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< Back Shore Seeing Stillness 15 Dec 2021 Ash Moniz Jumping Ship For many companies its important to locate instances of loss. Which stages of a process or which assets are wasting time or money, can be crucial to identify. Preventing loss is one of the most strategic things that a company can do, and finding the weak spots in a system is necessary for this. Making visible wasted time/money is at the core of managerial processes of commodity circulation, and this is no coincidence considering the role that visualizing lost time played within the material history of representing motion in general. A process map, for example, is “a visual aid for picturing work processes . . . developed from the need to generate visibility of where time is used [so that …] the removal of wasted time from the business processes, could then be applied [1 ] ”. A member of Tylos company, was struggling with one of his assets for years now. After it was originally set up in 1999, it was doing ok for a while, but started to deteriorate as time went on. By the summer of 2017, this Tylos manager was facing severe financial difficulties, and it seemed like his business venture was going to fail. It got to the point where the cost of the repairs necessary to hold on to this asset would be greater than the cost of simply letting it go, which is a common phenomenon in this industry. Once an asset has been around longer than the time that it was originally built to last, then it becomes more expensive to actually maintain, and harder to acquire safety certification. The owner of the company could see that it was going to be way too costly to keep it up, so he decided to count his losses before it got any worse. In the summer of 2017 he decided to jump ship . From this point this asset was no longer owned by anyone, and therefore was no longer registered to operate. To “jump ship” is an English expression that means “to leave an organization because you think its going to fail or because you want to join a rival organization [2] . While the traditional historical meaning referred to an escape from forced captivity, over time the connotation has shifted towards the avoidance of failure (insinuating the desire for success), or in some [3 ] to “leave a difficult situation when you should stay and deal with it” (insinuating neglect for responsibility). Witnessing Stillness Here we have an image. There’s nothing in the image that visually denotes whether or not it was taken as a photograph, or if it is a still from a moving image. If it were a still frame then it would be an interruption of the flow of the moving image. A coming from and leading towards of time outside of the moment in front of us. It would be indexical to the time that it is not. If it were a photograph, it would encompass it’s own time, as it’s own enclosure (beginning and end) of duration. This stillness is indexical only to the “singular” moment that it aims to capture. The most probable signifier of still frame or photograph, is the aspect ratio of the image itself. As a general rule of thumb, it is common that moving image is shot in 16:9 and photographs in 4:3. While there is no signifier of motion in the background, in the foreground we can see motion in the postures of those swimming, the splash of water frozen in mid-air, and the recognizable shape of waves. What is the representational literacy required to read the temporal phenomenon that this image documents? According to film critic Mary Ann Doane [4 ] , if movement were “represented as the eye “really” sees it, it would be characterized by a certain illegibility, constituting itself as blur” Jumping Ship When Mohammed Aisha had to jump ship, he could only legally be on land for very short intervals of time (enough to charge phone, find drinking water, etc.) but then would have to return immediately, and remain on board. Due to Aisha involuntarily being designated as the “legal guardian” of the MV Aman in 2017, after Tylos Shipping and Maritime Services had abandoned ownership of it, Aisha was trapped on board all alone with no electricity or fuel, for four years. In March 2021, journalistic articles came out that spoke of Aisha’s situation (at the end of his fourth year stranded). But regardless of media attention, the only two options for his rescue were if someone volunteered to purchase the ship and become its owner, or if they volunteered to take Mohammed Aisha’s place as legal guardian. In April 2021, the International Transport Workers’ Federation found a representation of theirs to take his place. As such Aisha finally went home to Syria, after losing four years of his life in captivity. However, the ship still remains in place to this day, with an Egyptian volunteer now as its legal guardian. “He was abandoned for four years, and he is still waiting to get paid. We helped him with a lawyer to go to court and claim his wages. But is not enough to say oh this is absolutely criminal, this is absolutely unjust, this is not enough! Because there are people with obligations and responsibilities! Why didn’t the flag do anything, why didn’t the Egyptian maritime authorities do anything? This is where the focus should go!” [5 ] Standing from the shoreline, I am staring at an incarcerative stillness. But how can I witness the temporality of 4.5 years? Witnessing Stillness The imaging of stillness requires a posture of stillness. There’s a video on YouTube of a “Freeze Flash Mob”. It is one of those organized activities where a large group of people come together to freeze in place, mid-action, in the middle of a public area. In one still-frame, we can see a young girl posing in a still position, holding a camera in front of her face. However, if we unpause the image, we can see the she was not a part of the Freeze Mob, but that her stillness was simply to hold a stable position for the few seconds that it takes to take a photograph. (With a camera, one has to perform the stillness that they aim to document.) As we unpause we can see her camera phone flash, as if having taken a photograph to document the surprising historical event of stillness that she sees in front of her. After this flash, she resumed motion (defining her as a spectator, as a non-participant in the event.) The camera aims to capture the event in front of her, as a moment in time that actually happened. But with this photograph she will not have captured the stillness of the historical event that she aimed to. Because we can’t see stillness in a still image. It might be capturing the stillness produced by the photograph, but it is not actually capturing the stillness that of the event to be witnessed. The stillness that actually provides the magnitude of this historical moment. Even if we could see the other ships moving by (which I did standing on the shore taking this photo), we would have no literacy for the precise incarcerative stillness of the MV Aman. Stillness as Location in Time “In absence of the responsibilities of the owner, who is the first to be made responsible, is Bahrian, because this flag under the registration of Bahrain. But if Bahrain is slow, or doesn’t care or doesn’t don’t do what they should do, then we go and ask where the vessel is, thats why we went and knocked the door of Egyptian authorities, because the vessel is under sovereign waters of Egypt.” [6 ] I went to this exact location because where I lived was only an hour and a half away. My own physical proximity meant there was no reason that I wouldn’t have gone to see the ship. But what does proximity provide? No matter how close you get to the incident that is happening in front of you, you still can’t see anything. But what is the location of this violence? How do we locate a Syrian man, on board Bahraini flagged territory, with a Lebanese contractor, stuck in Egyptian waters? How do we locate responsibility, when the ship owner, the flag-state, the national waters, the recruitment agency, the nation of the abandoned, are all completely different. Even though this location is only a couple hundred metres from shore, it is unlocatable within records, as its no longer registered to its ownership. In general, while the shoreline is a defined locality, the visual particularities of an image from shore are quite similar anywhere in the world. The almost flag-like archetype of three horizontal stripes stacked on top of each other (sand, water, sky), exists romantically in the minds of most, even as an imaginary image. This reflects the illocatability of how spectators of the container are easily “mesmerized by its modularity, homogeneity and opacity.” [7 ] The locality of this beach can be defined as a position of spectatorship for viewing the site of incarcerative stillness, the MV Aman, along with many other arrested ships. It can also be defined, by being one of the only public (or non-private) beaches from the Suez Canal to Hurghada, or by being sandwiched between a military base and a highway. Witnessing Lost Time Here we can see the position of spectatorship from which a historical event was witnessed. We can see the viewpoint, the site from which the evidence of lost-time (the historical event of spectacular stillness) was witnessed by Mohammed Aisha. After having been on the ship for four years, one day he saw a massive backlog encroaching upon him, as the entire sea turned into a parking lot of immobile ships, from the entrance of the Suez Canal (a couple km away), all the way down the Red Sea. The stillness produced during these 6 days, became one of the biggest global moments in supply chain history. Only weeks later he was able to go home, thanks to the International Transport Workers Federation. Standing in front of the exact location where the Evergiven was stuck in the Suez Canal, villagers of Mansheyat El Ragoula pointed out to me where it was, and where it could be seen from. We stood on their doorstep practicing looking for something that was no longer there. When asking them how they felt about having taken part in such a global moment, they said that it meant absolutely nothing to them. All they cared about was how difficult it became to talk to people since then. Every time a journalist would come the village, the police would show up immediately. One person I spoke to was arrested for talking to a journalist. [8 ] The spectacle of this stillness brought global traffic to the small village, unlike any other point in its history. The place became temporally and spatially dominated by the schedules of journalists. I Interviewed a journalists’ driver [9 ] who worked during the 6 days of the Evergiven’s interruption, who spoke of the speed and urgency of driving to the hotels, to press conferences, and to find interviewees, etc. But the spectacle of this specific type of stillness, that of global supply-chain interruption, is connected to need, or demand. This stillness is indexical to lost time, to the motion that is not occurring. But what happens when the stillness is no longer a threat; no longer indexical to its potential continuation? Stillness that is not Lost Time Rather than through an increase in ship-engines’ speed capacities over the past decades, the primary site for the shipping industry’s increase in speed is the labour time at each port (the intervals of stillness). This acceleration was accomplished by decreasing workers’ access to shore leave and intensifying the workloads in shorter periods of time. It isn’t about making the motion of a trajectory faster; it’s about diminishing the loss between each trajectory [10 ] . Akinetopsia is an optical term that refers to the inability to see stillness. I have been thinking of this term while producing my archive of instances of supply chain interruptions in Egypt ( for example from strikes and work stoppages in Port Said and Sokhna.) The representation of work stoppages, interruptions, and inventorial losses in the supply chain has a history rooted in mechanisms of visuality and legibility in the quest to represent lost time. In the supply chain, we can easily interpret all non-motion as loss, or interruption. This is exemplified in the “Move Or Die” motto of the UPS-sponsored TV series Great Migrations, morbidly equating all supply-chain stillness to loss, or death. [11 ] But not all stillness in the supply chain is lost-time. Much of the supply-chain’s stillness is not indexical to the continuative motion that would otherwise be assumed. If a ship stops moving due to abandonment, such as the case of Mohammed Aisha, the time is no longer considered lost, because the ship is no longer needed, or demanded. While the case of the MV Aman was one of the worst in history, seafarer abandonment is one the rise. In fact, the Tylos Company alone had 3 other ships abandoned during the same year, with others stranded for up to 2 years. Storage in Motion Its important to see the how the incarcerative mechanics of both stillness and motion intersect through maritime labour, to extend the question of “stillness that is not lost time”, to think of how stillness is in fact produced in transit. Through the mass of interviews [12 ] that I conducted with workers on board a container ship, one of the main statements that came up across the different discussions, was that the ship is like a prison. Some had expressed that at least prisons were on land, within the borders of a nation, had an outdoor yard, and received visits/calls/etc, (which are all largely impossible at sea). The incarcerative attributes of this strict stillness are specifically due to the accelerative motion, because of the decreasing opportunities to ever leave the ship. Shore-leave serves as a “non- time” form of temporality that helps prevent the ship from being such an incarcerate space. If we think of how the stillness in motion and the stillness in stillness interact as different types of temporalities, much of this comes from how the ship as a technology of discipline on its own is a site that has incarcerative qualities. The fact that this stillness exists in motion is also not surprising, for the mere fact of physics. In physics we have concepts such as the Principle of Stationary Action, or Lagrangian. Mechanics, which are generally based around the way that when a constant motion of an object reaches an stable velocity, it appears as still when seen from an object travelling at the same velocity. It maintains a stationary position in motion. That stillness is a significant part of accelerative speed can also be seen within much of the development of what is known as “Just-In-Time” Logistics, which (in simplified terms) is largely based on the idea of compressing the time of storage into the time of transit. As such the idle time of storage-warehousing is then placed into idle time of ships in transit. The time of waiting to be needed sharing its emptiness with the time of waiting to arrive. I wonder if the incarcerative temporalities imposed on maritime-workers share some of the same stillness as the time of storage that was compressed into transit. The literacy of time (stillness/motion) is crucial to the representability of logistics: from the interruptive stillness of worker’s strikes and blockages, to the incarcerative stillness of seafarer abandonment and lack of shore-leave. For the Maritime Portal Residency, I conducted interviews and field work all along the coast from Port Said, to Ragoula, to Adabiya, to Sokhna (from Mediterranean to Red Sea). While the initial intention was to focus on the interviews as a performative practice, the political state in Egypt and the specific danger for researchers made it very difficult to do so (having researcher friends of mine in prison or held by the police during the time I was conducting this). After a few set-backs (being followed by the police on multiple occasions), I tried to think about how to work more with the materials that I had, rather than the materials I wanted. This project will be a film, that incorporates some of these interviews and the research, along with a weaving together of some of the topics that I wrote about here, but in film. I’m interested in how historical moments (of six days or four years), intersect between the different constitutions of time that shape logistical and historical temporalities. The project looks at the greater history of representing motion within the supply chain, in order to think through stillness not as lost time. [1] Deborah Cowen, The Deadly Life of Logistics: Mapping Violence in Global Trade. (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2014), 126. [2] https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/jump-ship [3] https://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/jump-ship [4] Mary Ann Doane, The Emergence of Cinematic Time: Modernity, Contingency, the Archive. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), 82. [5] An interview that I conducted (in August 2021), with Mohamed Arrechidi, the representative of the International Transportation Workers Federation who coordinated the relief effort to send Aisha home. [6] Same interview with Arrechidi from the ITF [7] Alberto Toscano and Jeff Kinkle, Cartographies of the Absolute (London: Zero Books, 2015), 347. [8] Interview with residents of Mansheyat El Regoula (4 different groups of people) in August 2021 [9] Interview with journalist’s driver in August 2021 [10] Akinestopia in the Management of Loss, Ash Moniz, MIT Press: Thresholds (2021) (49): 103– 108. [11] Cowen, The Deadly Life of Logistics, 262. [12] Interviews that I conducted with about 20 of the seafarers on board CMA CGM container ship in April 2019 Previous Next

< Back Seeing the Invisible: Documenting and Interpreting China’s Cultural Presence in Uzbekistan (Part 1) 25 Aug 2020 Alexey Ulko From the beginning, I saw the primary objective of my research was to document and interpret the different visual signs and symbols of China’s growing presence in Uzbekistan. I began writing notes and taking and collecting photos; trying to categorise and interpret the evidence with the help of different conceptual approaches, from visual anthropology to object-oriented ontology. The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing quarantine, however, have interfered with this intention in more ways than one. As I was thinking about how the Belt and Road Initiative has influenced Uzbekistan, the pandemic struck and very visibly changed the rules of the game. Beginning in Wuhan, it was a clear illustration of how China can affect the world – though I have serious reservations about calling this influence “Chinese”. The more I thought about the asymmetrical political and cultural relations between China and Uzbekistan, the more disjointed and fragmented the picture became. Not fragmented in a stylish postmodernist way, but rather, uselessly and helplessly mixed up and confused. I had set myself the task of researching “the politics and aesthetics of the visual representation of China-Uzbek relations, through documentary photography and film,” in order to provide anthropological perspectives on these. But typing those words on a keyboard made in China, sitting in an armchair produced in China, drinking tea from a china cup, and seeing the plastic letters HUAWEI on my modem connecting me to the world, made me question whether I could aspire to produce any meaningful research on something so intangible – the world or flow that is literally everywhere – and whether I could make any meaningful statement about China as a hyper-object , all while I remained within it. “The Chinese invented gunpowder, tea, silk production, the compass, paper, mechanical clocks…” – ah, thank you very much. This list of inventions probably isn’t as long as the one of all the objects around me which had been made in China, but it tells us an important story. If today’s narrative is that the Chinese are good at adapting and replicating something that has been invented (usually from the so-called “West”), it was obviously different in the past: things were invented in China and adapted for future use by others. Peter Greenaway’s mesmerising film, The Pillow Book (1996), tells the story of a Japanese born model living in Hong Kong. Her aunt tells her that when she is twenty-eight years old, the diary of a Japanese woman (Sei Shonagon), known as Pillow Book, will be a thousand years old, and that she (Nagiko) will be the same age as Sei Shonagon when she had written the book. The film made a profound impact on me and made me want to learn calligraphy (which I never really did). However in 969, exactly a thousand years before I was born, two generals serving the Song Dynasty invented a fire arrow which used gunpowder tubes as mini rocket engines, enabling them to fly much further, and cause damage to any inflammable object by setting them alight. This was the year rocket artillery was invented and utilized for the first time. Later, the Chinese produced the first cannons, but these would be vastly improved by the Europeans who would go on to use them many centuries later to subjugate China in the 19th century. These kinds of reverse loops seem to characterise much of what is going on between China, Central Asia and the West, and there is little in popular literature that can describe it better than the books on the Silks Roads by Peter Frankopan ( The Silk Roads , 2015 and The New Silk Roads , 2018). I will return to Frankopan’s texts later, but for now I would like to explore the issue from a very different angle. *** What are my earliest memories of China or anything Chinese? It could be a conical straw hat I played with in my early years (though that could also have been Vietnamese). The very delicate porcelain tea set which our family used only on special occasions. (We still have some of the cups, very Victorian by design, not bone china judging by its colour, but still very fine and translucent.) My father’s white shirt with a label I think saying “The Great Friendship”. The stories my father told me about the Chinese students he knew while studying at some in-service artist training course in Moscow in the 1960s. A painting by Qi Baishi similar to the one I had in my childhood Left: Remembering Qi Baishi and Tajik territories conceded to China Right: Qi Baishi’s seal and a letter to the Chinese government asking it to reconsider its actions against the Uyghurs by Marie van der Zyl, the President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews Beautiful facsimile prints of Qi Baishi’s watercolours. I remember Red Morning Glories and some similar pieces hanging in my little room as late as 1996. (Where have they all gone?) An exquisitely printed book on him by Evgeniya Zavadskaya ( Tsi Bai Shi , 1982). (Is that still with my sister?) I have just downloaded it in .pdf. Evgeniya Zavadskaya’s superb book on Qi Baishi In Uzbekistan, the growing Chinese presence had been relatively low-profile and pragmatic. It can be broadly categorised into being culturally and visually marked (e.g. the Confucius Institute, Chinese restaurants) or unmarked (Chinese investment projects). At the same time, there have been few, if any, noticeable cultural projects involving Chinese artists, curators, writers, musicians or photographers. The establishment of the Confucius Institute in Samarkand marked a shift from the earlier invisibility towards a more spectacular and confident Chinese cultural manifestation. The statue of Confucius and the belfry of St. Alexey’s Cathedral in Samarkand One of the main buildings of the Samarkand State University The statue of Confucius in front of the Samarkand State University that hosts the Confucius Institute As the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) seems to have regained momentum after its setback in 2018, I thought it would be interesting to follow the dynamics of China’s visual presence in Uzbekistan and reflect it through photographs, videos and texts. What is the BRI? How large is it? Like China, it can also be seen as a hyper-object that encompasses nearly half of the world’s population, a multitude of resources, and 50 percent of the global GDP. About 150 countries, including the Central Asian states, have reportedly joined the BRI in one way or another. Its infrastructure is accompanied by large-scale investments from Chinese companies and institutions (such as the Silk Road Foundation with funds of US$40 billion), and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), with funds of US$100 billion to provide development aid to the countries who participate in the BRI. The Chinese writer Zhenqing Zheng, claims that “more and more people see the BRI as an incremental China-driven project to develop international and regional public goods in terms of economic cooperation, free trade, infrastructural connectivity, international security and mutual trust. The BRI advocates the mutual docking of development strategies between participant countries and China. The aim is to build large-scale, high-level, deep-seated and high-standard international and regional economic networks.” If so, why is it then seen by many as a threat, rather than an opportunity? A snapshot of Chinese government’s influence One possible reason is the sheer might of the Chinese economy. Another reason is a deep distrust of Chinese intentions, which often borders on Sinophobia. As Sebastian Peyrouse claims, all Central Asian experts on China express concern about the silence cultivated by the authorities in their countries about their partnership with China. They worry that the true extent of China’s grip over the region has been concealed. They criticise the authorities’ incapacity to make decisions for the future of Central Asian nations, and are concerned about the atmosphere of suspicion, generated by the lack of information. About ten years ago I spoke to a driver and a junior officer working for a Chinese company with a large office located on the same floor as the educational centre I was visiting at the time. I asked them if they spoke any Chinese and they said no. “In fact, the Chinese do not encourage local employees to study Chinese, and do not recruit any local Chinese-speakers. We have an interpreter to translate any important negotiations, and the junior staff are learning Russian and Uzbek. All decisions are made only by the senior Chinese officials, and they do not want servants to understand what their masters are saying.” *** As a child, I liked Chinese fairy tales and often wondered why many of them featured young officials sitting exams, carrying documents and seals, performing various administrative functions. I liked stories about the huli jing (vixens), but my favourite was from Yao folklore, called Red Maize . Later, I read Journey to the West by Wu Cheg’en, and became most fascinated by the character Sha Wujing with his gourd and staff. Li Bai and Du Fu were my favourite poets at a certain point, especially the former. Li Bai was born in a Silk Road city known today as Ak-Beshim, some 30km from Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan. He started writing poetry before he was ten, was well-travelled, and skilled at riding, hunting, and fencing. From a pot of wine among the flowers I drank alone. There was no one with me – Till, raising my cup, I asked the bright moon To bring me my shadow and make us three. Alas, the moon was unable to drink And my shadow tagged me vacantly; But still for a while I had these friends To cheer me through the end of spring…. I sang. The moon encouraged me. I danced. My shadow tumbled after. As far as I knew, we were boon companions. And then I was drunk, and we lost one another. …Shall goodwill ever be secure? I watch the long road of the River of Stars. *** Christopher Francis Patten, the last British Governor of Hong Kong, was denounced by some Chinese media outlets as the “whore of the East,” a “serpent” and a “wrongdoer who would be condemned for a thousand generations”. *** There are several Chinese restaurants in Tashkent, and many more Korean ones which also often serve a generic East Asian mixture. I tried Chinese food for the first time in Islamabad in 1998 and found it very unusual. The gluey, homogenous, chicken soup; heavily fried vegetables; chicken pieces in a sticky sauce which resembled mixed caramel, but had a touch of spice – all of these tasted strange and artificial. But I liked chopsticks. I do not remember exactly where and how I learned to use them – probably much later when I started visiting Korean restaurants in Tashkent and elsewhere. In the early 1990s I often travelled to Karachi where I developed a taste for spicy food, which I have eaten ever since, transforming even the simple Uzbek plov into some kind of biryani. Uzbeks are, of course, famously conservative in their cuisine, and in many families they eat little else apart from their own traditional dishes – and their food isn’t as spicy when compared to Indian, Chinese or Korean cuisines. However, Chinese influence remains evident in dishes such as laghman (noodles), which has been borrowed from the Uyghurs. The Uyghur food can be found in Tashkent, but it is not as abundant as in places like Osh in Kyrgyzstan. In other words, in different parts of Central Asia, depending on the type of restaurants, you can get different local varieties of Chinese food (of which I can count at least three). The first is the outcome of the above-mentioned cultural transfer from the Chinese to the Uyghurs, to the Kyrgyz and Uzbeks. By and large, it is still determined by a geographical proximity to the Eastern Turkestan. The second type is more cultural. It’s the Chinese food you get at Korean restaurants usually run by local urban Koreans, who are descendants of the Korean communities deported to Central Asia from the Russian “Far East” in 1937. Unsurprisingly, the Korean restaurants that cater for the expats from South Korea are less exposed to Chinese influence, while those serving mostly local clientele, tend to be more relaxed and generic. Finally, there are distinct Chinese restaurants, usually run by the Chinese, with all the necessary attributes of Chinese restaurants scattered all over the world, though still rather rare in Uzbekistan. That being said, they seem to be more popular than Indian restaurants, which has always surprised me because of the apparently sufficient resemblance between Uzbek and Indian cuisines, which in theory would make the transition from one to the other smoother. While biryani does look like a simplified version of plov, Uzbeks have their own samosa, naan bread, and an indigenous version of raita called chalob. Still, despite the huge popularity of Indian films and other cultural parallels, Uzbeks have never really embraced curries. At this stage it is difficult to say whether Chinese food will spread all over Uzbekistan, but as two of its three local varieties are symbiotic, it makes Chinese dishes look much less foreign than the distinct South Asian cuisine. While the number of Chinese visitors to the country sky-rocketed in 2017-18, only the COVID-19 pandemic has so far hampered the growth of the number of Chinese restaurants, which were designed especially to meet demands from the tourist sector. *** What about US-China trade wars? What is going on and how does it affect Central Asia? So far, the impact of this has been rather difficult to assess. According to IFF China Report , 2020, a kind of provisional agreement between the USA and China was finally reached in January earlier this year. This included assent by China to move away from forced technology transfers and a willingness to offer foreign companies greater access to Chinese markets – plus a commitment to increase purchases of US manufacturing, energy and agricultural goods and services by US$200 billion over the next two years. Will China hold these promises? Simultaneously, the US cancelled its plans for the so-called “penalty tariffs” it had scheduled for $156 billion of Chinese goods, and cut the tariffs imposed in September 2019 on $120 billion of these goods from 15% to 7.5%. It also dropped its labelling of China as a “currency manipulator” as part of the deal. Will the deal hold? Will it force China to be more, or less aggressive? What turn will the events take if Trump is re-elected (or not re-elected)? All of these variables make the situation difficult to predict. Meanwhile, the huge letters of HUAWEI atop a block of flats above Oybek underground station nave been recently replaced with ZTE 5G . HUAWEI is a big name in the centre of Tashkent, one of those companies that have a marked presence in the city *** Another important name that indirectly links China with Central Asia is that of Julian Shchutsky, the first translator of the I Ching (“Book of Changes”) into Russian. His name first attracted my attention as an alleged member of themystical-anarchist group which included artists and many other Anthroposophists and esotericists. As a prominent Sinologist, he left an impressive imprint on Russian Oriental studies. Julian Shchutsky was a polyglot; he translated from about 16 languages. He was Professor of the Leningrad Institute of Oriental Studies, Professor of the Leningrad State University in 1936-37, and a research scientist in the Asian Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1920-37. Shchutsky was given bibliographical responsibility for the Dauism and Alchemy portions of the Asian Museum’s new acquisitions. He also did extensive translations from late Tang poetry. Yulian Shchutsky’s newly found musical score at the exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art GARAGE in Moscow Shchutsky had various artistic talents but was modest about them. In his remarkable autobiography written in 1935, he says: “The greatest passion in my youth is music, especially Scriabin and later Bach. I was more interested in the theory of composition than performance. As a performer, I never achieved anything worthy of attention. Most of my music I wrote in the period of 1915 – 1923 – all of the pieces have been lost [1] . It is hardly possible to resume this work, since for this, it is necessary to live in music, and there is no time for that in my present life. […] Second in time and value in my life is of art and poetry. It began in 1918, but I do not treat my poems seriously. The only real result is mastering the poetic technique, which I use only as a translator. I was also engaged in painting, but I don’t have any real training in painting, except for lessons in the icon painting technique. I was also engaged in engraving on wood, but now I cannot continue these studies because of my poor eyesight. I participated in an exhibition at the Russian Museum in 1927. That’s all about my art.” In 1922 he met the poet Elisaveta Vasilieva (aka Cherubina de Gabriak) in St. Petersburg. On 3 March 1923 she wrote to her friend and fellow Anthroposophist, the poet Maximillian Voloshin: “Love came into my life, maybe I learnt how to give for the first time. He is much younger than me, and I want to save his life. He is both an Anthroposophist and a Sinologist. He holds music, poetry and painting in his hands.” In 1927, Vasilieva, who was an important figure in Russian Anthroposophical movement, was arrested and deported to Tashkent where she died on 5 December 1928. Before her death, Shchutsky visited her in Tashkent twice, on his way to Japan and back. On his first visit she wrote, inspired by him, 21 poems attributed to Li Xiang Zi, a fictional Chinese poet exiled for his “belief in the immortality of human spirit”. The name of Li Xiang, invented by Shchutsky, means “a philosopher from a house under a pear tree”, where Vasilieva indeed lived in Tashkent. It was also a phonetic play on Elisaveta’s first name. This literary mystification became her swan song. Shchutsky lived for another ten years full of professional achievements, as well as with fears of imminent repressions against him. He was arrested two months after defending his PhD dissertation on I-Ching in Pitkelevo, a village in the Leningrad province on 3 August 1937. He was charged with counter-revolutionary activities under articles 58-10 and 58-11 of the RSFSR Criminal Code, interrogated, tortured, trialled and finally shot on 18 February 1938. *** River… Here even rivers have green water, Like dense and lazy mica that has A shade of dust and wormwood … Ah, only in the North is the water blue … And here is the East. Between us, like a river, lies a desert, And tears are like sand. (Li Xiang Zi, Tashkent, 1927) Alexey Ulko , born in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) in 1969. [1] Some of his music scores have been found and displayed for the first time at the exhibition We Treasure our Lucid Dreams held in the Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art GARAGE for which I conducted this research – AU Previous Next

Veronika Dashkova < Back Gigantic dwarfs of Lake Balkhash: Journey into a microscopic world of phytoplankton. Veronika Dashkova “Nature has created a wealth of wondrous forms whose beauty and diversity way exceed anything that has been created by man”. Ernst Haeckel What do you see standing on the lake, river or sea shore and looking attentively at the water surface in front of you? You will surely see the colour of the water, the moving or steel surface, reflection of the sky, trees, buildings and other objects. If the water is transparent enough, you might see some floating bugs, small fish in the water column and bottom with sand, stones, mud or even corals. However, there is much more that our human eye cannot catch, a tremendous underwater world full of tiny microscopic organisms called plankton. These planktonic organisms drift in the water column, following a current anywhere it brings them. Plankton populate almost all water bodies on the Earth, from small ponds and lakes to the oceans. Although they are invisible to a naked eye, they play a gigantic role in the functioning of a whole aquatic ecosystem. As all terrestrial plants, phytoplankton use sun energy to synthesize organic elements from inorganic through the process of photosynthesis, and produce about 50% of all oxygen on the Earth. It is believed that the activity of ancient phytoplankton Cyanobacteria resulted in the rise of oxygen in the atmosphere and oceans around 2,4 billions years ago, which facilitated the diversification of Life on our planet. Diatomea. Ernst Haeckel. Kunstformen der Natur (1904). http://www.silentplankton.com/Gallery/View/Haeckel But that is not all. Every cell of phytoplankton is uniquely shaped and coloured, forming an incredible diversity of beautiful forms. Mother Nature created astonishing artwork, that blows up the imagination and fascinates with the perfect geometry of a cell structure architecture. Likewise, a 19th century German biologist, Ernst Haeckel, was so fascinated by the beauty of these forms and inspired to publish graphical illustrations of plankton in a monograph Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms in Nature) in 1904. Images of phytoplankton from Lake Balkhash (10x magnification) Not an exception, Lake Balkhash is inhabited by hundreds forms (species) of phytoplankton. Covering the territory of 15,730 sq. kilometers, Lake Balkhash is one of the largest endorheic lakes in the world, enclosed inside the continent without a connection to the ocean. This feature makes the lake susceptible to climate change mediated or man-made impact. The strongest example of the fragility of endorheic lakes and the dependence on human activity is the current fate of the Aral Sea, a similar lake located in the arid region. You can think of it as a cyclic process: any substantial and long-standing change brought by the environment, whether it is natural or man-made, mediate changes in the aquatic trophic webs, which in turn will affect the quality of life of local human communities and the economy of a whole region. For example, phytoplankton are the base of an aquatic trophic web, responsible for primary production and serving as food for larger plankton and fish, fueling the energy up to the higher trophic levels. The availability, composition and quantity of phytoplankton will therefore affect the diversity and quantity of fish stock in the lake, which is important for us. Images of phytoplankton from Lake Balkhash (10x magnification) The unique symbiosis of freshwater and brackish water and availability of micro-niches in the lake creates a ground for co-existence of various phytoplankton communities. There are about 400 different species of phytoplankton found in Lake Balkhash spanning taxonomic groups from Bacillariophyta, Cryptophyta, Haptophyta, Dinoflagellata, Chlorophyta, Charophyta, Euglenida, Cyanobacteria and others. Each species has found a place in the lake with favourable conditions of water with appropriate range of salinity, pH, oxygen level, organic and inorganic substances. For example, phytoplankton community of freshwater sites in the western part of the lake is completely different from the community inhabiting brackish water in the eastern part. You may think of phytoplankton as a natural indicator of what is going on outside. Despite their small microscopic size they sense and reflect any changes ongoing in the surrounding environment by changing their cell shapes, colour, size and abundance. By identifying the composition of the phytoplankton community, we can judge about the state of the ecosystems and presence of disturbants. Some phytoplankton are even able to withstand thermal and heavy metal pollution associated with the activity of the metallurgic plant nearby the city of Balkhash.Hidden in the water column, these organisms have always been witnessing different changes the lake was experiencing and have always been interacting with them. Expedition to Lake Balkhash. June 2016. Veronika Dashkova is a professional ecologist, PhD candidate in ecology, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. Previous Next

< Back THE CULTURAL INTERWEAVING OF CHINA AND THE BALKANS: A TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF ARTISTIC EXCHANGES UNDER THE BRI 3 Nov 2021 Marija Glavaš This text is the second in a series of close studies examining the cultural exchanges between China and the Balkan region under the BRI, taking art [events and exchanges] as its main focal point. In the first text , I focused on the ambitions and challenges of artistic exchanges in general, using contemporary Slovenia as an example of bad praxis. In this text, I will focus on Chinese art and provide a textual analysis of some artifacts and archives from the events and exhibitions previously mapped in my first contribution. As an anthropology student, I however lack the proper knowledge and tools to read these images adequately. Thus, I held an open-ended interview with colleagues Xu Tiantian and Ke Qiwen from Rockbund Art Museum and Nikita Yingqian Cai from Times Museum. Both of these museums are committed to presenting and researching contemporary art and they are partners of the As you go… inquiry. They have deep insight into the contemporary art context of China that I am learning about. Together we have read some of the images and they kindly shared their personal thoughts on these projects with me. I must note that these museums did not participate in any such projects under the BRI – most of the analyzed exchanges were happening through public Chinese institutions. As stated in the introductory text my main question was whether these exchanges live up to their potential of shifting away from classical national narratives and providing a common ground for different cultural identities. Before we dwell on the individual artifacts, events, and exchanges it is important to understand the context in which they are taking place. The BRI is mostly known for Chinese infrastructure investments in Asia, Africa, and (Central and Eastern) Europe. It is an initiative that is striving for both economic growth and economic connectivity amongst participating countries. These activities are usually in the spotlight raising both praise and condemnation. However, these investments are not the only activities under the BRI. Another important aspect of it are the artistic and cultural exchanges which are rarely discussed, praised or criticized. This may appear trivial at first as most people simply consider art as a form of entertainment and not much more beyond that. Art, however, when shared internationally, plays an important role in our perceptions of one another – it has the power to bring us closer together, realize our common points, and appreciate our differences. Considering the ever-rising xenophobia this is not negligible. On the example of China specifically, we are currently witnessing a concerning growth of hate towards the country and its people because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The novel coronavirus outbreak that could’ve happened anywhere played perfectly not just into many stereotypical narratives about the Chinese people, but also into political conspiracy theories brought up by cold war propaganda. These feelings of hate are not coincidental – they are the product of intentional alienation, lack of cultural worldliness, and apathy towards who we consider an Other. In this context, intercultural artistic exchanges can help bridge the divide and this is what the artistic exchanges under the BRI are ought to do. Namely, the aim of these exchanges is to form deeper bonds amongst participating countries and their citizens. As noted in my first contribution where I mapped cross-institutional artistic exchanges between China and Balkan countries, it is overtly stated in most exhibitions that their goal is to bring their cultures closer together through knowledge and understanding. However, they [artistic exchanges] often appear as a mere political masquerade with no real content to them, as the images presented don’t really represent contemporary Chinese identities. This opens up very important questions – do they live up to their supposed potential? Are they adding to positive societal change? Is there space for improvement? Below are my thoughts after conducting a workshop with a few colleagues from the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai and Times Museum in Guangzhou who shared their impressions with me. Due to limited visual material not all exhibitions could be used. The first thing one notices when looking at these exhibitions is that they are heavily centered around tradition. For instance, let us look at the Chinese Festival of Lights held in Belgrade in 2020. “Chinese Festival of Lights”, picture by Đorđe Tomić, 2020 These lantern festivals appear to be some of the most popular Chinese exhibitions all around the world. The lanterns are placed as theme parks and as such attract audiences that wouldn’t necessarily enter museums and galleries, giving them much more reach than your usual exhibition. The concept of lantern festivals reaches back to ancient China, and while the lanterns exhibited in Belgrade don’t resemble traditional Chinese lanterns, they portray very characteristic Chinese symbols. We see dragons, bamboo, hand fans, pandas etc. These festivals aren’t necessarily bad for one’s first encounter with Chinese art, especially since they are very inviting for broader audiences, but they don’t provide much more substance than what the average person would already think about when thinking about China. “Exhibiton of Contemporary Chinese Painting”, picture by Tanjung/Tanja Valić, 2019 Even when we look at the exhibitions of contemporary artists, such as the Ink Imagery exhibition held in Kuća Legata (Belgrade) in 2019, we see a lot of traditional influences. While some techniques, shapes, and perspectives presented in this exhibition aren’t traditional, the symbolism is. In the picture above we see a waterfall, the red sun, and a pine tree. In the picture below we can see cherry blossoms and other floral symbols. All of these symbols are very common in traditional Chinese ink painting. For foreigners whose eyes aren’t trained in Chinese art these could easily be understood as classical Chinese paintings and not paintings created by contemporary artists. “Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Painting”, picture by Tanjung/Tanja Valić, 2019 Such images are usually exhibited in state-owned institutions following narrow and strict narratives. From religious motives to mythological creatures – these paintings present an image of China that is very one-sided and static. We see a lot of bird-and-flower paintings and mountain-and-water paintings. Ever repeating compositions. We don’t get to see any diversity, just strictly canonical images, which have, through repetition, lost all of its meanings. Foreigners who are only subjected to this type of art very easily fall into the trap of thinking that this is all there is to China. And this is common to most of the Chinese art in these exhibitions held in the Balkan region. It is important to note that in the Balkan region, knowledge of Chinese art is very limited. We don’t see much of it exhibited in our museums and galleries, we don’t watch Chinese movies on television, we don’t hear Chinese music on the radio and we don’t learn about it extensively in schools. These limits make it hard to look at the art we do encounter critically. We don’t question the images that we see, the stories they are telling, and the gaps present in them. “Enthusiasm for Ink Wash Painting”, picture by T. Saletović, 2019 “Enthusiasm for Ink Wash Painting”, picture by T. Saletović, 2019 Some of the exhibitions were also historical in nature, showcasing historical art and important artifacts. Such exhibitions naturally bring tradition and historic culture closer to their audiences and for building intercultural understanding and empathy this is just as important as getting to know the contemporary identities, ideas, and characteristics. Yet, it seems that these historical images remain the only accessible knowledge of China and the Chinese people. Lord Baopu explains how to stay away from heat, 1644-1911, ink on silk It appears that what is provided in these artistic exchanges is just one fixed image of China. An image that hasn’t changed in ages, that’s full of gaps and that’s suppressing diversity. As such it cannot adequately represent Chinese identities, especially to foreigners who often lack the knowledge to separate reality from a constructed image. As mentioned above, in the Balkan region most people are very distanced from Chinese culture.They only discuss China in the context of politics which only distorts their views more. Exhibiting these ancient, historical, mythological and religious symbols furthers this mystification instead of providing knowledge and consequently enabling understanding. As Xu Tiantian, Ke Qiwen, and Nikita Yingqian Cai noted there is a big disconnect in these exhibitions from what China really is. There is not just one China and one Chinese identity. Based on carefully selected and distinctly narrated historical images, this forced oneness perfectly resembles classical nationalistic narratives, just served on a nicely decorated plate. This disconnect between representation and reality makes it hard for these exchanges to bridge the divide between the Balkan and Chinese people since knowledge always stays limited and carefully directed. To truly grasp the essence of a different culture the free transmission of knowledge is of utmost importance. And not just knowledge on history – also knowledge on the day-to-day lives of the Chinese people. In conclusion – these exhibitions, although presented as bridges between nations, only further promote nationalistic narratives. These may not enter the realms of radical nationalism, however, they also don’t surpass national conservatism. While the exhibitions held under the BRI provide audiences with entertaining and educational art, they don’t appear to fulfill their purpose of bridging the divide they acknowledge. Marija Glavaš , student of Culturology at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana Previous Next

< Back Astrobus Ethiopia 2021 | Omo Valley Southwest Ethiopia 11 May 2021 Forward Astrobus Ethiopia 2021 Omo Valley Southwest Ethiopia We invite you to join us on our journey of learning and unlearning that has already been underway for the past year with Astrobus-Ethiopia through the curatorial inquiry of As you go…roads under your feet, towards the new future. Astrobus was initially established in 2017 to reach students across Ethiopia with the aim to inspire, connect, and empower. In previous editions, scientists, astronomers, artists, writers, and filmmakers alike have hopped on the bus in Addis Ababa to embark on this journey of knowledge sharing. The previous year moving into 2021 has been unlike the years we have all personally experienced before. As Ethiopia continues to undergo an unceasing rise in covid cases (with a 1 in 4 infection rate), challenges have arisen regarding how to maintain distance with ones communities while still making a difference in localities who remain somewhat digitally estranged. How do we keep communities safe? How may we keep caring? How do those of us who are far from Ethiopia, with no connection to the knowledge of Astrobus, actively support, learn, and empower this kind of work, grounded in our interdependence in Ethiopia. How may we overcome physical separation but also transport this knowledge and care into our own immediate communities? In February earlier this year, the co-founders of Astrobus-Ethiopia, Yabebal Fantaye and Sinkneh Eshetu (who also make up one of the many partner cells of our project), conducted their first research trip to Omo Valley in Southwest Ethiopia to better understand the conditions under which this year’s Astrobus may happen. They visited several places with the aim to locally situate their intention – to not only understand local needs but to also explore the multitude of possibilities of what an encounter may be. More on the research trip can be read about here. In an interview with Yabebal Fantaye, she describes this year’s research trip: [The] ambition of Astrobus-Ethiopia is to reach students from all corners of Ethiopia through its series of events. In the past, the team has travelled to the north and the south of Ethiopia. This year, the team plans to travel to the Lower Omo valley, the south west of Ethiopia, which is known for its extraordinary cultural diversity; approximately 8 ethnic groups; and ecosystems including grasslands and pristine forests, and other natural wonders. Omotic-speakers are endemic to the south Omo and include the Ari, Maale, Daasanach, and the Hamar-Banna. The region is home to the vast omo park, and the massive Gibe III dam built on the Omo river. The full interview can be read here . From May 10th, the activation of Astrobus 2021 will begin and will continue for six days. We will find ways to follow their activities on daily basis and to share their experiences with you. After the project ends, we will continue to share the accumulated knowledge of Astrobus to our local communities, to actively learn from their mode of working. Saving you a seat on the bus, Biljana Ciric The team for Astrobus-Ethiopia 2021 includes: Science & Technology Team: Yabebal Fantaye, Sinkneh Eshetu, Redeat Asefa, Bezawit Tesfaye, Alemiye Mamo, Shambel Sahlu, and Eyerusalem Tamirat. Art & Innovation Team: Yeabtsega Getachew, Michael Abebaw Felleke, Efrata Birhanu, Kalkidan Taddesse, Betelhem Abebe, Lidiya Zelke, Robel Kiros, Tinsae Tsegahun, Yidnekachew Weldesilase (ይድነቃቸው ወልደስላሴ), and Abiy Hailu Astrobus 2021 has been supported through As you go..roads under your feet, towards the new future inquiry and CURTAIN with Rockbund Art Museum. The inquiry is composed of research cells including What Could Should Curating Do (Belgrade), Moderna Galerija (Ljubljana), Rockbund Art Museum (Shanghai), Guangdong Times Museum (Guangzhou), ArtCom (Astana), Robel Temesgen and Sinkneh Eshetu (Addis Ababa), and The Public Library (Bor). The first stage of the project has been supported by the Foundation for Arts Initiatives, CURTAIN (Rockbund Art Museum), Austrian Cultural Forum, Curatorial Practice (Monash University Art, Design and Architecture), and the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. Local partners of Astrobus 2021 include: Ethiopian Space Science & Technology Institute (ESSTI), Ethiopian Space Science Society (ESSS), the University of Arbaminch, and the University of Jinka. Previous Next

2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 < Participants Educational Program Programs >

Alumni Alumni 2019 Lecture Series Participant Activities Alumni is an independent curator, cultural activist, and founder of the creative communication platform Artcom. She was born in 1987 in Kazakhstan and continues to live and work in Astana. Kapar curates and organizes exhibitions, urban art interventions, discussions, lectures, and workshops. To accomplish such wide-ranging initiatives she often collaborates closely with art and educational institutions, as well as scientific apparatuses. In 2015, she founded the open online platform Artcom in conjunction with the local art community. The platform brings together different cultural figures to share experiences and discover channels for greater interaction within society in order to develop and promote contemporary art and culture. In 2017, Aigerim initiated the Art Collider informal school—when art meets science. Through this initiative artists and scientists jointly conduct research and present lectures and discussions related to current issues. The results of the school are presented through exhibitions, publications, and audio-visual materials. < Mentors Educational Program Menu >

Events Lecture Series Participant Activities Walking as a Way of Knowing – Belgrade For the fall we announce new and revisited existing series of walks as a proposal for artistic interventions to think and practice history and knowledge through entangled encounters. From September onwards, we invite you to join the "Walking as a Way of Knowing – Belgrade", a series of walks within the city, which will be presented each season. These unique explorations are led by local artists, curators, architects, scholars designed through their own research interests, providing different pulses of Belgrade. While drafting these walks, we had in mind Donna Haraway's thinking that only a partial perspective promises an objective vision. (Haraway, Situated Knowledges) These walks are designed to showcase the multifaceted Belgrade, revealing its marginalized histories, and vibrant multicultural identity through the senses and insights. As Australian thinker Stephen Muecke argues that there is a need to study specific, local places in order to “put things more on the scale of everyday living.” [1] Hence, our second season of walking together will start in september and it will be possible to walk with us until the end of October . Each walk will have its own unique focus on the diverse and ever-changing city landscape and show how we can experience it through different senses. Based on her award-winning book Singing Belgrade: Urban Identity and Music Videos Irena Šentevska takes you to a tour of Belgrade which explores some landmarks of the city’s music life since the beginnings of its exposure to influences from the global pop culture. In 2019 The Museum of Modern Art in New York opened an exhibition named Toward a Concrete Utopia and included the original plans and drawings of the building settlement Cerak Vinogradi. Around the same time, Cerak Vinogradi was granted the status of cultural landmark by the state, thus being the first modern neighborhood in this part of Europe and one of three in the rest of the continent with such privilege. Artists Jelena Andzic in collaboration with Kulturni Cerak explores importance of this settlement. With artist Dunja Karanovic we continue feminist walks uncovering histories of the woman and their presence in the public sphere. [1] Muecke, Benterrak and Roe, Reading the Country, 21. Singing Belgrade Walk by Irena Sentevska October 26th 11am Meeting Point: Pobednik Monument, Kalemegdan Fortress Language: English Duration: two to three hours Based on her award-winning book Singing Belgrade: Urban Identity and Music Videos Irena Šentevska takes you to a tour of Belgrade which explores some landmarks of the city’s music life since the beginnings of its exposure to influences from the global pop culture. We start at the Kalemegdan Fortress where we talk about the beginnings of rock ’n’ roll in Belgrade and the culture of lively dance parties (igranke) often held in open air venues. We also talk about neo- folk and the urban-rural divide in Serbia’s popular music. Then we use your smartphones to watch some videos from various music genres, all of them set in Kalemegdan. The tour then takes us to the Students’ Cultural Center (SKC), the unofficial headquarters of Belgrade’s punk and new wave scenes in the 1980s. After some consideration of the importance of SKC for Serbia’s hip-hop and segments of the contemporary underground music scene we take a long ride to ‘South Central Kotež’, Belgrade’s remote northern suburb and home to Serbia’s most famous rappers. If we are lucky, some of them might join us to discuss their rise to stardom. About Irena Sentevska Irena Šentevska received her PhD from the department of arts and media theory of the University of Arts in Belgrade. She is author of two books in Serbian, The Swinging 90s: theatre and social reality of Serbia (2016), and Singing Belgrade: urban identity and music videos (2023), which received the Belgrade City Assembly’s annual award for social sciences and humanities. Her articles have been published by leading academic presses in Europe and the US (Routledge, Palgrave, Taylor and Francis, Peter Lang, Indiana UP, De Gruyter, Berghahn Books, Bloomsbury Academic etc.) She was member of the regional research teams for the project Unfinished Modernisations: Between Utopia and Pragmatism (2012) and exhibition Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia 1948-1980 held in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York (2018). Irena lectured at the interdisciplinary doctoral studies of the University of Arts in Belgrade and received lecture invitations from various university departments and cultural institutions based in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Ljubljana, Rijeka, Prague, Graz, Zürich, Karlsruhe, Tel Aviv etc. In her spare time she enjoys Nordic walking. The Little Town on Top of The Hill – Cerak Vinogradi October 19th 11:00am Walk by Jelena Andzic and Kulturni Cerak Language: English Meeting point: In front of entrance of Vojno Medicinski Center Duration: two to three hours In 1981 a new building settlement was erected on the outskirts of Belgrade, called Cerak Vinogradi. The author team consisted of architects Milenija and Darko Marušić together with Nedeljko Borovnica. At the time of its construction Cerak Vinogradi represented the peak of modern residential architecture. In 2019 it became the first modern neighborhood in this part of Europe and one of three in the rest of the continent, which was granted the status of cultural asset. Furthermore, the architects' plans and drawings were included in the exhibition Concrete Utopia at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. After the exhibition ended it was selected for the museum’s permanent collection, being one of only two works from Serbia that had the honor of being included in it. The uniqueness of the settlement is, beyond doubt, the fact that it was constructed around the idea of walking. Unlike many architectural projects today, whose main aim is to extract any additional square meter, Cerak Vinogradi was built in harmony with its surroundings, not in spite of it. As the terrain on which the settlement was constructed is steep, the walking paths were built along the idea of isolines - lines that connect same altitude points. This allows the residents to walk easily through the neighborhood, encountering many spots designed for socializing and public use. These are called micro-ambients that take many forms - small amphitheaters, isolated bench nooks, etc. They were carefully designed with intent for the pedestrian to slow down, which is something that we are growing unaccustomed to in this ever-accelerating world. Furthermore, these public spaces are a rarity in today's Belgrade, attesting to their occupation by restaurants and cafes. On the other hand, the public spaces that are decentralized are still open to public use, however due to this very fact, their maintenance is constantly being neglected. The walk will be led in cooperation with Kulturni Cerak, an organization whose main aim is the preservation of the settlement's cultural identity. It consists of architects that have been working closely with Milenija Marušić over the years. It is thanks to their constant effort that the settlement hasn't been overlooked and forgotten, which has sadly been the fate of many past projects of architectural importance. The walk will also feature a private/public reading of the artist's publication Poems for The Little Town on Top of the Hill, a book of collaged poems which she has done as a response to the state's neglect of Cerak Vinogradi About Jelena Andzic Jelena Andžić is a visual artist from Belgrade, Serbia. She received her MFA in Set Design at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2019 and in 2016 graduated from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade. She spent two years at the Metàfora Studio Arts program in Barcelona and defended her final thesis at MACBA in January 2022. Her artistic practice revolves around the static image and the potential it holds in terms of giving and absorbing knowledge. Her main points of interest are the impenetrability and ambiguity painting inherently possesses, as well as the different roles time plays in painting and photography. She had her solo exhibition at N.O. Concept Gallery (Belgrade) and took part in group exhibitions in Homesession (Barcelona),àngels barcelona | Espai 2 (Barcelona), Mutuo galería (Barcelona), Cultural Center Pančevo (Pančevo), Museum of Applied Arts (Belgrade). In 2022 she was a resident at Fabra I Coats: Fàbrica de Creació in Barcelona. She was a participant in the 2022 WC/SCD educational program. She is currently based in Belgrade. About Kulturni Cerak Tamara Nikolić Prodić Born in 1997 in Belgrade. I have completed both undergraduate and graduate studies at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade. Volunteered at the Belgrade Architecture Week and participated in several international architectural congresses and competitions. Currently engaged on architectural and cultural heritage revitalisation projects in private practice. The president and one of the founders of the "Cultural Cerak" association. Nađa Vujović Born in Belgrade in 1997. I have completed both undergraduate and graduate studies at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade. Currently working in private practice in the field of urban planning. I studied the topic of citizen participation in the development of strategies for the implementation of sustainable development goals, as well as the return of biodiversity to cities. I am one of the founders of the "Cultural Cerak" association. Olivera Gaborov Lazić Born in 1968 in Zrenjanin. I obtained the title of Graduate Engineer of Architecture from the Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade. Employed in the field of urban planning. As a resident of the Cerak Vinogradi settlement, I have been actively engaged in activism and the protection of the settlement as a cultural asset within my professional domain since 2015. I have been an active member of the association "Cultural Cerak'' since its foundation. As an expert team within our association, we focus on designing and implementing projects in architecture, urban planning, cultural heritage preservation, and environmental protection. Our key projects include: Monitoring planning documents for the Cerak Vinogradi area and Belgrade city; Participating in the preparation of urban and planning documents; Conducting research, preservation and digitization of archival materials related to our locality; Renovating the local green areas by planting specific types of trees as per horticulture and landscaping projects; Organizing urban culture workshops tailored for different age groups. Painter. Poet. National Hero October 12th 11am Walk by Dunja Karanovic Language: English Duration: two to three hours The names and faces we pass on our daily commutes and wanderings are rarely reflected upon, and sometimes they even seem arbitrary, but the ways in which our public spaces are organized are highly political and shape our cultural and collective identities. In Belgrade, only 4.37% of streets are named after women, many of whom are not even historical figures but mythical heroines and metaphors. Out of the 115 streets whose names commemorate women, 73% are among the smallest, and 26.1% are so-called ‘dead end’ streets. What this speaks to is the implicit gendering of public spaces and the century-long division between the private and public spheres as inherently masculine and feminine. In order to see beyond the systematic exclusion of women from public spaces, we have to look not only at what little is there, but at what’s invisible and hidden within the margins. In the second edition of our feminist walks, we will be (re)discovering the streets, monuments, and artistic interventions in public space that tell the history of Belgrade from the perspective of women. Join us from September to learn more about the women artists, authors, heroines, and peace activists who left their mark on the city from the 19th century to the 1990s. Dunja Karanović is a visual artist and journalist based in Belgrade, Serbia. She holds an MA degree from the UNESCO Chair in Cultural Policy and Management at the University of Arts in Belgrade and an MFA from the China Academy of Arts. In her practice, she explores ways of bridging cultural policy, theory, and practice through interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches that foster radical friendship and collective care. Her research is focused on mainstreaming care in cultural institutions and reimagining them as slower, softer, and more inclusive spaces. She is a regular contributor of Liceulice magazine. She is passionate about feminist art histories, embroidery, the small, and the marginal. Please arrive 15 minutes prior to your walk. Pre-booking is required via email or instagram Send us your full name and title of a walk Please note that all group walks have limited capacity Price tickets: 1,760 dinars We do not accept debit or credit cards Photos by Jelena Andzic < Mentors Educational Program How to Apply >

< Back NETWORKING THE PERIPHERIES: LOOKING EAST FROM THE EAST 15 Oct 2021 Jelica Jovanović Adding or Subtracting, Multiplying or Dividing: The Equations of the 17+1 Initiative While writing this entry, I am waiting for my Covid-19 booster shot, just like circa half a million of my fellow citizens in Serbia, which means that it would be the third jab that I will get this year. Meanwhile, I was infected with corona virus in May and had mild symptoms of the disease, but this had happened after I got vaccinated with two doses of the Vero cell / Sinopharm vaccine by mid-February. This situation sums up briefly the dubious situation that Serbia is currently in. While the citizens of many countries of the world are waiting for their first jab and will most probably continue to wait at least until 2022, Serbia has different set of problems. Serbian government obtained enough jabs for the country’s population very early in 2021. However, due to widespread disinformation’s of the anti-vax movement and general distrust among the citizens, the estimations are that around 40% of citizens are vaccinated in Serbia, which is not enough for the collective immunity, and leads to further spread of the infection and potential appearance of new mutations of the virus [1] . Earlier this year, the mass vaccination with Vero cell / Sinopharm vaccines in Serbia raised many questions: how much it costs [2] , under which circumstances was it registered and approved [3] and whether Serbia’s mass vaccination program is in fact the third phase trial of the vaccine efficiency [4] . The doubts have further increased since the European Medicines Agency (EMA) is still reviewing and has not approved the Sinopharm vaccine, while the procedure commenced in May 2021 [5] . However, the fear of disease and death seemed to have trumped all the above mentioned legal and formal concerns, as the global race for vaccine was gaining traction. At the beginning of vaccination process in February 2021, Serbia had second highest rate of vaccination in Europe, just behind United Kingdom. Today, as I am writing, the country is ravaged by the virus, with more than 50 deaths and more than 7000 infections per day, which is among highest infection rates globally [6] . New cases and deaths from Covid-19, JHU CSSE COVID-19 Data, accessed 21.10.2021. Vaccination rollout for Covid-19, Our World in Data, accessed 21.10.2021. Although the modus operandi of Serbian government regarding the purchase of the vaccines was criticized, especially within the context of the geopolitics of Serbia’s cordial relations with PR China and Russian Federation while accessing European Union, many countries were looking (South)East and seeking ways and means to follow the example of Serbia. The prime minister of Hungary declared that he was waiting to see how the vaccination plays out in Serbia [7] , but Hungarian government had announced that it is not going to wait for Brussels but start the procurement procedures for Chinese vaccines. Western media wrote about the “healthcare Silkroad” of the Chinese government as a way of salvaging the ruined initiative 16+1 with the “mask diplomacy”, and how the loyalty of Serbia – unlike the other members of the initiative – actually paid off [8] . As the process of vaccination in European Union got off to a rough start in December 2020, the discrete signals were sent by European Union high officials that they too are open to diversifying the sources of vaccines, and not opposed to Russian or Chinese companies providing them [9] . Painfully aware of the country’s peripheral status, Serbian government diversified the suppliers from the onset, and even started negotiations to produce the Sinopharm and Sputnik V vaccines [10] . Source: Covid: How Serbia soared ahead in vaccination campaign, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55931864 , accessed 10.2.2021. But what is this Initiative 16+1 and how is it currently related to Serbia? In 2012 the initiative 16+1 (also known as Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries (China-CEE, China-CEEC) was kick-started by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This initiative was formed as a as a transnational cooperation forum, which should’ve brought together the 16 countries of Central and Eastern Europe on one side and China on the other side, in various cooperation projects within the Belt and Road Initiative. The following countries are members of this initiative: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia. With the entry of Greece in 2019, the initiative formally changed its name to 17+1. This cooperation platform between the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and China was formed after the China-Central and Eastern Europe Economic and Trade Forum was held in Budapest in 2011, and every year since then a meeting was held in one of the member states [11] . Every member state has national coordinators, while the secretariat is situated in Beijing. The meeting planned for 2020 was supposed to take place in Beijing, but was cancelled due to the Covid 19 pandemic, which was seen as an opportunity to launch activities and interventions to counteract the projects that have been either negotiated or considered within this initiative: in Czech Republic China’s General Nuclear Power was excluded from the bidding for the expansion of Dukovany nuclear power plant [12] , in Croatia a 50-years concession for the port of Rijeka was halted as it became clear that the consortium of Chinese companies offered the highest bid [13] , Romanian government decided to bar Chinese companies from the public infrastructure projects, namely, highroad constructions which was extensively done by Chinese companies like Synohydro and PowerChina [14] , while one of the last moves of the previous US administration was to halt the construction of the Huawei’s 5G telecommunication infrastructure in the Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. However, Serbia seems unfazed by these events, and although the government signed the agreement in Washington to forbid the use of a 5G network procured from unreliable customers – the so called “clean 5g network initiative” [15] – this did not prevent Huawei from opening the Center for Innovations and Development in Belgrade mid-September 2020 [16] . This is not the only project undertaken by the Huawei in Serbia: the company participated in the setup of the broadband infrastructure of the state telecommunication company, installed surveillance systems in streets of Belgrade, participated in setup of the data center in Kragujevac, development of the infrastructure for the public communal and educational services [17] . Furthermore, the government continues to sign more and more contracts worth billions of dollars for various infrastructural developments and redevelopments, such as the construction of the new metro system in Belgrade, construction of wastewater treatment plants and sewerage networks in 65 municipalities, rehabilitation and/or construction of six regional landfills and planned construction of 7 powerplants, financed by the loans from Chinese banks. [18] The criticism regarding – what seems to be – preferential status of Chinese capital in Serbia, which is coming from the western countries, is dampened by opening and diversifying the market for similar agreements with companies and banks coming from the West – loans for high ways, direct foreign investments for companies from West subsidized by Serbian government etc [19] . Having in mind which are the projects of Chinese companies in Serbia [20] , the pattern is clear: while China is mostly focused onto the sectors of telecommunications, traffic and mining, on the other hand Serbia is (re)constructing its most robust metallurgical industries, proverbially labeled as long-time losers and the sores of the country’s economy, as well as decrepit traffic routes and nonexistent sub-structures which are neuralgic points of the communal organization and sanitation. Leading Investors by number of projects (%). Source: RAS, 2021, https://ras.gov.rs/uspesne-price , 21.10.2021. Debt Trap, Deathtrap, Something Else? Interpretations of the Presence of Chinese Capital in Serbia. An inconspicuous office building in New Belgrade Block 21, recently turned heritage site, was leased to the Bank of China, which started its operations in Belgrade in 2016 [21] . The bank is working with the legal entities only, primarily oriented towards corporate customers and entrepreneurs. However, its presence is considered a token of China’s benevolence towards Serbia, or at least the pragmaticism regarding the servicing of the loans that Serbian government and corporate sector had taken from China’s central bank. The loans were not as high until recently: Serbia was the top borrower among the Balkan countries, but the overall numbers were not as dramatic as the media outcry made it look: 1.3 billion Euros was but a portion of external debt, and most of it was aimed at reconstructing the large infrastructural systems – the country’s decrepit railroad, for which it wasn’t possible to borrow from other sources, or the procedures were deemed complicated, because of the lack of prepared technical documentation from Serbia’s part and the restrictions regarding the direct bargaining [22] . China’s investments in the Western Balkans region, https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/srbija-kina-rudnik-bor/30266925.html , accessed 20.03.2021. However, the situation with the neighboring Montenegro could shed some light onto the narratives regarding the situation: the construction of the highway Bar – Boljare, worth 809 million EUR was funded by 688,2 million EUR loan from Exim bank. The road ‘from nowhere to nowhere’ matures mid-2021, and the government seeks assistance from EU in breaking the debt trap of China by helping finance the return of the loan [23] . Similar narrative is present around Serbia’s situation, but rather amplified, as Serbia took several loans during 2020 and early 2021, and the total public debt of the country amounted to 28,161,393,966.75 EUR by 15th of March 2021, while the government continues to issue Euro bonds. The loans have been aimed mostly at traffic systems’ construction and waste management, while very little has been put towards investment into productional cappacities of the country. Meanwhile, the question of how any of the loans will be returned, as the economic basis of the country has been riuned during the wars and the exhausting transition, while the government is almost exclusively relying on direct foreign investments stimulated from the state budget – either from East or West, is put aside. The state of the public debt of Serbia on 30th of November 2019 was 24.521.726.735 EUR, while the unsecured debt of the local governments is 401.508.234 EUR, http://www.javnidug.gov.rs/lat/default.asp?P=46 , accessed 31.03.2021. Preliminary balance of the public debt of the Republic of Serbia on March 15, 2021. amounted to 3,308,448,330,691 RSD (28,161,393,966.75 EUR), Public Debt Administration of Serbia, http://www.javnidug.gov.rs , accessed 24.03.2021. Share of investments by sectors by number of projects (%), Source: RAS, 2021, https://ras.gov.rs/uspesne-price , 21.10.2021. The industries that are being revived by loans from China, however, are almost all considered to be so called ‘dirty technologies’ – either investments into mining, both the existing capacities and creation of new ones, or revival and expansion of fossil fuel industrial capacities, either in field of production (rubber, tires, plastics) or energy (thermal power stations). Many experts agree, Serbia has electrical energy mostly owing to its capacities that are depending on coal, and needs to act very soon, if it were to achieve the goals of decarbonization and transition to renewables and needs to do it now in order to avoid paying penalties for the stalling and disruption of the process, as well as the pollution created in the production and consumption process [24] . However, the patience among the citizens seems to have been exhausted, as the rising number of ecological initiatives and associations are demanding action. Furthermore, the problems with mining companies in Serbia, Zijin and Rio Tinto being the most prominent and most visible publicly, are raising questions regarding Serbia’s role in the global tech lust, as well as the global displacement of dirty technologies [25] . Serbia seems to be in the center of these tendencies, as in the recent farewell visit Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany, bluntly explained: to reduce Germany’s industry’s dependence from lithium mined in China, Germany and EU are very much interested in Serbia’s allegedly high reserves of borate and lithium ores [26] . Meanwhile, to offset the negative marketing of these projects and reduce the potential for insurgence in the places where these mines were planned to open, the government is shyly announcing subsidies for individual households for the upgrades of fenestration, thermal insulation, and purchase of efficient boilers, even new regulation of prosumers’ role in energy production, which has been problematic over the course of last several years [27] . The politicians are also stating as a subtext that Serbia would have to import photovoltaic technology (as well as other ‘green technologies’), which is strange having in mind that opening of the factories for producing batteries – presumably out of locally mined lithium – was promised [28] . SOURCES 8th Summit of Central and Eastern European Countries & China, https://www.ceec-china-croatia.org/en/about-cooperation/ , accessed 31.01.2021. https://china-cee.eu , accessed 20.10.2021. https://www.mfa.gov.rs/lat/spoljna-politika/bilateralna-saradnja/kina , accessed 20.10.2021. Конференција „Појас и пут: балканска перспектива“, https://fb.bg.ac.rs/2018/08/03/konferencija-pojas-i-put-balkanska-perspektiva/ , accessed 20.10.2021. II Међународна конференција БАЛКАН НА НОВОМ ПУТУ СВИЛЕ, https://fb.bg.ac.rs/2017/11/23/ii-medjunarodna-konferencija-balkan-na-novom-putu-svile/ , accessed 20.10.2021. ПОЈАС И ПУТ: Србија и Иницијатива 16+1 (искуства, достигнућа и перспективе), https://fb.bg.ac.rs/2019/04/10/11108/ , accessed 20.10.2021. Научна конференција „Кинески социјализам и модерни светски поредак (Сто година од оснивања Комунистичке партије Кине)“, https://fb.bg.ac.rs/2021/08/20/naucna-konferencija-kineski-socijalizam-i-moderni-svetski-poredak-sto-godina-od-osnivanja-komunisticke-partije-kine/ , accessed 20.10.2021. Jelica Jovanović is an architect and PhD student at the University of Technology in Vienna, working as an independent researcher. [1] Poverenje u vlast i vakcine – kako su tri države EU ukinule sve mere, https://www.dw.com/sr/poverenje-u-vlast-i-vakcine-kako-su-tri-države-eu-ukinule-sve-mere/a-59229591 , accessed 20.10.2021. [2] Šta se zna o Sinofarmovoj vakcini koja je u milion doza stigla u Srbiju, https://www.danas.rs/drustvo/sta-se-zna-o-sinofarmovoj-vakcini-koja-je-u-milion-doza-stigla-u-srbiju/ , accessed 9.2.2021. [3] Dok Agencija za lekove ćuti, antivakcinaši urlaju, https://www.istinomer.rs/analize/dok-agencija-za-lekove-cuti-antivakcinasi-urlaju/ , accessed 9.2.2021. [4] Serbia to participate in the third phase of testing Chinese vaccine, https://europeanwesternbalkans.com/2020/09/08/serbia-to-participate-in-the-third-phase-of-testing-chinese-vaccine/ , accessed 9.2.2021. [5] EMA starts rolling review of COVID-19 Vaccine (Vero Cell) Inactivated, https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/ema-starts-rolling-review-covid-19-vaccine-vero-cell-inactivated [6] Korona virus: U Srbiji se epidemijska situacija ne smiruje, iz SZO kažu da će pandemije biti i sledeće godine, https://www.bbc.com/serbian/lat/srbija-56839529 ; https://covid19.rs , 21.10.2021. [7] Za Orbana Srbija „predsoblje“ za kinesku vakcinu, sad i Mađari najavili kupovinu, https://rs.n1info.com/vesti/za-orbana-srbija-predsoblje-za-kinesku-vakcinu-i-madjari-najavili-kupovinu/ , Commission: Hungary free to buy Chinese vaccine, https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/short_news/commission-hungary-free-to-buy-chinese-vaccine/ , accessed 9.2.2021. [8] Frankfurter algemajne cajtung: „Zdravstveni put svile“, https://www.dw.com/sr/frankfurter-algemajne-cajtung-zdravstveni-put-svile/a-56499471?fbclid=IwAR3lMALuFDKafr9KOQnQD1Fp4ToUj9IgwV4LocR8drucBEX4HTFfs8uNJ34 , accessed 9.2.2021. [9] EU open to Chinese, Russian COVID-19 vaccines: media, https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-02-04/EU-open-to-Chinese-Russian-COVID-19-vaccines-media–XBBI8P1phm/index.html , It’s Time to Trust China’s and Russia’s Vaccines, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/05/opinion/covid-vaccines-china-russia.html?fbclid=IwAR3Ky2b0h5VW7bOos2lQDgi5-H7wtkKjsTX9i-FnYGIgg_2uUT1Q1vbAONE , Zarobljeni u geopolitici, zagledani u Srbiju, https://www.dw.com/sr/zarobljeni-u-geopolitici-zagledani-u-srbiju/a-56530912?fbclid=IwAR0jsc_c-6hbxt3pllxcksiqhmjI9_li4NsGNTOzh0MY—ZqxijLVddyL0 , accessed 11.2.2021. [10] Serbia to start producing Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, https://www.euractiv.com/section/china/news/serbia-to-start-producing-chinese-sinopharm-vaccine/ ; Počela proizvodnja vakcine ‘Sputnjik V’ u Srbiji, https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/sputnjik-v-torlak-srbija/31291004.html ; Lončar: Od oktobra proizvodnja kineske vakcine u Srbiji, do kraja godine oko šest miliona doza, https://www.danas.rs/vesti/drustvo/loncar-od-oktobra-proizvodnja-kineske-vakcine-u-srbiji-do-kraja-godine-oko-sest-miliona-doza/ , accessed 21.10.2021. [11] In Dubrovnik (2019), Sofia (2018), Budapest (2017), Riga (2016), Suzhou (2015), Belgrade (2014), Bucharest (2013) and Warsaw (2012). [12] POWER PLAY: RACE FOR CZECH NUCLEAR PLANT STIRS GEOPOLITICAL STEW, https://balkaninsight.com/2020/06/26/power-play-race-for-czech-nuclear-plant-stirs-geopolitical-stew/ , accessed 9.2.2021. [13] “NAJBOLJA PONUDA NA TENDERU” Mediji: Kinezi NE ULAZE u riječku luku zbog PRITISKA Evrope i Amerike, https://www.blic.rs/vesti/svet/najbolja-ponuda-na-tenderu-mediji-kinezi-ne-ulaze-u-rijecku-luku-zbog-pritiska-evrope/seyy0tn , accessed 9.2.2021. [14] Romania moves to bar Chinese firms from public infrastructure projects, https://www.neweurope.eu/article/romania-moves-to-bar-chinese-firms-from-public-infrastructure-projects/ , accessed 9.2.2021. [15] Srbija i Kosovo potpisali sporazum o normalizaciji ekonomskih odnosa, https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/kosovo-srbija-hoti-vucic-sjedinjene-drzave-tramp-potpisivanje-bela-kuca/30820416.html , Ko je u Evropi podržao inicijativu za čistu 5g mrežu?, https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/čista-mreža-5g-evropa/30913291.html , accessed 9.2.2021. [16] Srbija i Huawei: Intenziviranje saradnje uprkos sporazumu iz Vašingtona, https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/srbija-i-huawei-intenziviranje-saradnje-uprkos-sporazumu-iz-vašingtona/30840366.html , accessed 9.2.2021. [17] Poslovi kompanije Huawei u Srbiji, https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/30825582.html , accessed 9.2.2021. [18] China and France agree $5bn plan to build Belgrade metro, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u24Py5JKO0&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR31KHyDxDbPhJwjAT3T-rDJ2ObJZwl0P8u0h0hNY757K5x3OiS6_-GQnhQ ; Kineski CRBC dobio posao od 3,2 milijarde evra za otpadne vode, deponije, https://balkangreenenergynews.com/rs/kineski-crbc-dobio-posao-od-32-milijarde-evra-za-otpadne-vode-deponije/#comments , Coal in the Balkans, https://bankwatch.org/project/coal-in-the-balkans#1503303885469-aa188fed-71ee accessed 9.2.2021. [19] https://www.putevi-srbije.rs/index.php/sr/ ; Počev od 2007. godine, Srbija je privukla preko 34 milijarde evra stranih direktnih investicija, https://ras.gov.rs/uspesne-price , accessed 20.10.2021. [20] The first project of the 16+1 inititive in Serbia was the Pupin Bridge in Belgrade, followed by the contract for railroad reconstruction on the Corridor 10. Within the last 3 years Chinese companies have also proceeded to take over the core heavy industries in Serbia, such as steel mill in Smederevo with a branch in Šabac and two ports in Smederevo and copper and gold mines in Bor and Majdanpek, as well as construct a tire factory in Zrenjanin (which is connected to the recent revitalization of the nearby synthetic rubber factory in Elemir, https://ilovezrenjanin.com/vesti-zrenjanin/ponovo-radi-elemirska-kaucukara/ , https://www.hip-petrohemija.com/press/vesti/uspesno-pokrenuta-proizvodnja-u-hip-petrohemiji.n-623.45.html , accessed 9.2.2021.). [21] https://www.bankofchina.com/rs/ , accessed 9.2.2021. [22] https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/podrška-eu-modernizaciji-pruga-u-srbiji/30801551.html , accessed 9.2.2021. [23] EU “čula” Dritana: Nudi pomoć Crnoj Gori oko duga Kini, https://www.bizlife.rs/eu-cula-dritana-nudi-pomoc-crnoj-gori-oko-duga-kini/ ; Crna Gora: Autoputem u dužničku klopku Kine, https://www.dw.com/sr/crna-gora-autoputem-u-dužničku-klopku-kine/a-55936310 ; Srbijablizu dogovora sa Kinom da otkupi crnogorski dug za auto-put?, https://www.b92.net/biz/vesti/srbija.php?yyyy=2020&mm=09&dd=21&nav_id=1736205 ; Raste kineski uticaj u Crnoj Gori: Ogrlica od bisera i omča od dugova, https://www.vijesti.me/vijesti/ekonomija/524949/raste-kineski-uticaj-u-crnoj-gori-ogrlica-od-bisera-i-omca-od-dugova , accessed31.3.2021. [24] EPS: Elektrane konzervirati i držati u rezervi, https://novaekonomija.rs/vesti-iz-zemlje/eps-elektrane-konzervirati-i-držati-u-rezervi , 21.10.2021. [25] Eco-imperialism: the global relocation of pollution, https://amplitudemagazin.com/eko-imperijalizam-globalno-izmestanje-zagadjenja/ , accessed 9.2.2021. [26] Merkel: i Nemačka zainteresovana za litijum u Srbiji, https://balkangreenenergynews.com/rs/merkel-i-nemacka-zainteresovana-za-litijum-u-srbiji/ , Akademik Stevanović, SANU: nepovratne posledice u slučaju izgradnje rudnika litijuma, https://balkangreenenergynews.com/rs/akademik-stevanovic-sanu-nepovratne-posledice-u-slucaju-izgradnje-rudnika-litijuma/ , accessed 21.10.2021. [27] Iz ličnog iskustva – Šta vas sve čeka ako u Srbiji želite da postanete prozjumer?, https://balkangreenenergynews.com/rs/iz-licnog-iskustva-sta-vas-sve-ceka-ako-u-srbiji-zelite-da-postanete-prozjumer/ ; U Srbiji sve lakše korišćenje solarne energije – šta treba daznate ukoliko želite da sami proizvodite struju?, https://balkangreenenergynews.com/rs/u-srbiji-sve-lakse-koriscenje-solarne-energije-sta-treba-da-znate-ukoliko-zelite-da-sami-proizvodite-struju/ , Srbija usvojila uredbu o prozjumerima: u tri koraka do struje iz solarnihpanela, https://balkangreenenergynews.com/rs/srbija-usvojila-uredbu-o-prozjumerima-u-tri-koraka-do-struje-iz-solarnih-panela/ , accessed 21.10.2021. [28] Vučić: Pravićemo najuspešniju fabriku za litijum baterije, https://biznis.telegraf.rs/info-biz/3274005-vucic-pravicemo-najuspesniju-fabriku-za-litijum-baterije ; Vučić Rio Tintu: Pazićemo na ekologiju, uz rudnik da bude i fabrika za baterije, https://biznis.telegraf.rs/info-biz/3345675-vucic-rio-tintu-pazicemo-na-ekologiju-uz-rudnik-da-bude-i-fabrika-za-baterije , “NEMAMO MORE, ALI IMAMO JADARIT” Vučić: Imaćemo najveću fabriku baterija za električna vozila, https://www.blic.rs/biznis/nemamo-more-ali-imamo-jadarit-vucic-imacemo-najvecu-fabriku-baterija-za-elektricna/bwvjh4q , Vučićeve fabrike baterija i automobila – velelepne i neostvarive, https://www.danas.rs/vesti/ekonomija/vuciceve-fabrike-baterija-i-automobila-velelepne-i-neostvarive/ , accessed 19.10.2021. Previous Next

About educational program Introduction of program 2018-2022 Program Participant Activities Tonight we invite you to encounter a collective archive of the 2022 What could/should curating do educational programme, which took place in Belgrade and other locations around the Post-Yugoslav region, between September and December this year. The departure point for this archive is a proposal by Biljana Ćirić, program curator and facilitator, to consider the means by which the discussions, events, inquiries and relationships developed during this time might be recorded or documented. Archiving is never neutral. Determinations are always made—by individuals, by collectives, by collecting institutions—about what knowledge is worth saving, the means by which knowledge is indexed, housed and cared for, who has access and on what terms. Within the framework of an alternative educational platform—with a loose and evolving curriculum, and no formalised method of assessment or grading—this exercise presents an opportunity to consider what alternative measures we might allow ourselves for the production of knowledge when freed from institutional modes of transmission and circulation. As such, these archives—both individually and collectively—do not simply record a series of shared (and at times differing) experiences. They include questions around how the embodied, linguistic, political, intimate, relational nature of experience and remembering, ranging in scope from the personal, to the national. Each contribution is informed by the “baggage” we carried with us, as a group of individuals from many different geographic and cultural contexts, many of whom had little relationship with Belgrade, Serbia or the Balkan region prior to this course. This “baggage” includes our different relationships to contemporary art’s infrastructures; our different fields of knowledge and networks of relationships; cultural and linguistic differences; differing relations to histories of colonialism, resource extraction and capitalist exploitation; and varying habits of thought, modes of making, inhabiting and formulating questions about the world. Through differing strategies of presentation and circulation, we hope to open up questions about what we have in common, as well as what separates us; what of ourselves is dispersed, and what is withheld. But the physical “archive” we share with you tonight is only a part of a wider set of relationships, experiences, idea exchanges, occasional encounters, gossip and experimenting. Tonight we celebrate the beauty and fragility of these moments. Be our guests at the two tables. Read silently. Read aloud. Whisper. Describe what you see. Share what you feel. Eat. Drink. Embrace. This archive is staged as something living, developing and transformational, ever evolving as our moments with you. Thank you for sharing this journey with us. We hope it’s not the end, but only a stop on the way. WC/SCD 2022 Adelina, Anastasia, Ginevra, Giuglia, Jelena, Karly, Lera, Sabine, Simon < Educational Program Participants >