Bigmedia – Social initiatives

#THROUGH THE CODES OF HAPPINESS: a point of contact for art, advertising and urbanism.

BigMedia Company (BigBoard Ukraine / JCDecaux) and IZOLYATSIA Cultural Initiatives Foundation presented a new art-project in a public space, which became the reason for the conceptual discussion of advertisers, artists, urbanists and representatives of city authorities. Site-specific installation #THROUGH THE CODES OF HAPPINESS placed in Kiev at bus shelters and mupies in February-March 2019 is an object of modern art, taken out of the art gallery into the public space of the city. This format of the artwork has become unique and attracted the attention of the public and professional communities - from artists and urbanists to city authorities. For BigMedia, this project become a logical and consistent continuation of the initiative, launched in July 2017 and implemented in the “Platform of Integrated Solutions” format - a lively discussion platform for OOH operators, representatives of the city administration, customers and the public. The Platform was a generator of ideas for the improvement of the city and for the creation of smart and comfortable public space full of high-quality visual content. After all, outdoor advertising is an integral part of the modern city and its reasonable and responsible use really works to the benefit of society. At the discussion sessions of the Platform, the problems and current state of affairs in outdoor advertising were investigated; in particular, the factors that shape its image and, as a result, the attitude of society to it. Nowadays, both the public and the professional community are already extremely sensitive to the quality of visual solutions and to the content of advertisements; the public has clearly formed a request for aesthetics of information placed in a public space. And, the outdoor advertising, due to its integration into the urban landscape and possibilities of direct communication with the viewer, must comply with this request and promote cultural development. Then, the idea to create an art project in OOH was born – the “Points of Unity” appeared, also implemented in cooperation with the IZOLYATSIA Foundation and Danish artistic duo Hesselholdt&Mejlvang in early 2018. Next, in spring 2019 - the art installation #THROUGH THE CODES OF HAPPINESS. In autumn 2018, a competition [Your Ad Here?] was announced for Ukrainian artists. The idea of the contest was to create an art project specifically for the public space, which is significantly different from the museum or gallery context. The winner of the competition according to the results of the popular vote became the project #THROUGH THE CODES OF HAPPINESS by Maxim Finogeev, the artist from Odessa, who performed his artworks in the technique of Ukrainian folk art of vytynanka. The artist combined traditions and modernity – the cut out patterns of vytynanka that Ukrainians have used to decorate their homes and typical pictures from a photo bank, showing smiling, happy people in different situations that are relevant to today. In turn, the transfer of a traditional vytynanka, as an artwork, from a private house or museum to a public space, in particular to mupies and bus shelters, expanded the concept of home to the scale of an entire city, as the common living space of all citizens. And this idea is one of the most significant, unifying and informative messages of the project. Moreover, the project #THROUGH THE CODES OF HAPPINESS has once again highlighted existing issues regarding OOH that need to be discussed at a professional level. The main topics are: how the city should look and where are those points of contact for representatives of various spheres, somehow involved in creating the image of the public space of the city. That is why, on March 5, in IZONE creative space, a conference “Production of visual codes of the city” was held, as the result of the project #THROUGH THE CODES OF HAPPINESS. The concept of the project and the final conference suggested the artists to consider outdoor advertising as potential media for their artwork in a public space. The conference included several thematic sessions (advertising, art, urban planning), where representatives of various professional communities openly discussed and, in fact, searched for common ground and common solutions. The session devoted to the dialogue between representatives of the city authorities and urbanists became very interesting and promising; the participants of the discussion found out how much interesting it was for the city to implement social initiatives and how to include OOH into the urban landscape rationally, even when planning. Advertisers and artists discussed how to create good visual content that will adorn the city and will benefit society. Consequently, the points of contact exists, as well as understanding and readiness for dialogue, and gradually, step by step, we all are moving in the right direction. Elena Beskhlebnaya, director of BigMedia Company (BigBoard Ukraine /JCDecaux): “The project #THROUGH THE CODES OF HAPPINESS was not easy, but it is always challenging to do something for the first time. Indeed, for the first time in Ukraine, we have created such an unusual art object, an outdoor art installation, which attracted public attention, made interested and perhaps encouraged to learn more. After all, the art in general, especially modern conceptual and innovative projects, reveal their essence gradually, it makes people think firstly and only having fully grasped the idea, it may impress and inspire deeply. This unique social communication is created by the combination of art and wide possibilities of outdoor advertising, when the artist directly speak to viewers on the streets of cities. This is interesting for the society and we will continue to develop this idea, for sure. ”

10 Number of units

2019 year

#BigBoardMeetingPoint: Norman Foster's outdoor furniture at ATLAS Weekend

At the heart of modern urban development concepts, first and foremost, is the idea of creating a comfortable space for life. The idea of sociality and public services improvement is at the core of complex infrastructural and urbanistic projects, thanks to which modern cities become "smart", integrated people-oriented public spaces. Comfort is felt in details. Today, world-famous architects and designers work on creating beautiful, comfortable and technological elements of the urban environment - outdoor furniture and outdoor advertising structures - and its functionality is aimed at supporting a holistic and organic city space. On July 3-8, as a partner of the festival, BigMedia company (BigBoard Ukraine Group/JCDecaux) presented a modern line of outdoor furniture at ATLAS Weekend - the largest music event in Eastern Europe, which is annually visited by hundreds of thousands spectators. To ensure that the guests of the festival could easily find each other and not to be lost in such a crowded event, a special platform was created (the “bus shelter” and information pavilion) - #BigBoardMeetingPoint - a comfortable and functional meeting place. #BigBoardMeetingPoint has become, in its own way, a unique location for the festival. The platform itself and all its components were created from outdoor furniture (comfortable “bus shelter”, information panels) by the legendary British architect Norman Foster - a man, whose design has changed the face of many cities all over the world, from Paris to New York, and which is now represented in Ukraine - BigBoard Ukraine has been implementing outdoor furniture projects for over six years in Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkiv and Dnipro. During the festival, #BigBoardMeetingPoint became a really popular meeting place where people had possibility to relax, to charge a personal gadget and to have fun making pictures in a stylish photo zone. It is also important that visitors were pleased to learn that such outdoor furniture and convenient bus shelters with charging for gadgets are already exist in Ukraine: "I like to be here. Just recently, I’ve been in Prague, I saw such bus shelters there and, by the way, advertising posters in such a format look very organic, it's beautiful! I think, such small things makes Ukraine to look like a real European capital. It is pleasant to stay at such a bus shelter, and it is convenient that there is a charging for the phone and the glass is tinted - it protects from the sun quite good. And it is just cool!) "- says a young guy, one of the visitors of the platform, while waiting for a meeting with the company of friends. #BigBoardMeetingPoint and experience of direct communication with people at ATLAS Weekend, once again proved and demonstrated the advantages of a new approach to outdoor advertising, as to the integral part of a comfortable urban environment created for a person.

1 Number of units

2018 year

A Radically Better Tomorrow: the Danish creative duo Hesselholdt & Mejlvang published a book featuring the first Ukrainian art project in ooh advertising "Points of Unity".

"A Radically Better Tomorrow" - this is the title of a new book by the Danish artistic duo Sofie Hesselholdt and Vibeke Majlvang (Hesselholdt & Mejlvang), which was presented at the end of February 2019 in Copenhagen. This is already the third book of the Hesselholdt & Mejlvang creative publications series, based on interviews recorded in September 2018. The artists themselves say that this is an "intimate" book that slightly opens the curtain of the creative process. It reflects their artistic vision and world outlook, and, focusing on sketches and ideas, shows the lively boiling energy of artistic process, which is usually hidden from public. The key idea of the book is an interest to a person who lives in a complex political reality, and the idea of art as a material language that can influence and change the world. This is what stimulate and inspires the artistic duo. This idea unites all sections of the book and all art projects of artists with the one main meaning. And one of the projects that clearly portrays this view of art and its main purpose, is the social project "Points of Unity", implemented by Sofie Hesselholdt and Vibeke Majlvang together with BigMedia and Izolyatsia Cultural Initiative Platform in winter 2018 in Kyiv. It was the “Points of Unity”, which combined the original artistic idea of Danish artists and the possibilities of modern outdoor advertising. It became the first outdoor art-object in Ukraine and reflected the idea that the art transferred to public space becomes not only an artistic work, but also a social statement that can influence, change and inspire, addressing society directly on the streets of cities, from usual billboards and mupies. Sofie Hesselholdt and Vibeke Majlvang were particularly interested in this combination of outdoor advertising and art, in transformation of streets into a kind of gallery and advertising objects - into the means of social communication. The "Points of Unity" philosophy were in the unity of diversity and the combination of opposites, which together create true beauty and strength. Hesselholdt & Mejlvang felt it was important to show and convey this idea as the most relevant for modern Ukrainian society. In the original idea of Danish artists, the combination of two colors of the Ukrainian flag, blue and yellow, to the third, the green color - the color of life, hope and future - is extremely symbolic and together with the main message of the project - "Let’s look for points of Unity" - created a deeply philosophical art-object. It motivated to think about the most important things; about the world we want to live in, future we dream about and how much mutual understanding value. As the project teaser, in Kyiv, the original watercolor paintings of Danish artists - a combination of yellow and blue together - were placed on the advertising constructions of BigMedia. The next stage - the disclosure of the essence and main messages of the project, took place in early February 2018 - in Kyiv appeared canvas with the text, as well as an official party-presentation with the participation of the authors of the idea. For BigMedia, participation in the "Points of Unity" project has become a very interesting experience. Following the principles of social responsibility of business, this project has given an opportunity to focus on the importance of outdoor advertising’ social component, on its capabilities as a communication tool, presenting advertising media as an art-object and harmonious component of the modern city environment. And this proves that a conscious and responsible attitude towards one's professional activity, a creative approach and a socially important goal can indeed create a Radically Better Future. Hesselholdt & Mejlvang web-site: https://www.hesselholdt-mejlvang.dk/