Irkutsk is traditionally seen as a historic city, which is why great attention is paid to its past. We consider this attention even somewhat excessive, because the view turned to the past and referring to the former splendour of the merchant city and the imperial capital of Siberia gets in the way of modern Irkutsk being noticed and understood. This is why we focus on the city today and its daily life. The value of history is not denied, however, we are more interested in the role of history in the city, not the city in history.

Speaking about Irkutsk, the project chooses to keep silent about Baikal. The lake located sixty kilometres away from the city has become its main landmark but the curse of the resource at the same time. Irkutsk has become overshadowed by the lake. We would like to fix that and fish the city out of the famous lake to show its self-sufficiency, beauty and fascination – not only to those who visit it but also those who live in it. Naturally, Baikal may be of interest for us in case it allows to tell more about the city.

We are trying to get away from straightforward assessment, from pointing out what is good or bad, and do not set a goal of immediately re-forming everything. It Is essential for us to understand how the city is structured, the way it is changing, the way people live in Irkutsk and how they feel about it, how they communicate and how a person masters space and time in the city. Our strategy is understanding. It is exactly the understanding that can result in real communication and mindful changes, useful for the city.

“Gorod inache” is not an individual but a team statement. Obviously, each material has an author, but they get help from the project team, other contributors and experts – specialists in different areas, people of different generations, living in different places. Developing each topic works according to the principle of collective lab: friendly participants interested in the results discuss, ask questions and suggest their ways of solving the task. Such format allows to learn from each other, and diversity of the views brings freshness and depth. Finally, work at “Gorod inache” is a constant creation and expansion of the contributors team, joint search for new ideas and their realization

The main section of the project is “Research”. Speaking about research we do not mean academic papers (although such papers will appear on the website in time). We raher mean the so called “stalker” approach – interest, attentive look, willingness to get a deeper insight. In the framework of the project research is experiencing the city through defining a topic, posing a research question and searching for the answers. Sometimes the author is ready to offer conclusions, sometimes they end up with a new vision and new questions. We do not imagine “Gorod inache” without art exploration either, since such endeavor is capable of capturing what has not been articulated yet or cannot be given the wording in essence.

There is too much of big politics, big ideology, big conflicts and pompous events in the world. Daily life of a human being, i.e. our life, can hardly be seen behind all these giants. And this is exactly what appeals and matters to us – people’s habits, their view of the world, way of life, dreams, relationships with the city and each other. To us, attention of one human being to another is a chance to understand one another, get along and learn to live in unity. The same principle – attention to a human being – applies to our work on materials for the website. Experience and knowledge received by our authors and experts (and us along with them) are as essential a part of the project as the publications on the website.