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DIFFERENTIATED NEIGHBOURHOODS OF NEW BELGRADE
ANNUAL PROJECT OF THE CENTRE FOR VISUAL CULTURE OF MoCAB
The project explores different connotations of the term neighbourhood, in the vocabulary or its urban, architectural and social context, as well as analyzes the historical development and actual dynamics of urban transformations of New Belgrade neighbourhoods.

FIRST PUBLIC PRESENTATION OF THE PROJECT
 
THURSDAY, 29. NOVEMBER 2007.
LOCAL COMMUNITY "DUNAVSKI KEJ", Boulevard Zoran Đinđić 64
 
18:00 OPENING OF DOCUMENTARY EXHIBITION
(Mina Petrovic & Vera Backovic, Sabine Bitter & Helmut Weber, Aleksandar Dimitrijevic, Davor Eres & Dunja Predic & Dubravka Sekulic, Sanja Jovovic, Jakob Kolding, Stefan Roemer and Mark Terkessidis)
 
Exhibition will be opened till 2nd December. Working hours: 10-18 h.
 
19:00 PROJECIONS OF DOCUMENTARY FILMS AND VIDEOS / TALK WITH THE AUTHORS:
NEW: Novi Beograd 1948 - 1986 – 2006 (Sabine Bitter and Helmut Weber)
PRC: Recreational Centre for Retired (Dusan Saponja and Dusan Cavic)
Boulevard of Illusions: Learning from New Belgrade (Stefan Roemer)
 
 
FRIDAY, 30. NOVEMBER 2007.
LOCAL COMMUNITY "DUNAVSKI KEJ", Boulevard Zoran Đinđić 64
 
18:00 MODES OF DESIRE AND UTOPIA. NEIGHBOURHOODS, COMMUNITIES AND THEIR URBAN DREAMS.
Film program curated by Adam Budak
 
Dragline, Screen Tests 2/4 (Marysia Lewandowska & Neil Cummings), 2006, 6'57"
View from My Window (Jozef Robakowski), 1978-99, 25'
Nowa Huta (Wilhelm Sasnal), 2005, 10'
Contemporary Symphony (Maciej Korus & Jerzy Ridan), 1971, 5'25 "
Direction Nowa Huta (Andrzej Munk), 1951, 12'
I Built the New City (Bohdan Kosinski), 1972, 9'
Havanna (Miklos Erhardt), 2006, 17'30"
Brodno (Pawel Althamer), 2000, 5'52"
Vratnik / Granny (Ozlem Sulak), 2005-07, 2 x 9'20"
Sisiphus (Tadeusz Wudzki), 1971, 5'30"
Theatre (Tadeusz Wudzki), 1973, 5'39"
Gaze (Tadeusz Wudzki), 1974, 4'27"
Of Marble and of Iron (Andrzej Soroczynski), 1997, 25'
 
 
SATURDAY, 1. DECEMBER 2007.
FOUNDATIONS OF THE MUSEUM OF REVOLUTION, NEW BELGRADE
 
14:00-18:00 ART IS EITHER PLAGIARISM OR REVOLUTION, OR: SOMETHING IS DEFINITELY GOING TO HAPPEN HERE *
(project by Bik Van der Pol)
* quoted from Paul Gaugain
 
 
NEIGHBOURHOOD
The common connotation of the term neighbourhood is derived from the vocabulary of architecture and urbanism to describe certain part of the city with its specificities. Moreover, it has a deeper social meaning in terms of the urbanized, well off community area as opposed to the illegal settlements in some countries, especially in the favelas in Latin America where ‘neighbourhood’ means respectful community.
Henry Lefebvre suggested that in spite of all attempts of modernity and modernization to homogenize and commodify space, this project of ‘normalization’ conducted by the states ultimately provoked opposition and negativity. The consequence was a plurality of what he called ‘differentiated’ spaces that continued to persist under neo-capitalism, where difference is registered and linked to the clandestine or underground side of life.
The social (class) segregation through the process of homogenization in urban environment created different extreme ‘neighbourhoods’ such as isolated ‘residential’ areas and even gated communities on one side and illegal settlements and ghettos on the other all creating different socio-spatial environment. In the language of sub-cultural groups, but also gangs in big cities, the same term neighbourhood is therefore understood as clearly marked territory of control and hegemony through the use of space.
In the counties of real socialism the city area consisting of big blocks of skyscrapers, (in East Germany called “platenbau”) the neighbourhood was clearly marked by the “borders” of the block and is mainly seen as a dormitory. In the period of “post-socialism” the thorough urban change affected those city blocks as well, be it with the process of gentrification, or as it often happened, socio-spatial transformation into “urban ghettos”.
 
LOCAL SITUATION
The research team has focused on the processes that are happening in some blocks of New Belgrade. The “city within the city” and one of the biggest and most populous counties of Belgrade is now facing the fast urban restructurings, both gentrification and ghettoisation. On one side there is a problem of a loss of the public space that was never fully developed in New Belgrade and is now overtaken by big supermarkets and shopping malls. On the other side the new segregation driven mostly by economic, social or even racial distinctions created new homogenized neighbourhoods and even new “urban ghettos”. The special focus of the project would be to investigate the blocks where these marginalized social groups like refugees, Roma people that were not accepted to the certain blocks in New Belgrade, and the Chinese community, are all fighting to achieve their “spatial justice” (Edward Soja).
 
 
RESEARCH TEAM:
Vera BACKOVIC (sociologist, Belgrade, Serbia) / Liesbeth BIK & Jos VAN DER POL (artists Rotterdam, Netherlands) / Sabine BITTER & Helmut WEBER (artists, Vienna, Austria) / Ljiljana BLAGOJEVIC (professor, Faculty of Architecture, Belgrade, Serbia) / Adam BUDAK (curator, Kunsthaus Graz, Austria) / Dusan CAVIC (journalist, RTV B92, Belgrade, Serbia) / Aleksandar DIMITRIJEVIC (artist, Belgrade, Serbia) / Davor ERES (architect, Belgrade, Serbia) / Zoran ERIC (curator MoCAB, Belgrade, Serbia) / Sanja JOVOVIC (architect, Belgrade, Serbia) / Jakob KOLDING (artist, Copenhagen, Denmark / Berlin, Germany) / Tamara MARICIC (planner, Belgrade, Serbia) / Jelena MITROVIC (architect, Belgrade, Serbia) / Mina PETROVIC (professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Sociology, Belgrade, Serbia) / Ivan PETROVIC (film and TV director, multimedia proletaire, Belgrade, Serbia) / Dunja PREDIC (architect, Belgrade, Serbia) / Stefan ROEMER (artist and theorist, Munich, Germany) / Dubravka SEKULIC (architect, Belgrade, Serbia) / Dusan SAPONJA (journalist, RTV B92, Belgrade, Serbia) / Mark TERKESSIDIS (theorist, Berlin / Cologne, Germany)
 
ORGANISATION: MoCAB / Local Community “Dunavski kej”
 
IN COOPERATION WITH: Academy of Art BK / VISIONTEAM
 
WITH THE SUPPORT OF:
Belgrade City Council - Secretariat for Culture / New Belgrade Municipality / Royal Netherlands Embassy in Belgrade / Mondriaan Foundation / Danish Arts Council / Austrian Cultural Forum Belgrade / Alas International / Goete-Institute Belgrade / ifa / Stability Pact for South-eastern Europe / U.S. Embassy in Belgrade / Byzart / JKP "Zelenilo-Beograd" / City of Belgrade - Roads Directorate / Model 5