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< Back Notes on respiration 15 July 2021 Teodora Jeremić Breath underwater Last night I had a strange dream, although not the first one of this kind during the last year and a half. Living in the time of pandemic means living in the world of altered reality where the only constant is change, where time and space are shifting and diverging, habits are disappearing and being replaced faster than we ever thought possible. With that amount of instability, insecurity, doubtfulness in our conscious lives, one of the first things that experienced a sudden change was our subconscious, and consequently our sleep. Many suffered pandemic-induced insomnia, as a by-product of a state where we tend to stay awake as long as possible or not be able to fall asleep at all, due to irrational fear that sleeping might mean losing an important piece in the flow of information, which was difficult to follow anyway. Luckily, I belonged in the second group, the one with deep sleepers whose regular sleeping hours are not disturbed even by looming apocalypse, although the quality of my sleep was indeed changed to some extent by extremely vivid dreams imbued with modified fragments of the new reality. Last night, I dreamt that the world was coming to an end in a rather peculiar way. In the light of impending doom whole humanity was supposed to move and settle underwater. Beneath seas, lakes and oceans new cities were sprouting. Along the coral reefs new settlements were established, new kinships were made, new way of life was flourishing. Our nonhuman-human relationships were thriving in this new space of confinement and safety, blurring the line between one world and another, smudging the differences between guests and habitants. The ones who were living under water for a longer time even physically adapted to the new circumstances and appropriated some of the characteristics of sea world creatures. It could be said that a new hybrid species were on the way. In my dream, I was still completely human, just surprisingly light. I was capable of smoothly moving around, sliding through water, walking and swimming, and I was doing all of that with an utter freedom, completely relieved from earthly worries, when a giant, shimmering but quite ordinary looking, and pretty impolite dentex got into my way and reminded me that I don’t know how to breath “down here”. Suddenly, I realized that he must be right, because I really didn’t have any branchiae, and all of a sudden I couldn’t take a breath. I am breathing fire and a bit too busy to help * As I’m writing this, I can’t be sure if things would have been different, even if we didn’t have the year of pandemic behind us. Maybe it would have been just the same either way. But I believe that perhaps my continual presence in the moment and being mostly in the company of myself (since I obviously didn’t have anywhere else to be and anyone to be with except occasional nostalgic episodes of daydreamy ping-pongsbetween past and future) was pretty much pandemic-specific and has provided me a great insight of learning how to listen to my body. I didn’t become a guru, or mastered meditation which I hoped to, but I gained some insight of how my body functions and what it needs, and during the last year, air and breathing became very relevant fields of exploration for me. Like many others I was looking for my personal haven, different ways of keeping my sanity under control and my optimism high as well as options for practicing self-care, and I was privileged enough to be able to do so. Even in the world where pandemic has begun to break down engrained divisions between collective care and self-care, not everyone yet had the possibilities to practice it, but the word “care” did become probably the most used (and borderline exploited) term. The notion of “care” got its high position in almost every circle, with cultural practitioners and institutions particularly focused on discussing ways to offer better care. The only difference is that there were those who are calling for care and awareness for a long time, considering it as the primary tool for fighting against oppression and injustice, and the others who just now recognized (or were made to recognize?) the need for care. Despite some questionable motives, the fact that we needed to start taking care and practice healing many years ago remains crucial, so I’m glad we finally did. No matter the circumstances. Speaking about self-care is impossible without at least mentioning breathing as it is being considered a number one remedy for relaxation, stress management, calming down, anxiety relief and everything else we need in this day and age, and in the light of pandemic I gave a try to mindful breathing. My technique of conducting it is still not praiseworthy but it helped me a lot in understanding that thinking respiration, being aware of it, living according to it, actually represents a synonym for the changes we need. Slowing down, paying attention, listening carefully, interchange. We got too scattered, too busy, too repressed by the ideas of greater goals, usefulness, purposefulness and productivity, that it was needed to find our way to the “pause” button for the whole system and enough strength to push it without fear of the potential failure. When we did, when the button was pushed to the end, and as Latour said, we slowed down the system we were told it was impossible to stop, we all got newly conquered spaces for breathing. In that new space, what was needed was to make a proper inhale and exhale, and begin the process of unlearning everything we know, especially regarding this constantly present distress over productivity. To acknowledge that we cannot be productive or creative all the time and that we are not less worthy because of it. But, along with it another question was imposed. Where do we go after the break? What do we do next? Where does that new inhale-exhale dynamic bring us to? Breath me in, breath me out Breathing is the process of moving air through the body, facilitating gas exchange with the internal environment, mostly to flush out carbon dioxide and bring in oxygen; to dismiss detrimental and toxic, and take and consume what is beneficial and vital for us. That process is, besides being substantial for living creatures, also a good reminder that already in the very basic concept of life, lies the natural predisposition of the humankind to not only survive, but also distinguish right from wrong, and get rid of the latter, even through the most basic needs. That being said, even though breathing does have some healing and soothing effects, in the face of air pollution and climate change caused by extractive capitalism, when it’s getting harder and harder to breath not just on ecological but also political level, it is difficult to pretend air is not also the territory of constant struggle. As according to Mbembe, it is certain that the air we breathe will become more and more full of dust, toxic gases, substances and waste, particles and granulations, in short, all kinds of emanation in the time that is yet to come, but it is also even more sure that asphyxiation that is brought to us, comes in many forms making “breathlessness” the permanent contemporary condition. “There is no air in megalopolises which are suffocating in pollution, in precarious working conditions which exploit workers, in the ubiquitous fear of violence, war, aggression” [1] . Breath is precious source of life, and in the moment in which Berardi`s “breathlessness” is more present than ever, the question of respiration becomes not only the question imposed on an individual, but rather deeply collective, asking what brings us all to the state of being deprived of air and how do we confront it? Winter 2020/21, Belgrade was one of the most polluted cities in the world, even first place holder on that top chart for some time. One of the rare situations when No 1 status is not to be bragged about. After months and months of the government ignoring the problem and bouncing the questions from ministry to ministry, on the 10th of April several thousand people decided to go out on the streets, and protest in front of the Serbian parliament against the lack of government action to prevent water, land and air pollution by industries. The protest was dubbed the “Ecological Uprising” , it was organized by environmental activists and protestors demanding the introduction of a moratorium on the construction of small hydroelectric power plants, the suspension of deforestation in Serbia, as well as a more intensive afforestation. They called for an end to the misuse of money for ecology, for authorities to stop ignoring environmental impact studies, such as the construction of mini-hydropower plants on the environment, and for citizens to be better informed about environmental issues. Borjan Grujić [translation: knowledge and talent that’s fine, but what about the desire for change?] The Defend the Rivers of Mt. Stara Planina (Odbranimo reke Stare planine – ORSP) movement was the main protest organizer, but the gathering was supported by many organizations and associations from all over Serbia, a total of 45, including Pravo na vodu, Eko straža, Građanski preokret, Tvrđava, Trash Hero Serbia. Activists from region, especially Bosnia and Herzegovina, joined the protest as well, saying that everyone in the region shares the same concerns and problems, or as Lejla Kusturica from the Coalition for the Protection of the Rivers of Bosnia and Herzegovina put it well: “we are here today with you because we share the same problems: unjust, imperious governments, total neglect of local communities for the benefit of some powerful individuals” [2] . Representatives of 45 organizations agreed on dozens of demands including implementation of the constitution and environmental protection law, information and education on environmental protection at all levels, suspension of construction and revision of harmful SHPPs project, participation of citizens in environmental issues etc. “Uprising” happened as an answer to years and years of unfair dealing and wrong ruling when it comes to nature. Ecological problems in the region differ from “micro” (local) to “macro” (regional) but based on the same exploiting principles of neo-liberal capitalism that people around the world are struggling with, which at the end it all come to: extraction of common goods, unfair ruling and non-transparent processes behind it, exploitation of nature and destroying nature ecosystem. Very same principle is recognizable both in “small scale” project such as one of many intentions of investors like “Avala Studios” (now 70% held by Cezch company “Sebre”, 30 % Chinese company “Filmax Hong Kong”) to cut 40 hectares of forest and greenery in Košutnjak in Belgrade in order to build residential complex, or equally careless larger scale projects, such as Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto that is examining the possibility to start mining jadarite, a lithium and boron mineral unique to western Serbia, around the river Jadar. If Rio Tinto starts to extract lithium, arsenic will be deposited in the tailings and the entire area will be unfit for agriculture, threatening people’s health, as well as 140 species with extinction. Those are just some of many examples, followed by constant growth of the small hydropower plants in Western Balkan. From the middle of the 2000s onwards, some of the Western Balkans’ countries – notably Albania, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina – started issuing concessions for small hydropower plants. “The EU had set targets in 1997 for the share of renewable energy by 2010, so it was clear there was going to be increased interest by investors in this sector in the future and the reason why the Western Balkans’ targets seem quite high compared to the overall EU target of 20 per cent is that the Balkan countries had quite high levels of renewable energy to start with” [3] . Overall goal of the renewable energy targets to help Europe move away from a fossil-fuel based energy system seems like positive intention, but what is problematic is that indeed the EU does allow some potentially harmful forms of renewable energy to be incentivised as well as that besides contributing to environmental damage, initiatives for hydropower in the Western Balkans are often criticized for benefiting wealthy business for people who are close to or part of region’s governments. In Serbia for example, companies connected to Nikola Petrović, the best man ( kum ) of President Aleksandar Vučić, are among the top beneficiaries of hydropower support [4] . Borjan Grujić [translation faster, stronger, better! * /slow, strong, good] *This is the political slogan of Serbian president used during the election campaign and afterwards Reading the reports and thinking from perspective of someone who is not part of European Union, but whose resources are being exploited for the sake of better and more sustainable life in EU, it is impossible not to think about the work “Naked Freedom” by Marina Gržinić and the parallels and remarks Kwame Nimako made on the attitude Western Europe has towards Africa and Eastern Europe. At the same time, it is very easy to become aware that the other side of “exploitation” coin, belongs to substantially self-exploitative practices that favour particular private interests of few who are not really familiar with the word “common”, no matter the price. With all of this in mind, from the position of government, “Ecological uprising” was of course read as an act of opposition (a typical “if you are not with me you are against me” kind of rhetoric) and Prime minister in usual manner minimized the problem by responding as “This topic shows jobs and pensions are no longer a priority in Serbia because when you start dealing with the environment, you are dealing with the problems of the first world” [5] . In well-practiced and masterly spinning, it is interesting how fast we came from “we are fighting for basic living conditions (plus you are exploiting our common goods)” to “you are just being too spoiled and living too good when you start to protest about this”. It is even more interesting that anyone who knows average salary in Serbia [6] would even dare to make such remark and comparison between “first world” and the world we are living in, whichever number it is, but concept of “good life” is a changing context I guess, especially when you are misusing information. Still, the most interesting part is how the exact same type of rhetoric is being used by every contemporary autocrat, new type of “democratic” parents of nations, self-proclaimed saviors of the people. Those who exploited crises so many times and in so many ways that the burst of protests and uprisings during this and last year was a common thread that connected many countries, proving that people all over the world are tired of being repressed and used, but also boiling with an accumulated discontent, ready to burst. Along with protests against rampant corruption in Bulgaria, the ones against president Maduro in Venezuela, or tens of thousands of protesters who took the streets in Sudanese cities despite a lockdown to demand a transition towards democracy, global rise of anti-lockdown (actually anti-government) protests was noticeable. There was a similar perception in many countries that political leaders were misusing restrictions for political purposes. Leaders of countries such as Bolivia, Israel, Serbia, Uganda, Brazil shared the irresponsible, inadequate approach to the pandemic, laughing it off at the beginning, but is also worth mentioning how similar is their attitude of minimizing the significance of planetary problems, environmental crisis and climate change, manipulating the information, misusing the trust of the people. Serbia is not any exception to that, with last year and this year protests as a proof. Slavica Obradović, digital art Still, seeing so many people in the street this time felt much different than standing on the same pavement in front of the building of Parliament last year. We have chanted, we have marched, we have asked for answers to the most urgent question for this and next and any generation that comes after. We have expressed worries, ideas, suggestions, warnings, hopes, desires. We were together, peaceful, united and powerful. Unlike the protest in July 2020. “Ecological Uprising” didn’t turn to violent, and was not even necessarily just of political opponents as much as comrades in the fight for commons: common sense, common goods, and common future, standing shoulder-to-shoulder in solidarity, and that gave me hope. A sense of mutual solidarity and honest concern that was prevailing. Standing there, in the midst of banners reading “Cut corruption and crime, not forests!” or “Water is life” and “Plant a tree!”, I was holding my borrowed protest sign saying “In rivers we trust!”, which I obtained after losing mine somewhere in the crowd. I was surrounded by different profiles of people, people from different cities and villages, with different backgrounds and socio-economic conditions, little children, old people, students, parents, friends, well known public personalities. It felt very empowering and like everyone is being aware that the reason for being there is much bigger than them. Much bigger than this government, or next, or previous. It resonated with what Zdenka Badovinac beautifully wrote that “the lesson of Covid for the entire world, and not just for our leaders, is that the interests of capital have interfered too greatly with nature.” [7] and that tampering with nature was the final straw in an endless sequence of exploitation which is not to be tolerated anymore. Because the story of planet and nature exploitation goes hand in hand with every other tale of exploitation we are familiar with. Slavica Obradović, digital art And it is not just about capital, but also sexism, racism, classism, speciesism, androcentrism, any other systems of oppression we could possibly remember that reinforce each other and lead to the degradation of life and the destruction of nature. It is constant, ever-lasting, tenacious tendency to put all oppressed groups (women, colonized people, marginalized communities) on an equal level to nature, abusively labeled “as part of nature”, meaning something outside the sphere of reason and history. There is some kind of inherent or even structural connection between the patriarchal domination of women (and, in the view of some theorists, other socially oppressed groups) and the ecologically destructive exploitation of the earth, and something predominantly masculin in emphasizing that “human” and “nature” are separate categories. Patriarchal exploitation of female bodies, and the capitalist exploitation of workers and planetary resources are rooted in the very same worldview where is important and possible to own things, and in which all that is not human and is not male is devalued. Going back to Franco “Bifo” Berardi, and his megalopolises suffocating in pollution, as well as workers in precarious working conditions and exploitation, or women fighting the hundred-headed beast of inequality treatment, his “breathlessness” parallel works very well as a reminder for how many different oppression we might feel in our contemporary lives, and how “being left breathless” is not always as romantic as it might seem. It is not new that we are suffocating in the unjust, exploitation, inequality for a long time and it is a text written back in 1974. when Francoise d’Eaubonne called upon feminists to wed their cause to that of the environment and lead the way into a post-patriarchal, genuinely ‘humanist’ and ecologically sustainable future [8] , which is something to be reconsidered. Therefore, having an “Ecological Uprising” meant something more than just having a protest. It was not an ecological protest, even though it was the biggest one so far, nor just a political one, but rather an outburst of pure activism that is offering a way to “post-patriarchal” society, through the means of resistance and renovation, linking struggles against environmental degradation with the endeavour to overcome social domination, on all the basis. Street and sidewalks in front of the Serbian Parliament turned to meeting space where the opposites met. People from the villages around Stara Planina, activists from different cities across Serbia and region, university professors, students, pensioners, families with children. The face of the protest was not the face of political opposition and some of its representatives we already know, nor the face of the foreign management as it was of course implied, but the simple and beautiful face of common people, standing for their cause. Thus, rather than being just another protest, “Ecological Uprising” seemed more like witnessing the genesis of new collective body that is heterogenous, peaceful but determined, sharing the values of equality, celebrating the values of care and well-being, and will for dismantling systems and power structures based on domination and exploitation. Sometimes, all I need is the air that I breath and to love you Given that everything evaporates and disappears in the air, and that we all breathe it at the same time, it is our most personal piece of space, but in the same time the space in which we all meet. As Lisa Blackman argues: “Instead of existence in which we are connected but autonomous subjects, we actually coexist in a common ecology” (Blackman, 2010). Or as Irigaray writes “I can breathe in my own way, but the air will never simply be mine” [9] . Breathing unites us with the others, at the same time that it underlines our individuality, and the protest reminded me of that. The one who breathes is also breathed upon, the one who takes and consumes is also giving back, and in that very act of sharing breath, lies the very essence of human conviviality. It is a mutual “space” which we inhabit, exchange, in which we meet and live in a common system where every human exists in comparison with the other, and where the idea of “commoning” is closer than anywhere. Borjan Grujić [translation regular state of emergency] Every riot brings a possibility for new after-life. After dismantling the old, new is to be established and the more I was interested in respiration the more I got the feeling that it could explain the contemporary chaos and offer useful methods and system. Thinking about respiration I couldn’t stop thinking about Deleuze and Guattari rhizome concept. Instead of tree structure that became the dominant ontological model in Western thought, that reinforces notions of centrality of authority, state control, and dominance the rhizome has no unique source from which all development occurs (strangely enough, it looks very similar to the respiratory system). The rhizome is both heterogeneous and multiplicitous. It can be entered from many different points, all of which connect to each other. The rhizome does not have a beginning, an end, or an exact center, it is based on sharing and equality, the same way air is. Thinking about it also reminded me how air was unfairly ignored and forgotten and has received far less attention in the political environmental literature than its sister element water. Still, they function according to a similar principle of connection, non-recognition of boundaries, mobility, and according to the deeply feminist principle of circularity. If there are elements we should listen to while constructing the new post-pandemic systems they’re those two. Just as water, air and respiration reveal key aspects of permeability, relativity, vulnerability and indomitability, which speak of the feminist re-examination of the body as completely open, unstable, changeable, but also recognizing and valuing the same in the social system, and can extend a shared sense of place and a sense of shared responsibility for collective commons or worlds. As Luce Irigraray writes, air is mediator of all perceptions, knowledge, thoughts, language, imagination, action, and as such, respiration is the practice that connects us. It is the principle of exchange, which Irigaray sees as instinctively feminist, since breathing is in its essence, a feminist rearrangement of the procedural and relational course of life. It is a practice of care, nurture, togetherness. And of course, the focused or any other type of breathing won’t ultimately save us from the crunching capitalism but something else might- learning how to live as air breathing bodies. It made me think of Sarah Ahmed’s text how self-care can be an act of political warfare. “And that is why in queer, feminist and anti-racist work self-care is about the creation of community, fragile communities, assembled out of the experiences of being shattered. This is why when we have to insist, I matter, we matter, we are transforming what matters … For those who have to insist they matter to matter: self-care is warfare. [10] Borjan Grujić On my way back home from the protest that was fighting for the clean air understood in all beautiful meanings it could possibly have, I was walking to the rhythm of my own breathing, thinking my yoga instructor would be very proud of this. It felt so natural, in sync, and empowering. It sounded like a beat of change. An inhale of solidarity. An exhale of resistance. And just like that it occurred to me that the one of the main characteristics of breath is also that it can be held, but just for a short time. We can put up with a lot of it, but hopefully, not for too long. Last year rumbled through, followed by great amplitudes in almost every part of our lives while simultaneouslyfeeling like nothing happened. But in the meanwhile, something did. We decided to breath out, to let the stiffness in our lungs and bellies, exhale the stale air and at least try to start shaping new ecosystems. Resistance is building everywhere, and not just against one man, in one country, against one ideology, one -ism, but rather against all the set of values that dominated way too long. A new kind of collective body, isbeing shaped. The one that doesn’t recognize borders, or nations, or leaders, and its only being formed by mutual criticality towards present conditions of living and collective willingness to react. The other day I had a short zoom talk with Marko Gutić Mižimakov and Karen Nhea Nielsen, and while writing this I simply cannot help but constantly think about their work “Thank You for Being Here with Me” and repeat it in my mind like some kind of mantra. “when I say we, I am counting you in when I say we, I am talking about you too and also you when I say we, I am speaking from this space We were one and more than one before”. Slavica Obradović, lean on Teodora Jeremić is an art historian, freelance curator, and editor based in Belgrade. [1] Franco Bifo Berardi, Breathing: Chaos and Poetry, Semiotext(e), pg 15, 2018 [2] https://twitter.com/K_U_P_E_K/status/1380862839326449669?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1380862839326449669%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbalkangreenenergynews.com%2Factivists-gather-at-ecological-uprising-in-front-of-serbian-parliament%2F [3] “Western Balkans hydropower: Who pays, who profits?”, September 2019, pg 10. [4] “Western Balkans hydropower: Who pays, who profits?”, September 2019, pg 5. [5] Prime minister Ana Brnabić was guest on RTS channel where she spoke about “Ecological Uprising”, https://rs.n1info.com/vesti/brnabic-ekoloski-ustanak-primer-nepostovanja-vecina-ljudi-nije-nosila-maske/ [6] According to this year report average salary is around 500 euros. Still, being average it is to be noted that there is a big stratification, where salaries are larger in Belgrade, and the reality of the citizens in most other cities is that people are getting by with 300 euros a month. [7] Zdenka Badovinac, “Editorial: The Collective Body”, https://www.e-flux.com/journal/119/403341/editorial-the-collective-body/ , Journal #119 , June 2021 [8] Kate Rigby, “Women and Nature Revisited: Ecofeminist Reconfigurations of an Old Association”, January 2018. [9] Luce Irigaray, “From The Forgetting of Air to To Be two”, in Nancy Holland; Patricia Huntington. Feminist Interpretations of Martin Heidegger, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2001, 209. [10] Sarah Ahmed, “Selfcare as Warfare,” Feminist Killjoys, https://feministkilljoys.com/2014/08/25/selfcare-as-warfare/ Previous Next

< Back The stories behind the lockdown: Kazakhstan against Corona 28 July 2020 Anvar Musrepov During the quarantine, Kazakhstan became the first country in the world to return to a full lockdown in a post-Soviet authoritarian manner. On March 19, lagging two weeks behind the actions of EU countries, quarantine was announced in Kazakhstan. Schools, universities, and shopping centers were closed. Armored soldiers with military equipment and machine guns were placed in front of city entrances, as police checked all passerby’s, asking each person about their purpose for simply walking. Considering the low number of coronavirus cases at the time, many people agreed that the government reacted with unreasonably strict protocols. There were few infected patients, yet the military marked those territories, cordoned off neighborhoods at the foci of infection, and in some cases even sealed entrance doors to apartment complexes containing dozens of residents. Kazakhstani citizens didn’t have the opportunity to go outside, exercise or even go for a walk. Quarantine adopted an extremely totalitarian style, and for many, it seemed that the Coronavirus was merely an allowance for the performance of an authoritarian power. The special local consciousness of people, based on the mythological perception of reality, gave rise to a large stream of fake news: from disinfection through a pagan shamanic ritual of fumigating the space with sacred grass, to conspiracy theories denying the existence of Coronavirus, and connecting the quarantine with the prolonged transition of power in the country. Back in the Soviet period, political mythology was a part of the folk art. The Kazakh state system of making decisions behind closed doors lead to a conspiracy vision of the world among many of its citizens. One of these myths, for example, tells of secret meetings in the underground halls of the President’s palace, where Nazarbayev conducts mystical rituals with the cabinet of ministers, before levitating at the moment of worship. The mythologization of power and undermined trust also impacted the effectiveness of the information campaign of COVID-19, leading many people to simply deny the existence of the virus, linking the quarantine to political manipulation. For a local economy built on the sale of crude oil, the beginning of the quarantine also marked the beginning of an economic crisis, caused by negotiations between Russia and the OPEC+ countries to limit oil production. The lack of work due to quarantine was accompanied by a sharp fall of the national currency, and an increase in the prices of goods and services. Under these conditions, the art community of Central Asia consolidated and created an alternative art market within a Facebook group. Initiated by Kyrgyz artist, Meder Akhmetov, Art Bazaar was inspired by the Russian community, Ball and Cross ( Шар и Крест ), but with a focus on artists from the Central Asian region. The principle of this self-organized art market resembles the schemes of financial pyramids common in the 1990s. When selling a certain number of works, a requirement is to purchase other art from the online bazaar, as well as transfer several works to the fund. In this way, artists bought and sold works from each other, creating a self-organized environment of collective care, while effectively excluding galleries and art market middlemen. It is fair to say that as such, the art market, as well as the institutional environment within the Central Asian region, is still in the process of formation.So-called underground art in Soviet times emerged from cramped apartment exhibitions with the fall of the Iron Curtain in the 90s. The state, inheriting the Soviet mentality, has never represented culture by itself, and thought of art only in connection with the goals of biased propaganda. Artistic ideas that do not respond to the cultivation of sports or strengthening patriotism, won’t find their place among the bureaucratic “argumentation” of projects. The legacy of the Soviet art education which focused on socialist realism continues to present a major issue in academies and art schools. For a long time in these conditions, the community of artists developing an alternative to conservative art, in which the driving force were not institutions or the art market, but the enthusiasm of the community itself, remained in the margins. Art Bazaar But Art Bazaar was not the only reaction of the art community to the new reality of the pandemic. The curator of the Artcom platform, Aigerim Kapar, organized open workshops with a Georgian artist, Wato Tsereteli. Participants practiced collective drawing, which later resulted in a virtual exhibition organized by the participants themselves, presenting a webpage with the results. Kyrgyz curator, Aida Sulova, conducted an educational program with children. The final works were accompanied by audio messages from authors, and were also presented in the virtual halls of the Artstep platform. I also decided to invest my part in the #stayhome movement and created an exhibition on the iada-art.org website; my idea was that an online exhibition should not mimic a real space, but could well remain in the webpage format, at the same time using the logic of an exposition construction. The name of the exhibition, Cybernomadism , reflected its main theme of examining the future from a decolonial perspective through the nomadic Kazakh culture. On the animated deforming grid background as a basic form of a space markup, works of 8 artists respond to the idea of technological utopia in the Kazakhstani context. Cybernomadism A. Kasteyev State Museum of Arts , which before the quarantine was a fairly conservative institution, has also gone through a transformation associated with the need to continue working online. The main exposition of the museum consists of Socialist realism paintings, and exhibitions of contemporary art were rarely held, unless in conjunction with other institutions. The need for a presence in the media prompted the museum staff to create exhibitions and record video tours. Realizing quickly that traditional art did not attract a new audience on the internet, museum curators quickly changed their strategy and began to focus on contemporary art. One such exhibition, dedicated to Rustam Khalfin, an artist who is often described as one of Central Asia’s contemporary art pioneers, was the first in the last 20 years. Isolation and a complete transition to online platforms have made many processes more transparent. This undoubtedly also influenced culture, as state museums moved away from the representation of the discourse of power and turned to the audience. While the media space repeated like a mantra that “the world will never be the same”, by the end of April people were allowed to go for a walk, and by the end of May, cafes and shopping centers had begun to open. Simultaneously, repatriation flights were organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Kazakh embassies in different countries. Because of the bureaucracy and the general situation, many had to wait for two months to return. After arriving home, people were signed to a 14 day self-isolation, but no appropriate supervision was conducted and the arrival of citizens took place before getting out of hand. Towards the end of June, the situation changed dramatically and got out of control. The dissidents’ opinion changed, and arguments such as, “show at least one patient,” ceased to flash on social networks. Instead, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and all other social media platforms became filled with requests for help; people looked for medicine, advice, or tried to call for ambulances. Subsequently, the Coronavirus hotline and paramedical services were left immobile due to overload. Hospitals stopped accepting patients, and even the simplest antipyretic drugs were in short supply. Pharmaceutical humanitarian aid from different countries were sold through corrupt channels at inflated prices. No more advertising was needed. The virus had touched every family in the country, and even Nazarbayev himself became ill. The media space became filled with obituaries of deceased celebrities, politicians, and relatives. Huge queues of people spilled out of employment centers and morgues, despite the danger of infection. On July 5, Kassym – Jomart Tokayev, the new president, conducted an online conference wearing a mask, in order to announce a second lockdown. Later it was revealed that the shortage of drugs and overpricing were associated with corruption within the Ministry of Health, and several high-ranking officials were removed from their positions. After almost a month, the situation with drug supplies stabilized, and several new field hospitals have been opened. Statistics of deaths from pneumonia, after a long period of denial, nevertheless, were combined with the statistics of deaths from coronavirus. Now, people are used to wearing masks, and they are much less likely to sabotage quarantine rules, but many still hold secret weddings and funerals, despite the strict measures (which includes imprisonment for 10 years). Kazakhstan was the first country in the world to return to a full lockdown. When the private becomes public, and health issues are no longer too personal a topic for discussion, the local becomes global and the deadly second wave in Kazakhstan is, in essence, a threatening warning to the entire world. Anvar Musrepov is an artist and curator from Almaty, Kazakhstan. Previous Next

Events Lecture Series Participant Activities Reimagining the museum | WCSCD 2020/21 Annual Lecture Series The curatorial program What Could/Should Curating Do 2020 is proud to continue in 2020 with public program through lecture series The first talk in the 2020 series is titled: Reimagining the museum By Luca Lo Pinto Date: November 10, 2020 Time: 12:00 pm Belgrade/10:00 pm Melbourne /6:00 am New York Venue: zoom invitation link (ID: 985 237 3109) Live stream/Facebook event link “The museum is a medium that should constantly be able to be questioned. It cannot be anymore intended as a space of mere contemplation but rather as a social space based on freedom of experimentation and on the desire to realise artists’ visions. In a historical moment in which the concept of museum and its identity are constantly challenged by social and economic changes as well as by the language of art itself, it’s essential to experiment with alternative models. In occasion of the talk, I would discuss the program I’m developing at MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome where I’m turning the museum into an exhibition intended as a form and place of production. A container which becomes content – aiming to reduce the distance between the dichotomies of museum-actor and public-spectator”. Portrait by Giovanna Silva About Speaker Born in 1981, Luca Lo Pinto is the artistic director of MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome. From 2014 till 2019 he worked as curator of Kunsthalle Wien. He is co-founder of the magazine and publishing house NERO. At Kunsthalle Wien he organized solo exhibitions of Nathalie du Pasquier, Camille Henrot, Gelatin&Liam Gillick, Olaf Nicolai, Pierre Bismuth, Babette Mangolte, Charlemagne Palestine and the group exhibitions Time is Thirsty; Publishing as an artistic toolbox: 1989-2017; More than just words; One, No One and One Hundred Thousand; Individual Stories and Function Follows Vision, Vision Follows Reality. Other curatorial projects include Io, Luca Vitone (PAC, Milan),16th Art Quadriennale (Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome), Le Regole del Gioco (Achille Castiglioni Studio-Museum, Milan); Trapped in the closet (Carnegie Library/FRAC Champagne Ardenne, Reims), Antigrazioso (Palais de Tokyo, Paris); Luigi Ontani (H.C. Andersen Museum, Rome); D’après Giorgio (Giorgio de Chirico Foundation, Rome); Olaf Nicolai-Conversation Pieces (Mario Praz Museum, Rome). He has written for many catalogues and international magazines. He edited the book “Documenta 1955-2012. The endless story of two lovers” and artist books by Olaf Nicolai, Luigi Ontani, Emilio Prini, Alexandre Singh, Mario Garcia Torres and Mario Diacono. In 2014 he published a time capsule publication titled 2014. WHAT COULD/SHOULD CURATING DO? (WCSCD) WHAT COULD/SHOULD CURATING DO? (WCSCD) was initiated and funded in 2018 in Belgrade as an educational platform around notions of curatorial. From 2020 WCSCD started to initiate its own curatorial inquiries and projects that should unpack above -mentioned complexities keeping educational component as a core to the WCSCD. The WCSCD curatorial program and series of public lectures have been initiated and organized by Biljana Ciric. WCSCD 2020/2021 public program series has been done in collaboration with Division of Arts and Humanities, Duke Kunshan University and they co-stream all public lectures. Strategic media collaboration is done with Seecult and they will co-host all public lecture series. Project Partners Media Partner For more information about the program, please refer to www.wcscd.com Project contacts: what.could.curating.do@gmail.com Follow us: FB: @whatcscdo Instagram: @whatcouldshouldcuratingdo < Mentors Educational Program How to Apply >

As you go… roads under your feet towards the new future As you go… roads under your feet, towards the new future is a long-term project and research inquiry that reflects on the Belt and Road Initiative and how it will alter the aesthetics and practices of everyday life in different local contexts. The project was conceived and initiated by Biljana Ciric in 2019 after conducting curatorial research in East Africa, Central Asia, and several Balkan countries where project is situated. The inquiry is structured as a long-term research project over a period of three years through research cells of organizations, institutions and individuals: What Could Should Curating Do (Belgrade), Moderna Galerija (Ljubljana), Rockbund Art Museum (Shanghai), Times Museum (Guang Zhou), ArtCom (Astana), Robel Temesgen and Sinkneh Eshetu (Addis Ababa), and The Public Library (Bor). Research cells vary from small-scale, single person organizations, to state and private museums; the differences produced by their various roles and voices, within their respective local contexts, being not only important when considering [the politics of] knowledge production, but also crucial to the premise of the project. The project does not attempt to pose yet another critical investigation into Chinese colonialism but rather, seeks to unpack the complexities these regions are dealing with, which are also leading to their current connections to the BRI through established commonalities. These include socialism, non-aligned legacies (and here, we are not only talking about the non-aligned movement, but also the relationships with China and other African and Asian countries during the twentieth century), neo-geopolitical settings, economical influences (especially that of the Chinese and Arab world within localities of similar patterns, that have even employed the same companies through different regions), being an agent of its own culture , and the recent COVID-19 pandemic . Being within the conditions of a pandemic seems almost even more relevant when thinking about the intimacy of cells (in times when we believe we must abide by social distancing and separation), and how we perform the process of transformation toward a possible co-immunity. Will we be able to decolonize our anthropological gaze from looking at the “other” from a distance, and turn the object of study into something we can engage with, in times when language differences spark fear, as discrimination makes us strangers among ourselves? The configuration of cells through long-term engagement seeks to emphasize different knowledge structures through collaboration, not only with artists but also architects, writers, anthropologists, and activists who are undertaking research within the project. This project stands as an important reminder that the BRI will cultivate connections that will be impossible to channel and control through the mainstream narratives of any state—but these gaps will enable more meaningful interactions that is process-oriented rather than outcome-driven. The first stage of the project began in February 2020, with the meeting of partner cells in Addis Ababa and the first public presentation. During this stage of the project, a number of local case studies have been initiated, and you can find more about the research project here: http://wcscd.com/index.php/projects/ The online journal of the project follows and shares works in progress of research, but also gives a platform for visibility in times of unrest (something many of the localities have been dealing with since the beginning of the pandemic): http://wcscd.com/index.php/wcscd-curatorial-inquiries/as-you-go-journal/ The research project On Cosmo-technics and New Geopolitics has been done in collaboration with Yuk Hui and researchers Sum Collective and Geocinema. Other contributors to the project include Hu Yun , Chen Liang , Sinkneh Eshetu Zeleke , Aziza Abdul Fetah , Sarah Bushra , Marija Glavas, Robel Temesgen , Jelica Jovanovic , Alex Ulko , Jasphy Zheng, Aigerim Kapar, Astrobus Ethiopia among others. 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. For more info pls contact: what.could.curating.do@gmail.com < Curatorial Inquiries Cells >

Events Lecture Series Participant Activities Kalokagathia: On the Possibility to Think Together the Aesthetical and Ethical in Curating | WCSCD 2020/21 Annual Lecture Series The curatorial program What Could/Should Curating Do 2020 is proud to continue in 2020 with public program through lecture series The second talk in the 2020 series is titled: Kalokagathia: On the Possibility to Think Together the Aesthetical and Ethical in Curating By Suzana Milevska Date: November 28, 2020 Time: 12:00 pm Belgrade/ 10:00 pm Melbourne/ 07:00 pm Shanghai/ 6:00 am New York Venue: zoom link ID: 985 237 3109 Live stream/Facebook link In the lecture “Kalokagathia: On the Possibility to Think Together the Aesthetical and Ethical in Curating” Suzana Milevska will focus on the ongoing debate about the reciprocal relations and tensions between the categories of beautiful and good, between the form and content, and between other perpetual and artificially distinctions and dichotomies that emerged in art theory during modernism. This lecture will address the questions of whether such dichotomies are and have ever been viable and how curating helps different art practices in overcoming the hierarchy between aesthetics and ethics over time. More specifically, this lecture explores the ways in which theories of curating brought back to mind the ancient Greek notion of kalokagathia, the intertwinement of aesthetics and ethics and with it, other ethical responsibilities, principles, and values that art forgot to address while giving privilege to its formal aspects. Milevska argues that curating helps activating the catalyst potential of art without having to compromise its formal aspects, as a kind of leverage that redresses the otherwise imbalanced relationship between aesthetics and ethics. Curating in her view lends out to art its innocent and aspirational belief in such a balance because the ethical concerns in art theory and art criticism have long been toned down while form was prioritized over content. To discuss such critical position towards the phenomenon of curatorial – and to distinguish it from the curating as a profession – becomes ever more urgent in the precarious and dire pandemic period when the tensions between aesthetics and ethics, care, and self-care dominate our professional and everyday lives. Portrait credit “photo Corn, Der Standard” About Speaker Dr. Suzana Milevska is a theorist and curator of visual art and culture. From 2016 to 2019 Milevska was Principal Investigator of the Horizon 2020 project TRACES, Polytechnic University Milan, and she curated its final exhibition Contentious Objects/Ashamed Subjects. She was Endowed Professor for Central and South Eastern European Art Histories at the Academy of Fine Art Vienna (2013 – 2015). She holds a PhD in visual cultures from Goldsmiths College London and in 2004 she was Fulbright Senior Research Scholar. She curated numerous international exhibitions such as; The Renaming Machine (2008-2011), Roma Protocol, Austrian Parliament, Vienna, and Call the Witness, BAK Utrecht (2011). She initiated the project Call the Witness–Roma Pavilion, Venice Biennale (2010-2011). In 2015 she curated the exhibition Inside Out: Not So White Cube, City Art Gallery, Ljubljana (with Alenka Gregorič). In 2012 she won ALICE Award for Political Curating and Igor Zabel Award for Culture and Theory. She published the books Gender Difference in the Balkans, 2010, The Renaming Machine: The Book, 2010, and On Productive Shame, Reconciliation, and Agency, SternbergPress, 2016. WHAT COULD/SHOULD CURATING DO? (WCSCD) WHAT COULD/SHOULD CURATING DO? (WCSCD) was initiated and funded in 2018 in Belgrade as an educational platform around notions of curatorial. From 2020 WCSCD started to initiate its own curatorial inquiries and projects that should unpack above -mentioned complexities keeping educational component as a core to the WCSCD. The WCSCD curatorial program and series of public lectures have been initiated and organized by Biljana Ciric. WCSCD 2020/2021 public program series has been done in collaboration with Division of Arts and Humanities, Duke Kunshan University and they co-stream all public lectures. Strategic media collaboration is done with Seecult and they will co-host all public lecture series. Project Partners Media Partner For more information about the program, please refer to www.wcscd.com Project contacts: what.could.curating.do@gmail.com Follow us: FB: @whatcscdo Instagram: @whatcouldshouldcuratingdo < Mentors Educational Program How to Apply >

Art and the Post-Pandemic Condition – an online curatorial program and support grant for art practitioners Open call: May 15th 2020 End of the open call June 15th 2020 Start of the program July 15th 2020 Practical information related to the program: Fee for the workshop is 450 euros Maximum number of applicants 20 WCSCD is launching a one-month online program from July 15th to August 15th reflecting on the post-pandemic condition that we are slowly entering into. This one month program hopes to provoke thinking, reflection and solidarity but also to serve as a collective annotation for our new reality. Through a series of workshops, the curatorial program will open discussions on how our work as artists and curators will be affected. What are some of the fundamental changes that we could address at this very moment to initiate that change? We are hoping to learn from Indigenous knowledge, small scale institutions, different species, notions of care and ways of staying connected from the past, the present and the future, finding gaps from where new relationships and encounters could emerge. While economic pressure forces nation-states to re-open we would like to pose urgent questions addressing the modes of working within the sphere of art that is deeply informed by neoliberal mechanisms. Amid fear of others, suffering and loss of lives, the pandemic has made us pause and to rethink our place in the world and our relationship to other human beings and species. We are hoping to initiate a series of workshops on how to facilitate different modes of working within the sphere of art from individual standpoints but also from a sense of belonging to a community. How can we organize ourselves and discuss different values publicly? How do we deal with the digitalized world imposed on us? Where is it still possible to find cracks for touch and proximity within a highly sanitized world? Many cultural producers are already familiar with different forms of insecurity and precarity. We will look at existing ways of working which are characterized by agility and resilience. A case in question is how small-scale visual arts organisations across the planet have developed methodologies which made it possible to keep running under the neoliberal economic regime. Another case is artists who have developed and maintained a practice without reverting to high production value. This is a good moment to explore unconventional sites and infrastructure that is in place and how they can be activated concerning art, from beaches and forests to libraries and schools. We see the post-pandemic condition as the beginning of a new struggle. It is a common struggle traversing the borders of nation-states, involving practitioners working with contemporary art having a variety of backgrounds. As online program practitioners from all geographies are welcome to apply. The mentors leading the program are Maria Lind, Natasa Petresin Bachelez and Biljana Ciric. Practical information related to the program: Fee for the workshop is 450 euros Maximum number of applicants 20 Application procedure Please send your bio or CV and a short reflection or statement related to the post-pandemic conditions from your perspective. The online sessions will be organized through Zoom and will require preparation, including the readings and different forms of exercises, both physical (what does that imply) and conceptual. There will be approximately three workshops led by the mentors per week and the duration of each session will be two hours. Besides fees for the mentors, part of the budget of the program will be distributed as a grant for three artists as a form of community support. Artists will be reached through the open call while selection panel will consist of program participants and mentors for grant Artists based in any former Yugoslav country are eligible to apply Support fund for artists is 500 euros. what.could.curating.do@gmail.com

< Back Boarding & Europe 20 Apr 2020 Siniša Ilić Belgrade-based artist Siniša Ilić returned to Serbia the day the State announced a State of Emergency following a rise in the number of local coronavirus cases. From this day, 15 March 2020, Ilic has been required to remain quarantined within his house for a period of one month. The isolation he has experienced is documented through a series of drawings developed as a daily practice, reflecting on the pandemic that connects and divides us. “After sharing his new drawings with me I have invited Sinisa to contribute to this journal with series of drawings for the duration of his quarantine. They will be published in a few phases in the upcoming weeks.” Biljana Ciric 5 April 2020 BOARDING Drawings “Boarding” and “Europe 1” deal with the topics of circulation and its sudden change; controlled and shaped by fear, uniformed bodies, States, the virus, care for our health and the health of others. Drawings “Social distancing” and “Europe 2” question new patterns of social choreographies and fears, including our physical presence in the public space or its absence from consuming habits and rituals. On this occasion “Boarding” is presented as an album of single images, simulating individual panic and fear, and “Europe 1 and 2” and “Social distancing” are exhibited through several photographs captured by smartphone within the home studio. The series of drawings were created using pencils and ink pen in March and April 2020 and are of similar dimensions approx. 21 × 29 cm. EUROPE 1 Drawings “Boarding” and “Europe 1” deal with the topics of circulation and its sudden change; controlled and shaped by fear, uniformed bodies, States, the virus, care for our health and the health of others. Drawings “Social distancing” and “Europe 2” question new patterns of social choreographies and fears, including our physical presence in the public space or its absence from consuming habits and rituals. On this occasion “Boarding” is presented as an album of single images, simulating individual panic and fear, and “Europe 1 and 2” and “Social distancing” are exhibited through several photographs captured by smartphone within the home studio. The series of drawings were created using pencils and ink pen in March and April 2020 and are of similar dimensions approx. 21 × 29 cm. EUROPE 2 Drawings “Boarding” and “Europe 1” deal with the topics of circulation and its sudden change; controlled and shaped by fear, uniformed bodies, States, the virus, care for our health and the health of others. Drawings “Social distancing” and “Europe 2” question new patterns of social choreographies and fears, including our physical presence in the public space or its absence from consuming habits and rituals. On this occasion “Boarding” is presented as an album of single images, simulating individual panic and fear, and “Europe 1 and 2” and “Social distancing” are exhibited through several photographs captured by smartphone within the home studio. The series of drawings were created using pencils and ink pen in March and April 2020 and are of similar dimensions approx. 21 × 29 cm. Siniša Ilić is a visual artist working also in the field of performance art. His work includes drawing, painting, installation, video and artist books. Previous Next

About educational program Introduction of program 2018-2022 Due to the lack of formal education related to curatorial and artistic work in the Balkan region (while in the former West there has been a proliferation of MA and PhD programmes in curating and artistic research), WCSCD was initiated with the goal of fostering the new generation of curators and artists as well as to raise awareness of the importance of curatorial and artistic knowledge and positions when thinking of art institutions and their role within the larger social context. The intention is to bring together key international and local figures engaged in decolonizing curatorial and artistic discourse, who are specifically able to offer diverse knowledges to the program participants. Through the program, we invite mentors from non-western contexts, local practitioners and also colleagues from the former West. In the last three years our participants were young practitioners from different parts of the world including the Balkans, EU, Asia, Central Asia, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America making it a unique program in Europe. Due to very limited funding structures for the arts within Serbia, funding of the program was dependent on the support of cultural institutions. The program has also charged a participation fee in line with the monthly salary of the country from which the participants is a passport holder. This was an attempt to generate more equal access to participation for everyone who applied. We also offer special grants for colleagues in need and in 2022 we have granted program access to the colleagues from Russia. Furthermore, in collaboration with Kadist Foundation in 2022 we have enable grant for practitioners from the region in order to participate in the program. The program is intensive, with daily programs of workshops, writing sessions, studio visits, and research trips in the region. Some of the research trips we have done so far include: Kosovo, Bosnia, Romania, Slovenia and Austria. Every year the program would accept up to 15 participants. Besides closed-door workshops for participants, all invited mentors would present public lectures to the larger cultural sector, sharing their ways of working and instituting. From 2023 educational program will be biennial and spread across two years in order to facilitate deeper and longer research of program participants. < Educational Program Participants >

WHAT COULD SHOULD CURATING DO I would like to start this session with question What Could/Should Curating Do We propose this question in order to engage with practices and encourage curating to stay dynamic and responsive in the world around me, anchored in caring with . We understand curatorial practice as walking with . We mean walking not as a way of getting somewhere, but walking with , as sharing time and creating space for unevenness to co-exist. When writing about walking, Canadian geographer Juanita Sundberg separates this into two steps. The first step is positioning that i believe you already did in first part, which is locating my body-knowledge in relation to the existing paths I know and walk. Sundberg defines the second step as walking with . “Walking with means ‘reciprocal respect for the autonomy and independence of organizations’ involved in the struggle; in other words, respect for the multiplicity of life worlds. Step two, then, involves learning to learn about multiplicity.” BLOCK 2.1 An input for this task is provided by Biljana Ciric, WSCSD program initiator. Intro We understand curating as caring with or walking with. It doesn't only reflect curatorial work. These prompts may help you to approach the topic: Can you define how you care through your practice? Caring with / caring for/ caring below? how does you care influence the future Whose vision of the future you are living in? What could you do? Thinking about deep time? How? What would you like to have as your legacy? Task Through this exercise try to build connections of your practice of care and relationships you are entangled with. You can use your own writing format or you can use the format that we propose. Make your first steps by finishing sentences "I care for/ with/ about/ beyond _______" Try to think of your life but also your practice as part of your everyday through writing. If writing is not your format of expression then use another format of comfort for 10 minutes. Additional materials Listen to “Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung” podcast by AHALI Conversations w/ Can Altay https://www.ahali.space/episodes/episode-15-bonaventure Read the “Dispatch” conceptual score by Candice Hopkins and Raven Chacon https://disclaimer.org.au/contents/unsettling-scores/dispatch Self-feedback Did the notion of ‘care’ change or unfold in an unexpected way during this exercise? What appeared to be most problematic to formulate? Why? BLOCK 2.2 Intro How care is performed through the institutional structure you are entangled with? What are possible practices of care through institutions? What could you do within these structures? How can an institution perform deep time in its practice of care? We continue this exercise on care asking you to map some of your aspects reflected in personal writing in relation to care and the way it could be affecting larger social/political contexts. Task We would like to invite you to do this as a collective exercise with other peers in the program. Below is the link to a collective Miro board. We propose you to start filling it. Put main tags you came up with during individual exercise. Take some time and see what others add. If the map is not empty - initially place your tags in relation to others. Connect the tags, add questions and comments that occur during their juxtaposition. Access collective Miro map Self-feedback Did the inputs of other participants open new ways for thinking/ questioning for you? What were the hardest parts in mapping? What do you feel is still most problematic?

Events Lecture Series Participant Activities What is The Use? Needs and Means of Making Biennials Under Pandemic | WCSCD 2020/21 Annual Lecture Series The curatorial program What Could/Should Curating Do is proud to be continued in 2021 with public program through lecture series The sixth talk in the 2020/21 series is titled: “What is The Use? Needs and Means of Making Biennials Under Pandemic” A talk/walk through Prizren in preparation of Autostrada Biennale with Övül Ö. Durmusoglu and Joanna Warsza Date: February 5, 2020 Time: 12:00 pm Belgrade / 10:00 pm Melbourne / 07:00 pm Shanghai / 6:00 am New York Venue: zoom link Meeting ID: 985 237 3109 Live stream/Facebook link Credit: A research for Autostrada Biennale, National Library of Kosovo, 2020 “The presentation takes form of a walk live from our second research trip to Prizren under continuing lockdown. Times of challenge for humanity’s unsustainable habits, patterns of living and producing on the planet have arrived. In this ongoing pandemic experience, the formats of content production in contemporary art, especially large-scale exhibitions called biennales need to rethink themselves. While art and culture should remain on the life necessities agenda, our questions and claims as curators need to find a down-to-earth resonance with current needs, limits and means. After ‘Die Balkone’, a public art initiative in windows and balconies of Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg, Övül and Joanna welcomed the invitation by the very young Autostrada Biennial initiated by two artists and an educator in Kosovo. The onsite conversations with artists, writers, cultural producers, activists, politicians lead to projects and stories in need of being heard; which motivated the working question around ‘two ends of the road and mutual needs’. Therefore, the biennale will not be cancelled but rooted locally in what we call ‘intimate infrastructure’. As we take the viewers on a walk “What is The Use?”, we will talk about the concept of biennale as resistance and the upcoming Autostrada Biennale as a journey where tools of care and unpredictability are part of their emergency kit on the road trip to the present, from Berlin to Kosovo and back. Or somewhere in between”. Joanna Warsza and Övül Ö. Durmusoglu co-curate Die Balkone in Berlin in 2020 and 2021, and Autostrada Biennale in Kosovo in summer 2021. Foto: Christian Lohse About Speaker Övül Ö. Durmusoglu is mentor and program co-leader in the Graduate School in University of the Arts in Berlin and a visiting professor for Art and Discourse in University of the Arts Braunschweig. In her multifaceted practice as curator, writer and educator, she researches intersectional forms and narratives of contemporary political subjectivities. Övül was one of the curators for the Steirischer Herbst festival in Graz; curator/director for YAMA public screen in Istanbul; artistic director for the Sofia Contemporary 2013 ‘Near, Closer, Together: Exercises for a Common Ground’. She curated different programs for the 10th, 13th and 14th Istanbul Biennials; coordinated and organized different programs and events at Maybe Education and Public Programs for dOCUMENTA (13). Joanna Warsza is a Program Director of CuratorLab at Konstfack University of Arts in Stockholm, and an independent curator interested in how art functions politically and socially outside the white cubes. She was the Artistic Director of Public Art Munich 2018, curator of the Georgian Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale, head of public programs for Manifesta 10 in St. Petersburg and an associate curator of the 7th Berlin Biennale among others. She is an editor of more than ten publications in the areas of public art, politics, performativity and feminist theory. Lately she co-edited with Michele Masucci and Maria Lind, Red Love, a Reader on Alexandra Kollontai (Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2020). WHAT COULD/SHOULD CURATING DO? (WCSCD) WHAT COULD/SHOULD CURATING DO? (WCSCD) was initiated and funded in 2018 in Belgrade as an educational platform around notions of curatorial. From 2020 WCSCD started to initiate its own curatorial inquiries and projects that should unpack above -mentioned complexities keeping educational component as a core to the WCSCD. The WCSCD curatorial program and series of public lectures have been initiated and organized by Biljana Ciric. WCSCD 2020/2021 public program series has been done in collaboration with Division of Arts and Humanities, Duke Kunshan University and they co-stream all public lectures. Strategic media collaboration is done with Seecult and they will co-host all public lecture series. Project Partners Media Partner For more information about the program, please refer to www.wcscd.com Project contacts: what.could.curating.do@gmail.com Follow us: FB: @whatcscdo Instagram: @whatcouldshouldcuratingdo < Mentors Educational Program How to Apply >