Concepts
A set of small pavilions installed in the open spaces of Rhodes estate, Dalston. During a period of three months the pavilions double up as performative and workshop spaces as well as spaces of communal everyday life: a public seating area, an open kitchen, an exchange library, a cinema.
Through techniques from the Theatre of the Oppressed, the audience becomes active “spect-actors” who explore, show, analyse and transform the reality in which they live – in this case the reality of living in a social housing estate, an “endangered” space in London through processes of privatisation, and gentrification.
The social housing tenants often find themselves silenced and unable to react to the deterioration of their environment, their social marginalisation and imminent eviction. Our proposal of a periodical workshop with the social housing tenants is based on Boal’s techniques that use theatre as means of promoting social and political change.
Rainbow of Desires enables the sharing of experiences, desires and affects, and the strengthening of the community. Winner of Designing the Urban Commons competition.
