Image of cities in the media space has been discussed during Cultural Forum

Chief Architect of Moscow Sergey Kuznetsov has been heading the section “Creative Environment and Urban Planning” at the Cultural Forum for the third year. Today experts have discussed, how city image is formed and promoted in the media space.

“It’s a great honor for our team to make this section. Every year we try to find new relevant topics, and this time we couldn’t abstain from the issues, raised by FIFA World Cup. Today, I would like to refer to the topic of perception of our cities and our country in the world. I believe that we can all agree that image of our country after FIFA World Cup has substantially improved. Why did it happen? To my mind, feedback from fans, who shared their impressions through the social networks, had made a tremendous impact, and this image had had a remarkable effect in the media space. The same refers to the architecture and city programs. In Moscow we are trying to pay attention to this subject. Media fate of the project can generally define whether it will be built. Today it is more important than personal participation of the architect. We should know mechanisms of work in the media space and strategize positioning properly,” - Kuznetsov said.

Chairman of the Moscow Tourism Committee Ekaterina Pronichev addressed the subject of marketing of the territory. Today the entire countries have special agencies involved in developing proper image, attracting tourists, making this place better known among wider audience. From that point of view cinema sector is very efficient.

 “Many people choose their route of travel based on their impressions received from movies and series. As a rule, they are rather active in the social networks. In this regard experience of Iceland is of particular interest. Since 2010 it has attracted enormous flow of tourists thanks to shooting of series Games of Thrones. Comparing to the previous years it has increased by over 300 per cent,” - marked expert.

According to her, popularity has its flip side. The same series has had devastating effect on UNESCO sites in Croatia. “The city of Dubrovnik, despite positive economic impact, is seriously thinking of restricting visits of tourists,” - explained Pronicheva.

Ekaterina Mtsituridze, general director of AO Roskino, for its part, added that major cultural events have tremendous beneficial effects. “For instance, Venice has never been left out, nevertheless, biennales of arts and architecture are regularly held here, for which a lot of interesting and sophisticated people come here. It allows the city not to become stiff in its historical context”.

Sergey Kuznetsov mentioned that as distinct from festivals and forums, city programs are being worked out worse in the media space. However, it must be kept in mind that people in the social networks are more likely to write about their negative experience than expressing ‘thanks’ to those, who set the whole thing up and organized it. “We shouldn’t hope that positive things will be widespread, we should make them public.  I always try to show the team, author’s participation. It catches. We’d done so during realization of Zaryadye project”.

Experts also highlighted that the spaces on their own should correspond to particular requirements. As to become popular, the site must literally draw stares.

 “People are always interested in pictures, historically people perceived the city through the drawing, they took painters with them in the travels. In the paintings we can see arranged spaces, it is made not by chance, it is by design.  Architecture must be photogenic, as it is perceived through our eyes,” – added architect, head of bureau SPEECH, Sergei Tchoban.

Film director Klim Shipenko has the same opinion, he has vast experience in filming in various cities: “We are facing the entire ecosystem: the filmmakers are really inspired by architecture. You are looking at some place and scenes pop into your head. Then the audience perceives the city through the movie”. However, he mentioned that there are particular difficulties which prevent the director from showing the city in the most favorable light. “There is always an issue: where to shoot. But it is really difficult to obtain permission for shooting in Moscow. Not always we obtain the time which we want to, when we can make better shooting, bureaucracy gets in the way. So we have to go and work with what we have.”

Alternative viewpoint expressed art director of Channel One Dmitry Likin. According to him, one shouldn’t be guided so much by public opinion, as the tastes of the majority, as it is showed by TV channels ratings, reduce to Andrey Malakhov TV show “Let Them Talk”.