Balconies: Why Are They Like That Here?

The idea for this book was inspired by a question: why are balconies in Russia the way they are? In post-Soviet cities they often don’t look much like balconies. Some people rebuild them, some use them as living space, and some fill them with junk.

This is an artistic text in which the main character is the researcher. She looks at balconies, listens to people’s stories, makes notes from books and old newspapers, and analyzes films and plays to find balcony scenes. She combines comments and notes of conversations with pictures and photographs and includes short stories that are sometimes reminiscent of fairy tales or dreams. It is a book-exhibition that you can start reading in any place.

In the first part, readers can follow the author’s research process, and in the second they will find the results and methodology. She describes the metaphorical qualities of «balconies as things» and uses this as the basis for a concept of six balconies (six balcony functions).

«The logic of the link between these visual and textual excerpts is not linear. It is affective and intuitive. Based on the same logic we decide whether or not to discard a jar of zucchini caviar or to keep a broken hairdryer or our school exercise books. This is how our balconies get full of stuff, acquire additional constructions, and live their balcony life together with us. This is how the spaces of the cities in which we live are organized.»

Oksana Vasyakina
Literary Editor of Balconies