Walking as a Way of Knowing – Belgrade
This spring and summer, the WCSCD program is set to unveil a captivating series of events in Belgrade, offering unparalleled experiences that blend culture, history, and architecture.
From March 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, and architects, 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 first season of walking together started in March, and it will continue until the end of June.
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. Visual artist and poet Dea Džanković will lead a walk that is deeply attuned to the city’s evolving environment, showing hidden gems of the city. Jelica Jovanović, an architect and a member of Grupa arhitekata, will take you through the topographic history of the Non-aligned movement, a platform for the countries, predominantly situated in the Global South, which refused to enter alliances with either of any major dominating blocs. And finally, freelance journalist and artist, Dunja Karanović will uncover some of the marginalized aspects of Belgrade’s recent history related to feminist activists, their anti-war protests, calls for solidarity, and artistic interventions in urban spaces.
All walks in May and June start on Saturdays at 4:00 pm. 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
[1] Muecke, Benterrak and Roe, Reading the Country, 21.
1) May 11
Poetic Nostalgia with Dea Džanković
Language: English
Duration: 2 to 3 hours
Walk starts at 4:00 pm
Meeting point: Kralja Petra 82 (corner of Kralja Petra and Cara Dušana street)
It’s a walk through Belgrade that is deeply attuned to the city’s evolving landscape. As a passionate artist and observer, I grapple with the city’s swift gentrification and the relentless march of uninspiring modern architecture erasing its historical essence. While many of Belgrade’s iconic landmarks and streets succumb to change, scattered pockets of poetic nostalgia endure in secluded corners, passages and buildings. This tour will showcase these overlooked gems, weaving tales that capture the authentic heartbeat of old Belgrade amidst its transforming skyline.
Dea Džanković is an interdisciplinary artist based in Belgrade, Serbia. She holds a BA degree in Media and Arts production from the Academy of Arts in Belgrade (2014), and two MA degrees in Visual Arts, first being from Sabanci university in Istanbul (2016), and latter from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Belgrade. As of 2022, she became a finalist of the Mangelos award and a member of the new media section of ULUS.
Her art practice spans various mediums, including performance, installation, photography, filmmaking, music, and text. Her artworks are inspired by the societal constructs, taboos, and boundaries of her environment, exploring the effects of social conditioning on the individual and collective psyche.
She aims to involve the viewer in a transformative experience, enabling them to engage with the artwork on a personal level by creating spaces for intervention, where one can expose, examine, and hopefully transcend the imposed conditioning.
2) May 18
The Non-Aligned Movement with Jelica Jovanović
Language: English
Duration: 2 to 3 hours
Walk starts at 4:00 pm
Meeting point: Obelisk of the Non-Aligned Countries near Branko Bridge
In September 1961 Belgrade was the host of the first summit of the "non-engaged countries" which would later become the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM): the platform for the countries, predominantly situated in the Global South, which refused to enter alliances with either of the two dominating blocs. There are many material landmarks all over Belgrade, commemorating the events and people of the Non-Alignment - some are more, some are less obvious. We will start our tour at the Obelisc near the Branko's bridge, which was built to commemorate the 1961 Belgrade conference, and continue towards New Belgrade, to explore some of the more intangible memories of the NAM in one of its founding places. From Obelisk we will continue towards New Belgrade, and observe the Sava Amphitheatre, which was once planned to be the Friendship Center of the Non Aligned Movement, and then when we cross onto the New Belgrade side we will continue our walk through the Ušće Park and towards the Friendship Park, a unique memorial park of Belgrade which is a living monument to the NAM diplomacy of the socialist Yugoslavia, where all the foreign high officials visiting the country would plant a tree.
Jelica Jovanović is an architect, architectural historian, heritage preservation professional and researcher. She is a PhD student at University of Technology in Vienna, working on thesis on preservation of mass housing of Yugoslavia, graduated from Faculty of Architecture in Belgrade with a revitalisation project of the Museum of Yugoslavia History. She is a founding member and president of the NGO Grupa arhitekata, within which she organizes summer schools and workshops revitalizing vernacular architecture in Serbia and works on architectural heritage and sustainability related research projects. She is a founding member and former secretary of Docomomo Serbia, within which she works as the digitization coordinator and on documentation projects. She was coordinator of the project “Unfinished Modernisations: Between Utopia and Pragmatism” for Association of Belgrade Architects, coordinator of the regional platform “(In)appropiate Monuments”, curatorial assistant of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) for the exhibition “Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia 1948–1980”, coauthor of the platform “Arhiva modernizma”, coauthor of the research project and the book "Bogdan Bogdanović Biblioteka Beograd".
3) April 27 at 11 am, May 25 at 4 pm
Feminizing the city with Dunja Karanović
Language: English
Duration: 2 to 3 hours
Meeting point: Studentski Kulturni Centar, Kralja Milana 48
As Rebecca Solnit put it, names subtly perpetuate the gendering of a city. The 1990s conflicts in the ex-Yugoslav region have prompted a re-traditionalization of gender roles and spurred nationalism that has become increasingly evident in present-day cultural policies and public spaces. Street names, squares, and monuments reflect a revisionist, one-sided understanding of history that celebrates violence and oppression. The aim of this walk is to map out and uncover some of the marginalized aspects of Belgrade’s recent history – the names and actions of feminist activists, their anti-war protests, calls for solidarity, and artistic interventions in urban spaces. By naming, remembering, and walking in the footsteps of Žarana Papić, Borka Pavićević, Women in Black (Žene u crnom), and other women who shaped and imagined a more peaceful and inclusive Belgrade, we can start collectively creating an alternative map of the city.
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.
@dunja_karanovic
4) Spring Family Walks
We are thrilled to announce our family-friendly walk at Piknik in Belgrade suitable for parents and children (age 6+) run by a contemporary artist and filmmaker Miloš Tomić.
Date: May 1
Walk starts at 2:00 pm. Please arrive 10 minutes prior
Meeting point: Piknik (Kalemegdan Donji Grad)
Spring Family Walks is an invitation for re-learning forgotten skills, awakening all of your senses and activating your body through communication with nature and people around us. This walk will take the form of a fun and playful game, consisting of challenges that encourage exploration and learning.
We do not want to spoil the surprise, but during this adventurous walk we will pay attention to "ordinary" things like found objects and everyday gestures and movements. We will use these experiences and knowledge in a new way of learning something different about ourselves and how these discoveries can be further applied in your everyday life.
Miloš Tomić is a filmmaker, visual artist, father, who likes to say he is still in love with what he does – art. In 2013, he represented Serbia at the Venice Biennale. Every day Milos "steals" video-scenes, photo-moments, audio-parts of conversations of unknown people from everyday life, collects found objects in cabinets of wonders and rummages through flea markets in search of precious scraps.
Please note, this walk is full of physical activities so make sure wearing comfortable clothes that you don't mind getting dirty.
What to bring: You’re welcome to bring a picnic blanket and your own food and water. Also please don’t forget trash bags. We end each walk with a picnic.
Language: Serbian, English, body language, any newly invented language of your own making.
Admission:
Family Fun (One parent + one child): 2,400 dinars
Double Joy (One parent + two kids): 3,000 dinars
Solo Explorer: 1,000 dinars
Booking is required via kontakt@piknik.co.rs. Payment is cash on-site
Please note that all walks have limited capacity. If you have any questions regarding the walk and outdoor activities, please DM us or email at what.could.curating.do@gmail.com
