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:
1) 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
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!
5) 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.
3) 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.
4) 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.
6) Work on the field/work in the field
16th February 2025: workshop and performative protest in Trakošćanska Street
TWO SONGS FROM THE EXPERIMENT by Trešnjevka's poet Zvonko Špišić:
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.
The oldest local pastry shop Šeničnjak in clash with the new pastry shop right next to it, from a modern chain of pastry shops Magnolia.
