I stand next to the table to facilitate the process with the spectators. They write down their answers to the question "What traces will be erased under the concrete of new residential blocks and private investments?" on the pieces and materials that performers bring out of the site.
The performance ends with performers coming out from the site while the same song is playing, hanging the protest question: "Dear investors, what is your vision of Trešnjevka's future?", they stand still again till the end of the song and then leave the location.
2. IN-SITU PERFORMATIVE PROTEST: Construction Site Experiment
f) Work on the field/work in the field
16th February 2025: workshop and performative protest in Trakošćanska Street
1) MAPPING OF THE SITE
The steps of the experiment are inspired by the procedures of organizing and planning the real construction sites and foundations:
-literature: "Building Foundation: Its Types, Design Procedure and Necessities"
STEPS:
a) Detailed site investigation/mapping of the site:
- construction site sound dominates throughout the street
- construction site penetrates the public space occupying sidewalks and road
- occupation into the height, too, with a crane and many building floors, which contrast with smaller houses on the street.
- adding a grey layer to the street; contributes to the visual uniformity of the street
- occupying the space for at least two houses
- blocks the view of the greenery behind
- the location is claimed by the investor
e) Structural design/content of the resistance
FOUNDATIONS
What are the tangible and intangible characteristics and landmarks of Trešnjevka?
BRICKS
What would we suggest to invest in?
What do we miss/need in the neighborhood?
ROOF
Messages for the investor in the new building complex in Trakošćanska Street.
d) Select appropriate dimensions, determine the settlement, tilt and horizontal displacement/what, where and when:
Components of the performance:
Tapes = foundations/locality on the ground, written in the pores of the neighborhood.
Web = walls/protection, reclaiming the space.
*Bricks = new beginnings, new ideas/suggestions.
Bodies = appearance/being present, embodied resistance.
Paper = roof/resilience, sending messages.
Sound = resisting the usual soundscape of the street.
*Bricks embody a dual nature—they serve as fundamental building blocks in construction yet also become instruments of destruction in protests. In this performative protest, bricks act as a medium of communication, conveying the needs and demands of the neighborhood's inhabitants.
c) Decide on the type of foundations/vocabulary of performative protest
COUNTER acts to the mapped characteristics of the site:
Occupying the space across the construction site with the construction of resistance to the real estate investments which are in disbalance with the infrastructure of the neighborhood and with the needs of the community.
The procedure of building a resistance step by step: from the foundations to the roof. Building resistance through the locality, originality, specialties of the neighborhood, and its community. Building resistance to the domination of the sounds from the construction site with the sound of the chansons dedicated to the neighborhood by Zvonko Špišić, neighborhood poet. As the real construction site spills onto the street, so does the resistance on our construction site spill onto the street with the messages for the investors. Reclaiming and reconstructing the space across the site.
2. IN SITU PERFORMATIVE PROTEST: Goodbye protest
The process of creating performative protest:
a) Collecting inhabitants' answers to the questions via online platforms, conversations, and social networks:
-What traces will be erased under the concrete of new residential blocks and private investments?
b) Studying the literature on how private investments erase the past and construct a new future - the responsibility of designers for the future of social changes in an environment where the project is built.
-Jeinić A. (2016). Production, The City And Its Culture (online lecture). 2016 European Architecture programme Lecture. https://futurearchitectureplatform.org/video/94/production-the-city-and-its-culture-ana-jeinic/
Studying the literature about the possible role of choreography in protest actions.
-Foellmer S. (2016). Choreography as a Medium of Protest. Dance Research Journal, 58-69. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312097316_Choreography_as_a_Medium_of_Protest?enrichId=rgreq-859b1b603cd09d3720650e42222d0853-XXX&enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzMxMjA5NzMxNjtBUzo4NjA2MjU4OTQ5MjgzODZAMTU4MjIwMDYxMTE3Ng%3D%3D&el=1_x_2&_esc=publicationCoverPdf
c) Conceptualization of the experiment
-choreographic principle: performing the last goodbye to the location through stillness and slow-motion movement (an act of standing still, hommage to the Standing Man by Erdem Gunduz).
-A protest question for the investors came from the thought of Herbert A.S.: "To design is to devise courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones." The proposed protest question was: "Dear investors, what is your vision of Trešnjevka's future?"
d) Plan
Building a small goodbye station in front of the location: one table with coffee, tea, and cookies from the local pastry shop (a gesture symbolic of farewell rituals); one table for writing answers to the question from the first step.
g) Reflection - creation of agonistic space
The performative protest gathered performers, spectators, and interested passers-by. The experiment format allowed me not only to experiment with the stillness in the public space as a choreographic principle of a protest but also to get in direct communication with the inhabitants of the neighborhood regarding the problematics of private investments as visible signs of gentrification.
Some of the spectators watched everything from the other side of the road and then joined in the discussion and participated by leaving their answers about the changes resulting from massive constructions. Inhabitants mostly agreed that the neighborhood feels crowded and unorganized because of the huge apartment complexes and they don't feel related to those places. Some expressed the inability to influence private investors and the feeling that such actions would never stop and that we can't do anything about it. Because of that, they think that the better idea is to move away because Trešnjevka is losing the homey feeling and its warmth.
**AGGRESSIVE ENCOUNTER WITH THE INVESTOR**
The whole experiment in the public space lasted around 45 minutes. At the end of the experiment performers finished their intervention by placing the protest question on the fence of the site, some people were drinking coffee, and talking to each other and we were planning to leave very soon. At that moment, one car aggressively pulled over next to us and the male person got out of the car. It was one of the investors. He violently started to break our things and tear the fabric that had a question for investors on it (without reading the question). While doing that he yelled that he will kill us and similar violent phrases:
"Unemployed idiots"
"Do you know how much this costs?" (while showing on the site)
"This is mine" (while showing on the road in front of the site, reflecting on our tables with coffee and cookies)
"Why did you come here to ruin my life?"
"You are not working, just laying."
"What right do you have to stand here?"
"Stop filming, I will kill you."
"I will kill you all."
However, the whole group of people gathered in front of the site (performers, inhabitants and friends) stayed calm argumenting that we had the right to be there in a public space and that we didn't do anything to his site. That didn't calm him down, of course. He had to finish his performance...
Tomislav, the cameraman, filmed everything which somehow became a shield for the guy to not become physically violent towards someone (he did try to break our things but as soon as he noticed the camera he stopped touching our stuff and he stopped threatening that he would kill us).
This situation was stressful but at the same time extremely valuable experience for the research. First of all, the whole performative protest got completely another dimension and a real-time clash/performance with the "other side" of the problem. It was interesting to notice that going out in public space to express or discuss certain problems is connected with unemployment. He also stated that the whole street in front of the site is also HIS and that he will lose money because of us being there.
Also, it was beautiful to experience the community we immediately built across his aggressive energy: everyone present at the moment defended the action and us being there!
TWO SONGS FROM THE EXPERIMENT by Trešnjevka's poet Zvonko Špišić - resistance to the sound pollution constantly present in the street (suggested by participants).
Trešnjevka ballad
Get off at one of the six tram stops.
Do your job and come back.
And you won't learn anything.
Because life isn't lived from the audience,
It lives in the heart of that strange republic –
From the ragamuffins, the shooting range behind the square,
To the Trešnjevka cinema and its gang,
From the ZET union and gigantic turbines
To the idle tears of brandy and wine,
From street singers to roofers –
In thousands of stories there are thousands of destinies.
But you have to come in the spring, when the small gardens come to life and when the yards are decorated,
and the stream rushes towards the morning shift.
You have to come in the spring, when Pongračevo turns green and when all this costs nothing in this neighborhood without a cemetery and without a maternity hospital.
And you have to be under the underpass
When the lights of the morning train pass,
With one wish left for us –
That tomorrow will be better than today.
And you should put a flower on your lapel
At some dawn in front of the Trešnjevka NAMA
And say “hello” to the square that is waking up,
When there is no one to toast to yourself.
And you should go without plans and money,
With some old friend, the Samobor railway,
Or go to the first tavern,
Winking a lantern at “Mr. Doctor”.
You should be close when the first trams leave the Remiza,
At the beginning of the day when the outskirts are like ikebana
Of chimneys and flowers.
Gardens of the small houses
In the shadow of this city,
small gardens live.
They are behind everything,
at the end of the perspective.
From the newspaper and lunch,
to the end of the last shifts,
only the skies are blue
and the gardens are green.
And, those who live
in the sweat of their brow,
will nap after lunch
in a garden full of birds,
and there will be, one day,
when they leave those spots,
and apples for children
and moles for cats.
And they will march with them
in the May parade,
a million small gardens
for everyone who works,
and when they once calm down
and when they once return,
the table will be ready
by the lettuce bed.
They will dine for a long time,
as if after all the punishments,
the tables will be full,
the trams will be empty,
and there will be one day,
at the dawn of the day,
when they will even catch the sun
with the ropes of the crane.
TRANSLATION:
FOUNDATIONS (written on the tapes on the ground): There is...
Small crafts, Chinese shop, favelas, Cibona and Dom sportova (sports objects), variety, small gardens, cherry tree, close to everything, burek at Mira's, charm, throng, No Sikiriki bar, collision of worlds, market, working-class neighborhood, "all trams drive to Remiza" saying, grandpas and grandmas, illegal construction, Gagarin pathway, flea market, Tian tan restaurant.
FLOORS (written on the bricks): We need...
Underground garages, revitalization of abandoned spaces, fix the Samobor promenade, we need less of everything, reclaiming the space for walking, a place for cheap meals, uncovering the streams, sports facilities free for all, more cherry trees as a symbol of the neighborhood (Trešnjevka derives its name from the word "trešnja," meaning cherry tree, as the neighborhood was once abundant with them).
ROOF (written on the paper): Messages for investors... (mostly written in slang)
Booooooring!
How much is the square?
Trešnjevka is not for sale!
The sidewalk is for walking!
We already know what this building will look like!
Where do the workers who built this live?
Put the cherries back in Trešnjevka!
Performers come from all sides of the street and stand still right across the site. while the song "My People's Houses" is played. Throughout the song, performers change their shape while slowly coming closer to the fence of the site and diving into a physical greeting from the location.
After the song, performers slowly enter the site with a task to explore the site and pick up the pieces of someone's life (tiles, ornaments, bricks, toys...). On the pieces they either write down what will disappear from this specific site (in terms of visual, audio, tactile, and scent they experience there) or they bring the piece out on the table where the spectators can write down their reflections on the question from the first step.
The houses of my people
are being torn down for good,
no white sheets flutter,
no shirts hang to dry.
Vines climb in vain
to hold them tight,
but the houses of my people
wither and die.
Like relentless weeds,
bulldozers press on,
a water pump wails,
a cat waits for her young…
They will never arrive!
Cherry trees in bloom,
yards and their people
are losing this war.
The houses of my people
fall like blades of grass.
No lights flicker on,
no clocks mark the hours.
Defeated rags,
gardens without will,
Trešnjevka and Trnje
fade into the past.