva, and Olya Mnishko who explores how to evoke tenderness in the city.
Year after year, the city has grown stale because it has been treated in a user-driven way. It has become an instrument for profit accumulation. Out of desperation, the city strikes back: blowing up houses, breaking down trees, and making people lonely. It is afraid of appearing stupid and ineffective. It is constantly reminded of its unpleasant past.
We want to understand how and why the city became this way. At what point did tourists and entrepreneurs become the people for whom cities exist. Why does the city need so many fences? Why do traffic lights have to be red,yellow, or green? And why do we build cities for people and not for pigeons? We want a city where things break - and that's okay, because residents know how to fix them. We want a city in which dirty isn't gross, and females aren't dirty. We want a city where everyone can easily breathe, not just businessmen on the fortieth floor with air conditioning. We want a city that accepts us with all our peculiarities and a city that we accept too. We want to know the city better. We want to share with the city. We want a city that knows how to keep our secrets.
Peshcom Media Activist Initiative
Peshcom is a civic initiative. We are fighting for the development of the pedestrian environment in Bishkek, cycling infrastructure and public transport. We want Bishkek to become an inclusive city, which takes the needs of all people without exception into account. We want the capital to have more comfortable, accessible and safe public spaces. We want to live in an environmentally friendly and socially just city.
We promote the right to the city — we implement urban interventions, create media content on urban themes, conduct research, interact with the state and city agencies.
Our partners:
MoveGreen is an environmental NGO in Kyrgyzstan. It deals with air quality issues related to air pollution and its effects on human health and the environment.
Synergy Creative Workshop is an art, research, and design workshop. It Views art as a discipline that bridges research and artistic gesture, theory and practice, in which the transition from object to event, process, immersion, experience, and sensory experience is important.
FemSoc is an activist group of socialist feminists in Kyrgyzstan. The group is dedicated to highlighting women's socio-economic problems and it is advocating for a united struggle against capitalism and patriarchy.
Urban Hub Bishkek is an informal community of activist organizations and initiatives working in the field of urbanism and ecology, united by the common concept of "City for People" and committed to work together with active citizens, experts, artists and politicians to improve the urban environment in Bishkek. Together, they want to make Bishkek comfortable, healthy, and just.
No Kidding Press: we search, translate and publish furious, funny, ambitious, experimental books, mostly written by women. Our goal is to present in Russian cult texts that have bypassed the Russian-speaking reader, as well as the most interesting new books. These are fiction and memoirs, autotheory, essays, graphic novels, as well as books that blur the boundaries between these genres.
Public Foundation Urban Forum Kazakhstan is the first independent organization in Kazakhstan specializing in urban studies. Since 2015, he has been working to ensure that Kazakhstani cities are comfortable, their development is fair, and the decisions made are of high quality. They believe that the sustainable development of the city is a joint work of citizens, communities, government and business. They conduct comprehensive research, events and information campaigns, build an expert community and a network of urban initiatives throughout Kazakhstan.
Contact us
Nastya Golovneva (Halauniova)
is a feminist and urban researcher based in Amsterdam. Her research focuses on the social aspects of architecture and urban infrastructures. She teaches feminist urban methods and urban sociology. She also makes activist actions at the intersection of artistic practices and feminism.
Eva Kyle
is an urban planner based in Vienna, Austria. She has popularized gender mainstreaming in urban design and has developed over 60 projects related to gender equality in housing, transportation, planning and urban design. Her work is widely cited and broadcast around the world.
Rada Valentina kyzy
urban activist and researcher, expert and trainer on urban interventions, founder of the media-activist initiative Peshcom, resident of Urban Hub Bishkek. Rada explores the city and its inhabitants through classic research and experimentation in urban spaces. She Promotes the right to the city through informational and educational events of different formats among citizens and employees of the municipality. She lobbies the interests of different groups of citizens in the mayor's office and the Bishkek city council.
Nastya Krasilnikova
feminist researcher, co-founder of the feminist educational project FEM TALKS, and the author of fem walks in Moscow.
Constanța Dohotaru
is a Moldova based feminist and urbanist, running a vlog on communities and cities, Omul face locul, a woman's perspective in patriarchal and post-social context. Constanța is the program coordinator of the Community Center 151, a safe space for local and refugee women in Chisinau, implemented by the NGO Laolaltă for the initiative Moldova for Peace, with support from UNHCR. She is a board member of Genderdoc-M and Platzforma and a member of Gender Equality Platform in Moldova.
Oksana Zaporozhets
is a researcher at the Institute for European Urban Studies, Bauhaus University Weimar. She studies Russian and German cities, focusing on the contemporary stage of urbanization and resident mobility, the digitalization of the city, and urban imagery, including graffiti and street art.These themes are united by her interest in city dwellers, who are seen as creators and transformers of urban life. Oksana is the co-editor of the books "Microurbanism. The City in Detail" (2014) and "Networks of the City. People. Technology. Powers" (2021), lecturer of courses in social theory and urban studies at the European Humanities University (Vilnius) and until March 2022 at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow).
Oksana Timofeeva
Doctor of Philosophy, professor at the Stasis Center for Practical Philosophy at the European University in St. Petersburg, member of the What Is to Be Done group, author of This Is Not It (Ivan Limbach Publishers), Solar Politics (Polity Press, 2022), Homeland (M. : Sigma, 2020, How to Love a Homeland, Kayfa ta, 2020), History of Animals (Maastricht: Jan van Eyck, 2012; Bloomsbury, 2018), Animal History (M.: UFO, 2017), Introduction to J. Bataille's Erotic Philosophy (M.: UFO, 2009).
Daria Krivonos
is a feminist and sociologist based in Helsinki, Finland. Her research concerns migration, social reproduction, feminist political economy, racism, and labor. She writes popular texts for blogs and contributes to podcasts on labor and migration.
Inna Brusenskaya
PhD in Geography, Associate Professor at the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University in Kyrgyzstan, expert on air quality (NGO MoveGreen)
Michal Murawski
Michał Murawski is an anthropologist of architecture and cities. He is Associate Professor of Critical Area Studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London. His first book, The Palace Complex: A Stalinist Skyscraper, Capitalist Warsaw and a City Transfixed was published by Indiana University Press in 2019; and he is currently working on completing his second book, a critical study of politics and architecture in post-Soviet Russia. He is Director of the UCL SSEES FRINGE Centre for the Study of Social and Cultural Complexity; and convenor of PPV (Perverting the Power Vertical: Politics and Aesthetics in the Global East), a seminar and events platform based at UCL. For more information about Michal's publications, research and teaching, please visit www.michalmurawski.net
Elmira Kakabaeva
is a writer, social anthropologist and journalist. After ten years working in advertising in Kazakhstan, began working on educational projects at the Strelka Institute, the Rybakov Foundation, and the Moscow Urban Forum. She was published in the short story collections "Without Permission" and "A Little Book of Stories about Female Sexuality" (No Kidding Press) and in Appolinarium (Kazakhstan) and Mumbermag (USA) magazines. She wrote texts for Taus Makhacheva's installation Seismic Jitters (Lahore Biennale, Pakistan).
Liuba Chernysheva
urban sociologist, PhD, works at the University of Amsterdam, is a member of the «Tender urbanism» collective and co-organiser of this conference. Liuba studies mass housing, neighborly relations, urban space contestation, and urban commons. She teaches courses in urban sociology, conducts applied research within participatory design projects, edits translations of books on urban studies, and creates art projects based on research results.
Anel Moldakhmetova
researches architecture and the urban environment, advises projects aimed at developing local communities, and develops participatory design.
Director of the Almaty Management University Urban Center, strategic communications specialist, co-founder of the Urban Talks discussion platform, participated in the creation of the Almaty Urban Center, the Alliance of cyclists and pedestrians. Graduate of the Institute of Media, Architecture and Design Strelka, resident of the Creative Producers International program (UK), participant of the Playable Cities project, co-founder of the CITYZEN space bureau.
Director of the Almaty Management University Urban Center, strategic communications specialist, co-founder of the Urban Talks discussion platform, participated in the creation of the Almaty Urban Center, the Alliance of cyclists and pedestrians. Graduate of the Institute of Media, Architecture and Design Strelka, resident of the Creative Producers International program (UK), participant of the Playable Cities project, co-founder of the CITYZEN space bureau.
