Instadrama

From 25 April until 6 May 2019 the guests of the Tolerance Center of the Jewish Museum saw ‘Instadrama’ in its courtyard. This is an installation, the idea of which was suggested by our old friends, the Great agency.

We invite the visitors of the Jewish Museum to take a glance at the world through the eyes of a homeless person. In the outside area of the Tolerance Center we placed frames similar to those we have got used to seeing on Instagram. Through them, guests of the Center saw ordinary objects but the frames’ captions told them what the same views may mean for a homeless person.

For example, a bench for those having a home is just a place for a short rest, but for a person living on the street, this is often a full-fledged overnight lodging. A street lamp for them is not only a piece of public lighting, but also a beacon of security. While manholes (and heating vents) represent places where one can get warm. Moscow employees of Nochlezhka planned to arrange the exhibition in one of the city parks of the capital. During ten months they were negotiating with ten sites and organisations but everywhere they faced a refusal.

Representatives of these organisations emphasized that park visitors may not understand the concept of the exhibition. Just the Tolerance Center of the Jewish Museum provided the space for the implementation of the project to Nochlezhka. We are very grateful to the Center and its staff for this. Here is what Anna Makarchuk, a director of the Tolerance Center, says about ‘Instadrama’: “Knowing that the main task of Nochlezhka is to help people to get off the street and return to normal life, we support this exhibition project because we understand that in most cases the stereotypes of others prevent a person from escaping from the label of ‘ended up on the street’. These can include ‘they chose by themselves to live on the street’, ‘all of them are alcoholics’, and ‘it is not possible to help homeless people’.

In the Tolerance Center we talk about stereotypes as a part of each project and event and discuss this with the younger and older generations. And this exhibition is another opportunity to talk with the audience about a homeless person - a person whom we can help.” Throughout the campaign 8134 people saw ‘Instadrama’. And thanks to the materials that were published in mass media, more than a million people all across Russia became aware of the campaign. But there is also a fly in the ointment: in the first days of the installation operation, someone broke two frames.

We don’t know if it was an ordinary act of vandalism or a protest against the activities of Nochlezhka. Despite the fact that this incident greatly upset all of us, Instadrama continued to run and received positive feedback. Here is what Olya Gracheva, a PR manager of the Tolerance Center of the Jewish Musem, says about the campaign: “At the same time as the Instadrama project the museum hosted the exhibition ‘Playing with Masterpieces’. It was designed for the emotional perception of visitors. This echoed amazingly with the installation [of Nochlezhka] that took place on our grounds.

The visitors looked very involved in the process. There were a lot of questions about whose project this was and how one can help [Nochlezhka].”