MadMax | Summer Bar
- Lev Narozhny
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
Hello, dear reader! It's been a while since I posted anything here, time to improve hehehe! In December, we invited participants for a campaign called Pawstive Park. The participants were raising awareness of the problem of stray animals on the streets of Thessaloniki. Of course, the participants also had the opportunity to visit Karatasou Park, which is very important to our organization. We heard many, uuummm how to put it mildly (?) unflattering comments about the park, as the municipality doesn't care enough to keep it clean. Another common rhetorical question we received was, "why don't people walk in the park? Why is it empty?" We already knew the park was a gem, even a dimond, but in poor condition and of course, we had ideas for improving it. Thanks to conversations with volunteers back in December, over coffee before work, we realized the time had come to act! The application was submitted, and after a long wait, it was accepted under the European Solidarity Corps program. In short, the project was called MadMax and the main idea was to clean up trash in public spaces and then use it to create art! Naturally, our beloved Karatasu park was chosen as the primary location! The project was divided into three main subprograms: Garden, Summer bar, and Performances.
This article will focus only on the bar. MadMax itself began on July 14th and lasted until August 4th. During the first week, 15 volunteers were busy improving the garden, and work on the bar continued in the second week of the project.
I, Levi Narozhny, coordinated the Summer Bar project only. I am a graphic designer and youth worker at Esai En Roi. My work includes creating visual materials for projects, as well as organizing and implementing youth events and international programs. For me, the Summer Bar became a tool for attracting people to the park, as well as an interesting way to promote Esai En Roi in the media. First, I chose one of the abandoned buildings in the park. Here, as the coordinator, I managed without any help. Karatasu Park is a military base in the past. Because we wanted to promote our idea to the public, I decided the best option was to choose a building near the main entrance, with a facade facing the pedestrian path and the road. We were definitely lucky with the building I chose. It's ideally located, it's visible both from inside the park and from the pedestrian path. We were also lucky in that the building itself is small, while most of the buildings in the park are large. We definitely couldn't afford to renovate a huge building in a single week. Getting into the details of our work, the idea, in short, was multifaceted. Since the volunteers had different backgrounds, I decided to divide them into subgroups:
Graffiti
Graffiti | Summer Bar Graffiti | Summer Bar Graffiti | Summer Bar
For me, to be honest, this was one of the most stressful parts of the project, even before it even started. Why you may ask me? When we opened the call for volunteers for this project, we received many resumes from different countries. However, not a single CV indicated any graffiti experience. Spoiler alert: everything went great! About two weeks before the project began, the volunteers selected to work on the graffiti created a sketch, which we then used to paint the walls. We used approximately 30 cans of spray paint to cover the entire building.
Social media
In parallel with the practical work, we actively worked on the project's social media. Participants took photos and videos, created content, wrote posts, and shared the process of transforming the space. This not only documented all stages of the project but also attracted a wider audience to the issues of ecology, recycling, and collaborative creativity.
Furniture
A separate team created furniture from wooden pallets. Using recycled materials, the participants crafted tables, benches, and other functional elements for the Summer Bar. This approach not only reduced waste but also created a comfortable public space that was fully in line with the project concept.
Design elements
Another group was responsible for creating decorative and informational elements. Participants sculpted clay pieces and made informational signs on wooden bases. These elements became an important part of the overall design, adding personality to the space and making it more informative and attractive to visitors. All teams did a 100% job. I am very grateful to every volunteer who came to work on this project! I really love the furniture, design elements, and graffiti the volunteers created. I adore this style: grunge, punk, art, underground. Someday we'll install small multicolored lights next to the bar, like a garland. And wouldn't that be a great place for underground parties? Of course it would! We had a final party on August 3rd. The guys weren't just working under the Greek summer sun! We developed a menu tailored to the participants' wishes. I think it's important to clarify that all drinks were non alcoholic, as we promote a healthy lifestyle among young people. We became such close friends that we didn't need any additional booster to have a great time!
Was Summer bar truly recyclable or not?
Now let's talk about the rhetorical topic, recycling itself. To be honest, Summer Bar became a less eco-friendly part of the MadMax program. The thing is, while working on the graffiti, the participants were so engrossed in the process that they stopped constantly referring to the prepared sketch and drifted off along a path of inspiration that led them to more varied and much larger-scale designs! Well, yes, that was absolutely not the plan. We didn't expect the participants to be so captivated that they would want to make the work even more significant, especially under the scorching Greek sun. But as the coordinator, I didn't want to stop their creative process and wanted to give them as much freedom as possible so they could keep creating! Spray paint production is very expensive and actually harms the environment. Here's a link to the study:
So what's the rhetorical question? The question is, does an organization that's implementing a project dedicated to waste recycling have the right to knowingly use new materials whose production harms the environment? In my opinion, yes! Don't throw tomatoes at me; read my entire point. The graffiti idea wasn't an afterthought, like, "Oh, it would be great to paint something on the walls." It was one of the starting points for the Summer Bar design. The graffiti, as planned, became a striking accent on the building's walls. As I wrote earlier, one of the project's goals was to attract attention, and bright colors are one of the simplest and most effective ways to do that. I believe the use of graffiti sprays is entirely justified, as our main goal is to communicate the idea of recycling to as many people as possible. To offset the environmental impact of purchasing spray paint, we decided to add another element to the project. We found a company that donated their old tires to us, and we decided to make some trash bins out of them! One of the main problems in Karatasou, and in my opinion as an Estonian, in Greece in general, is that people here don't have a strong culture of littering. Karatasou Park truly has very few trash bins, despite its incredible size. Bins are mostly located at the entrance to the park, but even that isn't enough to significantly reduce litter. So far, we've made two bins in Karatasou and one at the Railway Museum. As I mentioned earlier, the presence of bins alone doesn't significantly reduce litter on the streets. Therefore, we also prepared a small manifesto and distributed informational leaflets to passersby on the streets. Of course, it's impossible to accurately calculate the environmental impact of buying spray paint, just as it's impossible to objectively assess whether we were able to offset that impact with our leaflets and additional bins. But personally, I think it was. Although we aimed to make the project 100% eco friendly and use only recycled materials, in practice this was still impossible. Participants relied on transportation to get to the work site. It was impossible to find identical used screws and nails, which were needed to build the tables and benches. We used tools that required constant recharging. And the list goes on and on, if you take a pessimistic view of the situation.
Thanks for your attention and see you in the next atrticles!
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