Skimoji (an acronym for the words Skibinska Street and emoji) is an attempt to emotionally revitalize one of the poorest districts of Lublin,
a city in eastern Poland. Old Bronowice, with Skibinska Street at the forefront, is an area plagued by problems of social exclusion and degradation.
The author's goal was to draw out the positive characteristics of this place extracted during the pro-social activities conducted during the two-week art residency.
What dominated the perception of the neighborhood was:
the visual contrast between the number of satellite dishes and the neglected townhouses falling into disrepair,the number of kids abundantly using cell phones and vividly playing around the neighborhood courtyards.
The author conducted a series of workshops with children, in which emoticons were a pretext for establishing a deeper dialogue about conditions in the neighborhood. The dynamism of the interlocutors, their willingness to share their insights clearly contrasted with the gray reality of Old Bronowice.
Focusing on this fact and on the digital ways of communication of the new generation, the author made portraits of young residents referring to the emoticons with which they identified.
Transferring the collective social message to the architectural fabric of the neighborhood, she posted them on the side facade of one of the tenement buildings.
The personified emoticons clearly enliven the atmosphere of Skibińska Street. Made in reflective technology, they are also visible in the evening hours, especially when vehicles pass along the street.
Emoji are the successors to satellite dishes (already a symbol of the previous generation), which turned out to be a distinctive decoration of buildings in poorer urban areas. The emotive portraits of children are meant to reflect new methods of communication and expression of emotions beyond the boundaries of so-called private space.
The project was carried out on Skibińska Street in Lublin as part of a collaboration with the Studio of Socially Engaged Art "Rewiry", curator Szymon Pietrasiewicz
https://www.dominikasobolewska.com/portfolio/skimoji/?lang=pl