After the Russian Revolution, the new Bolshevik government conceived a system of socialist rituals and civic ceremonies to encourage a new and modernist culture. For example, instead of baptism, babies were “octobered” and given names like Electrifikatsia (Electrification) to represent the values of the new society.

Rituals and ceremonies—through special images, gestures, objects, and spaces—have always guided and continue to reinforce our social values. They impact our emotions and shape how we see the world. In this workshop, we will investigate the values that present-day rituals reinforce and we will challenge them.

We will start by renaming ourselves with an Octobering ceremony. Then we’ll invent a new ritual or anti-celebration for the kind of world we want to live in. Where should it take place? What kinds of tools are needed? And what architecture?

Join us to prototype rituals and ceremonies for a new world.

Attendance to this event is free and open to participants 15 years and older. Please RSVP.

This workshop explores themes and ideas coming from the exhibition Building a new New World: Amerikanizm in Russian Architecture.