Josep Ramoneda, Aleksandar Prokopiev, Thomas Symeonidis, Andro Martinović

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THEthe magazine of BRIDGEAcademia Balkanica Europeana May 2020 (Number 6) Dossier: Culture, Art, Society Josep Ramoneda, Aleksandar Prokopiev, Thomas Symeonidis, Andro Martinović

THE CULTURE OF COEXISTENCE 1395 DAYS THE YELLOW EAST, IN THE LONGUE DUREE WITHOUT RED THE WHITE WEST By Krzysztof Czyżewski By Šejla Kamerić By Burhan Sönmez ContentsEditorial

Supported by a grant from the Foundation Open Society Institute in cooperation with the OSIFE of the Open Society Foundations

Supported by a grant from the European Cultural Foundation www.culturalfoundation.eu

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CONTENTS

CHRONYSTERIC, Editorial TRIBUNE, CLOWN 13 By Aleksandar Prokopiev VIRUS(ES) 3 Forum ON ART: DRAFT FOR IS IT BECOMING A COUNTRY A POCKET AESTHETIC TRACTATUS 15 OF OLD MEN? 4 By Thomas Symeonidis By Mediha Ardović

The Gaze of the Other Andro Martinović: WHEN EVERYTHING ELSE IS PUT ASIDE, CULTURE THE CULTURE OF COEXISTENCE IN THE REMAINS 17 LONGUE DUREE Interviewed by Amila Kahrović-Posavljak By Krzysztof Czyżewski 6 Loc-alia

Visible Soul THE YELLOW EAST, THE WHITE WEST 19 « MY ART - A MIRROR OF By Burhan Sönmez THE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE OUTER WORLD. » 9 Zharko Basheski (1957) Ars Poetica

1395 DAYS BEFORE THE BEGINNING WITHOUT RED 10 Fragment from the novel “Hamam Balkania” Šejla Kamerić By Vladislav Bajac 21

Dossier Our Essay CULTURE, ART, SOCIETY THE UNHOLY TRINITY FROM “11 THESIS ON CULTURE” OF NEW MEDIA, POST-TRUTH By Josep Ramoneda 12 AND POPULISM 23 By Bashkim Shehu

2 Editorial

VIRUS(ES)

n the editorial of the previous issue, we and thus to protect humanity from this evil. of the Maastricht Treaty said: “The climate discussed a natural disaster that struck that seems to hang over the heads of state Meanwhile, the consequences of this crisis a small Balkan country. Now, we find and government and the lack of European extend beyond health and will be severe. First, Iourselves facing another natural disaster that solidarity pose a mortal danger to the we will be much poorer, with an economic is striking the entire planet and has paralysed European Union. The virus is back.” It is clear decline unprecedented in decades: On this almost all spheres of life (even our online to what old European virus he was referring. there is consensus among economists. Second, magazine has been affected and we apologise Not to mention the position that the EU humanity has been conquered not only by the to readers for the delay in publication of holds towards Syrian refugees, as it violating coronavirus epidemic, but also by an epidemic this issue). The cause of the disaster is a tiny, respective international conventions and at the of fear about the present and future. Both submicroscopic thing, a virus, a coronavirus, same time its own declared values, not just by poverty and fear, as well as the extraordinary called Covid-19, or SARS-CoV-2. It is a building walls to keep the refugees out, but empowerment of governments of nation- new, very insidious virus, highly infectious, also by giving prior blessing to the use of live states at a time when they are also shutting highly contagious. Doctors and scientists find weapons against refugees by Greece, the first out one another, constitute the perfect terrain themselves facing the unknown. One says Balkan state to join the EU. for a regression toward national-populist one thing, another the opposite, indeed too authoritarianism, which has seen an alarming From the very beginning, Jean Monnet, one often specialists contradict themselves within a expansion in the democratic West in recent of the earliest architects of united Europe, matter of days. The consensus that presupposes years. What will happen to democracy? Will it expressed concerns about the future of a scientific truth is missing in many aspects: be able to resist the authoritarian temptations this project, arguing that building Europe We are still in the phase of trial and error, thus of a population which is frightened and hostile had to begin with culture. But culture, in science has still not managed to predict nor to the world? What about the European the dominant ideological model, is seen as find a quick solution. The only solution that Union, which most recently opened its doors entertainment or luxury, and therefore, it is 21st century science has proposed up to now to the Western Balkans – what will it be the first to be sacrificed in times of economic is the Medieval response to the Black Death like in the near future? The signs are not hardship. We are far from that which Winston that plagued Europe: Enclosure, the greatest good: The richest countries are maintaining Churchill said in the midst of the Second isolation possible from one another. Thus, a a similar position as they did in the financial World War: “If we sacrifice our Culture, then large number of residents of this planet have crisis of 2008-2010, toward countries that can anyone tell me why we are fighting this been enclosed inside four walls, for weeks on are less rich, and this is harming European war?” end. Science requires time in order to find, integration, undermining its very foundations. through a process of trial and error, the truth Translated by Alexandra Channer As Jaques Delors, one of the protagonists

3 EditorialForum

Mediha Adrović was born in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 1979. Graduated from the Faculty of Political Science, Department of Journalism. “Journalism is a big love, in all segments, from radio but also print and online media”, she likes to say. After working in the news program, for 15 years she has been working for the state TV of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the editorial office for culture.

IS IT BECOMING A COUNTRY

OF OLD MEN? By Mediha Ardović

Unemployment is a burning problem trend has been on the rise, significantly, by dissatisfaction over the political Union for Sustainable Return and facing Bosnia and Herzegovina over the past five years, and should it situation, selected by under 70% of the Integrations in BH, about 230,000 (BH). Young people here share in the continue, BH will be facing a grim people who were examined. people left BH between July 2013 and unfortunate designation that BH has future: it will become a country of the January 2020. Among them are people one of the highest unemployment rates elderly. Unemployment is the reason Unemployment holds only sixth place who left BH while still retaining in Europe. Those who are, nevertheless, that the American Cato Institute has among the reasons why young people their residency status, but also those employed, are mostly working in the ranked BH in the less than glorious are leaving their home country, and just who permanently renounced their private sector, but they aspire to a eighth place on their poverty index. under 40% of the people examined said citizenship. secure position in public service. this was why they were leaving their “According to the most recent research home country. According to the data of the Ministry of Civil Affairs of Bosnia and Next to unemployment is dissatisfaction Herzegovina, more than 85,000 people For every job you need a connection or to have somebody who is with a current job or salary level, had renounced their BH citizenship politically active who can help you find a job. which about 30% of the young people by halfway through 2019. “If we take gave as the reason for leaving. The into consideration that young people conclusion is that young people are not are the group that most often leaves leaving primarily because of a lack of BH, we conclude that the number of Anela Mrdić, from Sarajevo, is still from 2019, the desire to go abroad is not employment opportunities, but because young people leaving BH is equal to looking for a job. She blames the on the wane. Between 60% and 70% of the entire political and social situation the population of third- or fourth-level government for the unemployment, of the working population has indicated in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” as they cities here,” said the Institute. which goes hand in hand with poverty, they would like to leave. But interesting say at the KULT Institute for Youth corruption, and the BH political that when they are asked what they are Development. There is no state-wide law in BH about system. willing to do to prepare for leaving, the young people. The Institute is currently percentage drops drastically. Only every “For four years now I have been trying tenth person has actually taken the steps to find a job in my profession, without needed to leave,” as Amer Osmićtells us, According to a study run by the KULT Institute for Youth success. For every job you need a a sociologist working on migration and Development in 2017 analysing the reasons why they are leaving connection or to have somebody who an assistant at the Sarajevo Faculty of is politically active who can help you Political Science. their home country, young people between the ages of 15 and 35 find a job. Knowledge is least valued here. Although I have no experience in According to a study run by the KULT say that the main reason they’re moving away is that they can’t my profession, I am willing to work, Institute for Youth Development in envision a better future for themselves. to learn, but I’m not being given the 2017 analysing the reasons why they chance. I’ll probably end up going are leaving their home country, young outside of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I people between the ages of 15 and 35 Over the last seven years, working on analysing the condition think the option is Germany, and we’ll say that the main reason they’re moving 230,000 have left the country and needs of young people in BH in see,” says Anela. away is that they can’t envision a better conjunction with the Ministry of Civil future for themselves. Unfortunately BH does not keep Affairs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, But Anela is not the only one who sees precise data on the number of people which is a key step toward writing a better future for hreself abroad. The “Over 80% of the young people who have left the country in the recent important strategic documents for massive departure of young people is who were examined selected this period. According to data from the young people. increasingly visible in BH society. This as their reason for leaving, followed

4 ForumEditorial for and for which they do not have nor do they travel. The reason for Unfortunately, the education systems were not created to motivate adequate education. this is that young people do not perceive expertise, competence and high-school and university students to work. “Almost 50% of BH young people are qualifications as key to getting a job, doing jobs they were not trained for or but instead believe that what matters have no skills or competence for, while “In the BH Federation, a Youth Act the doors of the institutions, to find more is having friends, acquaintances, almost every third young working has been in effect for ten years, but a secure job and that this is what and connections with people in person feels overqualified for the job he even after ten years there has been matters. certain positions, or simply good luck. or she is doing,” says Amer Osmić. no work done on the strategy that Unfortunately time and energy must A key problem is that there is no is required by the law. As far as the An interesting but also worrisome be invested both in the education systematic concern for young people, Republika Srpska entity is concerned, fact is that an exceptionally small system and the labor market for this and the sporadic measures and public there the situation is somewhat better number of young people find jobs to attitude to change among young calls aimed at young people will not because a youth policy was adopted put themselves through their tertiary people. In essence, we can say that a contribute to significant progress. for 2016/2020. The Brčko district of schooling, which can be explained significant number of young people The very lack of strategic documents BH has had a Youth Act on the books by custom in BH, but also the other are aware of the serious situation and and concrete action plans funded by for the shortest time, but already countries of the region, for parents to the circumstances they live in, but a budget are a reflection of the state’s they are developing a strategy for the support their children throughout their what worries me personally is the lack lack of concern for young people. young, which is slated to be adopted studies. “According to the available of quality solutions offered by young this year. An analysis of the condition data, the number of young people For all these reasons, but also because people, except the fact that they see and needs of the young in the Brčko who decide to volunteer is low. Only of the vast numbers of people leaving leaving the country as their solution. district of BH has been drawn up, 13% have stated that over the last BH, the KULT Institute for Youth and currently underway is operative On the other hand, there are some twelve months they were involved in Development inaugurated a campaign discussion in work groups. At known as #necudaidem the lower levels of government [#Iwon’tleave], with the goal (cantons and municipalities) of encouraging, motivating the situation is somewhat and stimulating the media more positive, while the and decision-makers to Institute intends to offer, this tackle more seriously year, support to six or seven the problem of the mass communities to help them departures of young people. develop their strategies for young people,” the Institute “What matters most is that said. young people mustn’t lose their motivation for their On the basis of experience personal advancement, working with the young but also for making and following all trends and a contribution to the movements related to the community. They must young, young people do not not accept or be part of generally make adequate use negative trends in society, of the available legal options instead they should point regulating employment while to all the anomalies they they are students. notice or experience. Young people are the vitality and young people who feel, for instance, an activity which could be termed potential of every society, and they that the BH education system is good, volunteer work. Young people most should see themselves as such, but An alarm no one is activating yet they have never traveled outside often serve as volunteers in schools or they should also convince society that the country anywhere for educational universities, and youth organizations”, Unfortunately, the education systems they have the capacity for advancing purposes, so it is difficult to say what says Osmić. were not created to motivate high- and developing the community!” they have to compare our educational school and university students to work, According to recent research conducted as the KULT Institute for Youth system with. We could therefore say or build up their experience through by the Studija o mladima Bih [Study Development concluded. that the perception of young people practical work. Every fourth person in on Youth in Bosnia and Herzegovina], of the condition in society is founded BH drops out of the education system, under the auspices of the Friedrich- Anela Mrdić, quoted at the beginning on a narrow perspective of the ways which is far higher than the average Ebert-Stiftung Study on Youth in of this story, says she doesn’t want to in which they, themselves, live, and number of drop-outs found in most Southeastern Europe 2018/2019, an go abroad, but she is afraid she may less on an understanding of the European countries. international research project that have no other options. She says that the broader context, and an analysis of the “Young people have expressed problems and solutions,” as Dr. Lejla satisfaction with the system of Turčilo explains, of the Department A key problem is that there is no systematic concern for young education, yet they show no interest of Communications/Journalism at the in travel, for instance, for educational Sarajevo Faculty of Political Science. people, and the sporadic measures and public calls aimed at young purposes, they don’t think volunteer people will not contribute to significant progress. work is worthwhile, or gaining Unfortunately, this is an educational practical experience and so forth. This system which does not have a dual orientation, and it does not offer gives me the impression that young time has come for politicians to listen young people opportunities to is being run simultaneously in ten people see education as a path to a to the voice of youth and start creating acquire knowledge, competence and southeastern European countries, has diploma, but not to the knowledge, the climate for them to stay, instead skills during the formal education shown that almost every other young skill and competence that would make of leaving. BH still seems to be silent process in keeping with the needs and person in BH who drops out of the them competitive in the workforce. in response to the groans of those on competitiveness of the 21st century, formal education system remains at the whose shoulders rests the future of the The fact that they see public so this reduces the chances for quick level of third-year secondary school or world. administration as the most desirable employment, which leads to the lower. employer also shows that young assumption that many young people They spend their free time in cafes, people feel that what matters most are doing jobs they were not trained Translated by Ellen Elias-Bursać is obtaining the ‘papers’ to open they do not attend cultural events,

5 The GazeEditorial of the Other

Krzystof Czyżewski – practitioner of ideas, writer, philosopher, culture animator, theatre director, editor. Co- founder and president of the Borderland Foundation and director of the Centre “Borderland of Arts, Cultures and Nations” in Sejny, Poland. Teacher and lecturer, professor at the University of Bologna. Among his books of poetry and essays are: The Path of the Borderland (2001), Trust & Identity: A Handbook of Dialogue (2011), Miłosz – Dialog – Borderland (2013), Miłosz. A Connective Tissue (2014), A Small Center of the World (2017), and Toward Xenopolis (2019). In 2018, as an acknowledgment of the contribution of for intercultural dialogue has been given the Princess Margriet Award for Culture by the European Cultural Foundation. Krzysztof Czyżewski’s text we are publishing reflects meaningfully the philosophy of “Borderland”.

THE CULTURE OF COEXISTENCE IN THE LONGUE DUREE On practising the ethos of the borderland By Krzysztof Czyżewski

The contemporary culture of co- we popularised the Internet, and modern Europe, which increasingly yet another wall – not in a Cold existence cannot be built on lies, most of us live in multicultural resembles an archipelago of separate War world of enslavement but in wishful thinking or other baseless metropolises. And yet walls remain cultures, is not the presence of the face of the growing proximity of attitudes and ideologies, especially a familiar experience to the modern diversity and differences, but that the Alien. By creating a European if they are realised through one- European. These are no longer walls which Czesław Miłosz had called culture of coexistence we remake off, short-term and media-friendly running along national borders, ‘connective tissue’ and on which the Alien into the Other. Hence, events. The power of its authenticity between political systems or he based his concept of the ‘Native an opportunity is born for the should draw from a firm grasp languages. The contemporary wall members of our communities, of reality and care for long-term stands in the midst of society, on who speak different languages and effects, and should be organically the same river bank, and it serves A border sets us free not have various faiths and cultures, to grounded in the everyday life of the to divide confronting cultural by protecting us from become one of Us. community. Hence, it is best not to identities. The ever-increasing speak about resolving conflicts, but proximity of the Alien, not outside something or holding rather about an ability to live with of our world, but within the something at bay, ENCOUNTERING THE conflicts, and instead of removing intimate space reserved for the OTHER borders, to think about crossing familiar and the accepted, raises but by offering us the them. a new wall in which all our fears opportunity of crossing it. Encountering the Other means and inadequacies are sealed. We overcoming oneself. Empathy THE ALIEN – THE OTHER – are realising ever more clearly that brings us into the space of moral ONE OF US identity does not mean community Realm’. This is why contemporary choices and spiritual change. Most importantly, we come closer to We brought down the Berlin and that in our battles to preserve Europe must focus on coexistence, acting on our heart’s spontaneous wall, we opened up our borders, the former we have lost much of the which drives a current of thought spirit of the latter. The problem of and action capable of tearing down reaction to another person’s real

6 The GazeEditorial of the Other

Walls remain a familiar experience to the modern European. These are no longer walls running along national borders, between political systems or languages. The contemporary wall stands in the midst of society, on the same river bank, and it serves to divide confronting cultural identities. life situation and needs. In the to be read separately, and even absolute. In our story of coexistence GOOD MEMORY face of this reaction all previously juxtaposed, as representing two they are both on the same road, While travelling to Sejny, we established rules and beliefs, conflicting realms: the rational both fellow wanderers. Recalling were approaching a place full of and even oaths made to uphold and the irrational. Thus, the first the language of the people from the unresolved conflicts, issues and these values, are of secondary part of the admonition speaks of borderlands, who are used to living taboos from the past. In order to importance. What is more, if the treating the stranger (the alien, the with others and not prone to erasing come closer to reality we constantly situation demands that these rules wanderer, the immigrant, the exile, needed to refer to memory, which be broken, it also demands the etc.) as a fellow countryman, which turned out to be an integral part of courage to confront the accusations implies equality in the face of the The encounter with the contemporary world. We were of betraying ourselves and our law and the right to be different not creating an open-air museum. community. (in religion, race, nationality, etc.). the Other is an act of We were working with the younger Today this legislative aspect is This response to our heart’s call, the construction. It is not generations to shape a new future strongly underlined in speaking cornerstone of coexistence, is found and to find our own place in about mutual coexistence, by given to us, and does not in one of the oldest books of the Europe. And as we, the participants pointing to the constitutional Bible. In Leviticus 19,34 we read: happen on its own. Such of this work, children, their parents guarantee of human rights, ‘But the stranger that dwelleth with and grandparents, unlocked the rather than tolerance and other an encounter is a craft. you shall be unto you as one born past of that place we were filled humanitarian values which are Those who practised among you, and thou shalt love with a love and understanding for difficult to rationally define. him as thyself, for ye were strangers this craft throughout the people living there and the land Leviticus does not ignore this aspect in the Land of Egypt...’. This they called their own. Of course, of coexistence, but it also does not the ages were frequently admonition to Moses is brought our work was not without pain as stop there. Its admonition reaches up several times in the Pentateuch: compared to builders of some grudges and tensions were further, towards love, which is an earlier in the Book of Leviticus the still present. We were working, overcoming hinted at in the phrase bridges. In the Balkans love of the neighbour implies the however, on what Czesław Miłosz ‘as thyself’ – to love the Other in ‘children of thy people’ (19,18); these people were called in his words about the Borderland this way means changing oneself, in Deuteronomy 10,19: ‘Love ye called ‘that which in our part of crossing the boundaries of one’s neimar, and accorded therefore the stranger: for ye were Europe comprises tangible, painful, own existence. This love is not given strangers in the land of Egypt.’; and with the respect usually yet life-giving details’. In order to us, like the love of the self, hence in Exodus 23,9: ‘Also thou shalt not for these details to be life-giving it can only be realised in the act of given to an architect oppress a stranger … seeing ye were we had to gain the trust of the overcoming. strangers in the land of Egypt.’ The who knew the secrets of inhabitants of Sejny without shying earliest version of the admonition, Overcoming is strongly connected nature and could impose away from the tragic events of the quoted first and written down in with spiritual development, but past, at the same time focusing th the 5 century BC, was, as we now also with the conflict created by order upon chaos. mainly on the good memories know, based on sources as old as the the existence of borders and the present in every person. We had nd second half of the 2 millennium guarding of those borders. Do to find a way, mostly through art, BC. This makes it one of the oldest, we make laws, take oaths and to excavate these memories and differences, we might say: their road if not the oldest instruction in both outline borders only to break them bring them into the light of present is their border. That which brings the Jewish and Christian traditions and cross them? This conflict is relationships. them together and sets them apart for founding one’s relationships seemingly irresolvable, as long determines their coexistence. A Good memories and a positive with the Other on coexistence. It as we treat the two sides of the border sets us free not by protecting language of speaking about the merges the advice found in the two encounter, the Self and the Other, us from something or holding borderland are essential elements remaining Biblical quotes which separately, ascribing a different path something at bay, but by offering us commonly has been, and continues to each one, and calling one’s truth the opportunity of crossing it. Page 8

7 The GazeEditorial of the Other

Page 7 objectivity, truth and freedom with might have been if such schools and temporary usefulness. That the culture of coexistence, empathy existed in any significant number which seemed pragmatic and in creating a culture of coexistence. and responsibility. in the past, when we were trained, consistent with the spirit of the Borderland narratives about the using increasingly more advanced times was unmasked as but a foible, past are dominated by traumatic One way or another, by naming tools, in the ways of destroying which might even prove grotesquely memories and a negative language, the upcoming age we acquire an bridges. One might doubt the amusing if not for the extent of concentrated on conflicts, grudges, understanding that our future will sense of the existence of Martin suffering and destruction it had defence in the face of danger, etc. be largely decided by the problem Buber’s workshop for dialogue caused. On the other hand, the This is motivated by the tragedies of of our encounter with the Other. in Nazi Germany. Brought up in workshop of dialogue, established history, especially from the previous An encounter which unsettles us Lvov, Buber knew the alternative to by such people as Martin Buber, century. However, it also causes with its potential for failure and living together in a multicultural which always bore the odium of positive aspects of co-existing with endless cultural conflicts. Such city - there was no option of living utopian idealism, now shows us others to be erased from collective a failure would bring about the separately in a modern society, so its amazing vitality and wisdom, memory, and leaves the community defeat of our ability to integrate the only alternative was conflict realised by contemporary man as helpless in the face of expressing with the Other. One might say that the art of life’s praxis, expressed by positive emotions and traditions. it was too late for his impractical such endeavours as the ethics of Tomas Venclova, a renowned One way or another, by philosophy, seemingly out of place solidarity. Lithuanian poet once said about in that time. Armies of journeymen his compatriot from Vilnius, naming the upcoming For the connection established already filled the workshops of Czesław Miłosz, that he was a man by the bridge to truly realise the age we acquire an ideologies which craved murder dedicated to the word ‘yes’. This possibility of coexistence, there upon the Other, in order to may sound surprising, considering understanding that our also needs to exist a real chance entrench an endangered identity the fact that Miłosz’s life led him for breaking that connection. future will be largely in its position as a binding element through all the circles of 20th Separation and differentiation of the community. And although century hell. And yet Venclova decided by the problem create the need for communication the number of deaths among touched upon the very essence of and the effort of establishing a of our encounter with people branded as class or racial a man from the borderland, whose connection. In the case of a bridge the Other. enemies proved to be the highest gestures never serve to separate there is always the possibility of in history, even more important or exclude but to embrace and destroying it – we are aware of its was the number of guilty witnesses, welcome. It is thanks to this that with each other, and of forming vulnerability, and our helplessness participants of the binding rituals, he is able to establish a culture of authentic communities in a post- in the face of the destructive powers who have formed lasting covenants. coexistence. modern reality. That is why we that nature and man can use Such covenants, created in the need the culture of coexistence, against it. This may not be apparent murderous 20th century, have forming an ethos for those involved in the physical image of a bridge. proven to be so enduring that we THE BRIDGE OF in its creation, and expressing itself Georg Simmel wrote that “a bridge still feel them beneath the surface COEXISTENCE in practical ways in our everyday in a landscape is usually perceived relations. If this is to be possible, as a scenic element”. Which is why I understand the culture of we need new cultural practices and he ascribed to it only the meaning coexistence as a process opening new tools for constructing bridges Separation and of unification, and he completed up the perspective of longue of understanding. its symbolism for the truth about durée. Any attempt to narrow this differentiation humanity with the symbol of a perspective, to limit it to short-term The encounter with the Other is create the need for door, which “demonstrates that expectations and effects can prove an act of construction. It is not separation and unification are but destructive. An imagination born given to us, and does not happen communication and two aspects of the same act … of dialogue creates before our eyes on its own. Such an encounter is the effort of establishing Doors can be opened, and because a vision of the era we are entering. a craft. Those who practised this of this, when they are closed, they The challenge we must face in this craft throughout the ages were a connection. In embody the sense of separation era is the encounter of the Other. frequently compared to builders of the case of a bridge from whatever is behind them Philosophers claim that we are bridges. In the Balkans these people much more strongly than a wall.” passing into an age which will were called neimar, and accorded there is always the complete the threefold cycle of the with the respect usually given to possibility of destroying A bridge raised in accordance spiritual development of mankind. an architect who knew the secrets with the craft includes within it The new paradigm of this age will of nature and could impose order it – we are aware of its Simmel’s door. We must remember, be the second person – ‘you are’. upon chaos. With time this name vulnerability, and our that the bridge might as well not It is shaped after the two previous was forgotten, and along with it the exist, and that it may cease to exist ages: the ancient, based on the secrets of the helplessness in the face at any given moment. That it exists paradigm of the third person – ‘this of the destructive powers at all is the work, and the work of craft. Constructing a bridge became is’, championed by Aristotle and the living element he used to hold a technological issue. Old tools were that nature and man valuing the mind and objectivity; it together – its human caretaker. misplaced, and the new tools which and the modern age, with its first can use against it. It is that caretaker who opens and replaced them could not fulfil all person paradigm ‘I am’, associated closes the bridge, which on its own the functions the neimar could with Descartes, subjectivity and offers simply the possibility of a utilise. human will. Of course, these two of our lives, usually unconscious of connection. It requires the attention philosophies of are not yet gone – For too long we have lived in how easily they may re-emerge. of the caretaker for opening and they are still present, permanently closing its gates. This caretaker and communities lacking the craft, And yet, despite the resilience of the wrought into human consciousness. warden once again stands at the where no schools of the philosophy forms cast in the workshops of 20th The upcoming age of the second border in the history of civilization. of dialogue exist, and the art of century totalitarianisms, it is these person paradigm, however, stands a And once again so much depends constructing bridges is absent. This workshops that now lay broken, chance of completing subjectivity, on him... is not the time to consider what compromised by their inhumanity

8 VisibleEditorial Soul

Zharko Basheski, born 1957 in Prilep, is a Macedonian sculptor and professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Skopje. His point of view in his work is turned towards the human, hence the interest in hyper realistic approach in shaping the concept of the work, which in the theoretical projection exceeds hyper realism, talks about life and the world in which we live. In his work there are several elements which are new to the world of sculpture and that makes his latest work different: the concept, contemporary views of human condition through self- observation, technical production and use of new materials (resin polyester, poly marble, silicone, natural hair), the hyper- realistic treatment, size of the work, the philosophical approach – all of which, when combined in one, offer a multi-layered reading of the artwork. Currently he is a member of National Board for Accreditation and Evaluation, Senate of UKIM and Inter-University conference. From 1999 to 2009 he was head of the Department of Sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts. His work has been presented at several international exhibitions. He has been the recipient of numerous awards. Much of his work is part of private collections all around the world. Zharko Basheski Professor and sculptor « My art - a mirror of the personal experience in the outer world. »

‘ASPHYXIA’ is an artistic reaction to the modern society – the everyday ASPHYXIA attacks and pressures on the individual. We are all suffocated with Asphyxia (silicon, nylon, natural hair; 200 x 180 x 160 cm), is a powerful the impossibility of living in some sense - not literally narrative, but symbol of man’s existential condition in the modern world. metaphorically, of the overall social situation as the reason behind. In a way, the artwork is a critique of society, especially the pressures of the “stronger” and “bigger” to the “weaker” and “smaller”, in every way - social, political, economic. The sculpture embodies the moment between life and death, and it can be understood as a desperate cry of the mankind, dying in a suicidal agony. What the observers see is a terror-stricken, suffocating face of a man’s head, fighting for breath in a transparent plastic bag, while images of beautiful and pleasant memories of his life run inside his mind (by way of a video projection, adding a multimedia element in the artwork). The sculpture is created in a way that is simulating human flesh and skin - by using silicon, artificial paints and hairs, so as to highlight man’s intrinsic carnal character, his physical presence in the world, amidst the emptiness, the void, in which only images of memories float. The projection of this deluge of recollections at the moment of death emphasizes the presence of death in this work even more. This work is at the same time a symbol of a world where Eros (the life instinct) is subordinated to Thanatos (the death instinct).

ORDINARY MAN Ordinary man (polyester resin, fiberglass, silicone, hair; 220x180x85 cm) is the epitome of the desire and the effort of the ordinary man as an individual to rise above himself and thus overcome himself. It is an embodiment of the everyday strive towards self-surpassing. The story told by each individual figure starts with the resilience of man emerging from the ground (defined as mother-earth or environment) which, through/with the collective subconscious (a metaphor contained in the historic imaginary figure), come together in the tension and uncertainty reflected in the “small” character (the author, the creator). In all of them together, as in every individual portrait, in different ways there is a strong reflection (even poetic) of dramatic tension which suggests anticipation, and the psychological moment is underlined in relation to the usual hyper-realistic process of strict photographic, unemotional depiction and interpretation.

9 EditorialVisible Soul Šejla Kamerić is a Bosnian visual artist. She works with various media such as film, photography, objects or drawings. The all- pervading elements in her work are her – often uneasy – memories. She is using them as a power source by sharpening the focus of the present through the burden past. Based on her own experiences, memories and dreams, her work takes us to glocal spaces of displacement and discrimination. The sadness and beauty, hope and pain that shine out of her works are part of the stories we share. The weight of her themes stands in powerful contrast to her individual aesthetics and to her choice of delicate materials. She is a laureate of several important awards, regional and wider European, among which the European Cultural Foundation Princess Margriet Award for Cultural Diversity. We are publishing three pictures from her video “1395 Days without Red”, one of her most well-known works. Photo credit: Edvin Kalić. 1395 DAYS WITHOUT RED HD video, color, 5.1 sound, 63 min (2011)

By Šejla Kamerić

In collaboration with Anri Sala and Ari Benjamin Meyers The city is Sarajevo, and the route the woman takes became known as Sniper Alley during the siege of the city endured by its citizens for 1395 Starring Maribel Verdú and Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra days between 1992 and 1996. The woman, played by Spanish actress Maribel Verdú, is reliving the experience of the trauma of the siege. It is A woman makes her way through an empty city. At every crossing she stops, her individual journey in the collective memory of the city. looks and listens. Should she wait or should she run? Should she wait for others or take the risk on her own? 1395 Days without Red draws on the experience of the siege of Sarajevo

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between 1992 and 1996 and the trauma of the besieged citizens as they Tchaikovsky’s 6th symphony, the Pathetique. The musicians stop and made their way through the city. The title refers to the fact that, during start, repeating different sections of the symphony, just as the woman the siege, the Sarajevans were advised not to wear bright colours that stops and starts in the city. Hearing the music in her head, she finds the might alert the snipers in the hills above to their movements. courage to carry on. Throughout the siege, the Sarajevo Symphony Orchestra continued to play. In the film 1395 Days Without Red the orchestra rehearses

11 EditorialDossier DOSSIER: CULTURE, ART, SOCIETY Josep Ramoneda was born in Cervera, Spain, in 1949. He is a political philosopher and is very active in the Spanish intellectual debate about current politics. After his academic career of teaching contemporary philosophy (1975-1990), in 1994 he founded the Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona, an important institution in European scale, which he directed until 2011. Presently he publishes La Maleta de Portbou, a journal of humanities and economics, and he is director of the European School of Humanities in Barcelona, founded also by him. He is also director of one of the main editorial groups in Spain.

From “11 Thesis on culture” By Josep Ramoneda

1. Culture is a commodity of first 3. The passion for culture is the of any humanist proposal. Of any capable of generating spaces for necessity. It contributes to people’s assumption of its fragility. This is discourse that assumes the centrality denial by way of culture is a stiff well-being, as it provides a variety why culture has a tragic dimension. of human beings as subjects society that bears the seal of decay. of instruments for the human Which means it is the recognition and objects of knowledge and adventure. It is a complicating of the contingent nature of the experience. [...] factor, which enriches experience, human experience and is an 10. Promiscuity among cultural a moment that, from Montaigne, expression of the will to overcome 6. […] Every system of domination industries, investors and artistic we know constitutes us as human the vertigo that it generates. With generates an effective cultural programmers creates a superstructure beings. But culture is no guarantee of culture we confront the absurdity of system: ours and the others. subjecting creators to a lattice of anything: neither of goodness, truth, life. In the denial of the tragic sense 7. Cultural policies of governments fashion and evidently impoverishing happiness, or success. The worst of life is the germ of barbarism. tend to enhance heritage and styles. [...] The quality control atrocities have been committed in industry. Heritage as an exaltation mechanisms of the cultural republic the name of culture. of tradition and confirmation of are broken. The media dominates the 2. The human being is a relational 4. Faced with its tragic character, roots and continuities. Industry cult of the consecrated figure and the being who communicates by signs. culture can provide an ironic because culture generates distrust love of noise. [...] Culture is information. It is the dimension: the serene assumption of political power (especially the 11. The archive and the virtual ability to acquire and transmit of contingency. Irony is the scalpel conservatives of the right and the experience. What will become knowledge and experience. To that highlights the precariousness left who see it as an outsider and of culture in the world of social appropriate them and to transform of generalized beliefs, of shared subversive, fearing that it will networks? A large archive favours them. That is, to advance the prejudices, of ready-made ideas. escape), and linking culture to memory and exchange, but does creation of meaning. Life has no Of all those things acquired in the business is the best way to neutralize infinite information encourage meaning, but meaning is necessary name of which, as Voltaire warned, it. [...] creativity or stimulate revival? [...] for life. The precariousness of the humans can commit any atrocity. 8. However, the spontaneous The framework of culture is in full foundations of culture is its essence. [...] philosophy of cultural actors implies mutation. And the expression of its humanity 5. Many cultures, one humanity. a will for autonomy and a critical […] In this sense, culture is the basis attitude. A country that is not From La Maleta de Portbou

12 DossierEditorial DOSSIER: CULTURE, ART, SOCIETY Aleksandar Prokopiev, born in 1953 in Skopje, is one of he most well-known Macedonian writers. He graduated in 1977 at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philology, General and Comparative literature department, and finished postgraduate education in 1982 also in Belgrade and in Sorbonne, France. He worked in several domestic and foreign magazines, for example as a member of the editorial board of Orient Express (Oxford, UK) and World Haiku (Kyoto, Japan) and wrote books of fiction, poems, essays, screenplays for film, theatre, TV shows, radio dramas and comic books. His works are translated in English, French, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak and other languages. Alexandar Prokopiev is one of the founding members of Academia Balkanica Europeana. CHRONYSTERIC, TRIBUNE, CLOWN By Aleksandar Prokopiev

The writer and the governing structures. great difficulties, these three types of roles (or Emin’s original “Chronysteria”) power of life over reason) as fascist- Freedom and fear. Unlike the and behaviors that the writer exhibits can include Chronos, the swallower adventurous product. conspicuous, openly or clandestinely, towards the governing structures may of his own children and the merciless vanity surplus common for them, the also be noticed in Macedonian literature, god of time, Saturn in the Roman and How is it, I wonder, that the passionate writers are different human beings, and and I myself have been inspired by them astrological version. In the newly coined lover and decadent got carried away or therefore in their relation toward the in some of my past stories and anti- term by Emin, the mythological and the plummeted (depending on the point of authorities they use a range of tactics, guidelines. historical are intertwined: in the hysterical view) into a military commander and nuances, meandering. Yet, despite all times, the “children” – products of such radical spokesperson of the crowd? In times, are often swallowed “overnight”. the case of D’Annunzio the aristocratic decadence and fascist rhetoric merged. 1. Chronysteric D’Annunzio in military trance, Seemingly extremist, such transformation Hamsun, Ezra Pound, The term chronysteric is borrowed from commanding his brigades, at first is not so rare among writers, although the the compound-subtitle of the novel starting social position of the chronysteric Mayakovsky, and many “Dannunziad” – Chronysteria – by can be very different, from a vagabond the Croatian prose writer Viktor Car to a wealthy gentleman. Hamsun, Ezra others are examples of Emin, inspired by the story of the Italian One of the most noble Pound, Mayakovsky, and many others are Regency of Carnaro set up by Gabriele human emotions, examples of great writers who put their great writers who put D’Annunzio, that strange short-lived literary authority in the service of either fascism or communism. their literary authority polis (1919-21). During my recent visit to patriotism, is twisted Rijeka, at the writers festival vRIsak, I was Such obvious examples of a writer- in the service of either going out for a smoke and for a talk on into xenophobia, from chronysteric are also frequent in the the terrace of the magnificent Governor’s dim, chaotic Balkan reality. The Balkan fascism or communism. Palace, where D’Annunzio had held his constant tension and chronysteric allows himself an increased impassioned speeches, those repetitive, but anxiety to hatred dose of violence in his/her statements; Such obvious examples for the audience of that time probably the the roughness and insults in his speech only, manifestations of local grandiosity, towards people with resemble those encountered in the speech are also frequent in the while afterwards, behind the Palace, in of the most fervent party representatives. his private residence, he organized with different opinions, Sometimes we are surprised at how a dim, chaotic Balkan his loyal brigadiers, shameless orgies. It lyrical, even gentle poet can use speech should not be forgotten that D’Annunzio towards the outsider. so filled with curses and insults. One reality. was one of the most famous lovers of his of the most noble human emotions, time (who, just like Caesar and Picasso, patriotism, is twisted into xenophobia, sustained the myth of the potent bald somewhat resembles the author of the from constant tension and anxiety to men) – in fact, the erotic hyperactivity is hatred towards people with different obvious mistakes and roughness typical sometimes vitally connected to political subtle verses of Alcyone or the decadent- erotic researcher in “Pleasure” and opinions, towards the outsider. Putting of generalizations, we can distinguish ambition – we can point out the example him/herself in the “service of people”, the between three main types of behavior of the Kennedys. “Innocent”, although the Dionysian ecstasy of Nietzsche’s superman among writer gives up not only his immanent between the writer and the governing “service” to literature, but also narrows structures. I have named them as: Except as a compound of “chronicle” his followers, which include D’Annunzio, Chronysteric, Tribune, Clown. Without and “hysteria”, the term “hronysteria” may also be expressed (in some quasi- Page 14

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Page 13 corresponding audience, corresponding which we can see the spirit of the time, unseen smile even to the fiercest. space. His/her power feeds on what but which aesthetically fill the spirit of down, cripples the truth. One of the signs is great: important ideas, generally the timeless, surpassing the moment The shy ones dance with him, so although of that depletion is the hyperbolization accepted wisdom. In accordance with when the work was created. Hidden it may seem foolish, they do not feel any of the genres that include historicity and the etymological root (tribus=tribe), behind the shadow of the Tribune, the shame afterwards. modernity – from the (pseudo)historical the tribune undertakes the function of other less visible, less audible, more Disheveled, careless, he encourages the novels to, especially, columns. Faced with protector and advisor of the plebs. The concealed writers write (only one can be decreasing interest for books, the writer- cowards in the dusty taverns to offend tribune sets as a task to incite as many a Tribune!). The undoubted advantage him. While they laugh at him, wondering chronysteric becomes a voluntary victim readers (listeners) as possible, so his of the Tribune is that in “his time” and of time, turns from a creator to, not so where such laugh came from, he already topics are grand, important, supported “his place”, he can reach a wider circle rushes to the next city. much manipulator, as the one who is with oratory skills. It can’t be denied of readers, and in that sense, be (more) manipulated. that he has certain political influence, truthful and (more) relevant for the Sometimes, night descends as he walks on although officially he builds his image present. The writer who creates “in the the road. There, between the grass and the above party interests. Aware of his/her shadow”, on the other hand, can cause stars, he takes out his mask. Slowly, as a exceptionality, he/she announces his/ sympathy or empathy in the reader who lover he touches his face with his hand. her attitude on important dilemmas in is his contemporary, but will never reach It is understandable that society, and knows that such personal the national importance gained by the In order not to lose track of himself. investment has adequate reception. tribune. However, for literature itself it is Today this text seems to me as honest, the role of the tribune significant that alongside Goethe, there is The relations of the tribune with naive confession of a young man, but in the cultural identity Hölderlin, alongside Hugo – Baudelaire, already harmed in the disputes with politics and authorities are intertwined alongside Tolstoy – Chekhov... that with numerous visible, and even more politics, who wants to secure himself of his/her nation is alongside the tribune is the marginal from more serious harm. invisible, threads because, on the one writer, the inadequate, the outsider who exceptional. However, hand, he remembers and uses the past, also creates masterpieces! Now I know, however, that the path but, also, carefully enough, acts in the of the clown-writer is significantly in regard to literature present. more exhausting. He doesn’t have the strength of the polemic instinct and art, there are some Macedonian literature and culture 3. Clown needs a tribune. Racin, because of his and heresy that the Chronysteric more universal, more tragic destiny, remained a “tribune In this case, I struggled with the in the making”. Koneski had the terminology. The clown is linked to the comprehensive norms tribune’s persuasiveness and wisdom, circus, he/she makes people laugh, but although his thought had the nuance also makes them think, and, additionally, The court jester has in these areas, in which of a moderately pessimistic tone of the film mages, such as Chaplin, Tati, an introvert. Gane Todorovski acted Woody Allen, Benigni..., through his ruler, master, and we can see the spirit of characters with clownish characteristics as a recognized mage, with masterly is obliged, despite all rhetoric, and his patriotic (social) and a clownish relation toward the world, the time, but which awareness was filled with an interesting, convey, to millions of viewers, their joyful excitement and human resistance. bold jokes, to obey him. aesthetically fill the essentially experimenting habit. Racin, Koneski, Todoroski. How different, Still, although sometimes he/she resembles The comedian, on the spirit of the timeless, even contrary in their human natures, a court jester or a comedian, the clown but I can’t help connecting them must not be confused with either of them. other hand, wastes his surpassing the moment with the role that was given to them The court jester has his ruler, master, (and accepted) – to be tribunes! Their and is obliged, despite all bold jokes, to charm effortlessly with when the work was literary output will inspire further obey him. The comedian, on the other interpretations for a long time, and their the purpose of making created. hand, wastes his charm effortlessly with tribunal place in Macedonian culture, the purpose of making people laugh. The people laugh. The clown despite all possible rebuttal, is secured. clown has greater ambitions for his own 2. Tribune It is interesting that in regard to gender success, especially if he is a writer. has greater ambitions distribution, especially on the Balkans, The clown-writers mimicries, and Unlike the Chronysteric, the Tribune there is still a strong patriarchal for his own success, has a longer-lasting, better established therefore sometimes will have to tolerate influence on the public, sometimes for being considered unserious, immature, especially if he is a false, gossiped, mocked. life, sometimes even after his death. Alongside the tribune writer. Instead of anxiety – dignity. Instead of The clown is not dignified, honored and overreaction – wisdom. The tribune is is the marginal writer, famed as the tribune, nor supported, necessary for any national literature, for liked and paid (occasionally, depending does. He doesn’t have the monolithic any national culture. Not only for the the inadequate, the on who is in the government) like the and classical wisdom of the Tribune. small ones, but also for the big ones, the chronysteric, and probably, with his/her Unlike all the shades in the Tribune ones who are proud of their rich and long outsider who also creates inconstant place in the national literary and the Chronysteric, the subtypes in tradition. Goethe, Hugo, Tolstoy... what pyramid, is exposed to changeable the Clown have a wider scope than the power they had on their contemporaries, masterpieces! Makes moods and uncertainties. In genre Joker to the Comedian, which means not only social and moral, but also a terms, this may mean that he is prone that sometimes they may not recognize natural, intrinsic power that makes them people laugh, but also to hybridization and experimentation each other. And the clown prose writer figures of extraordinary importance. makes them think in writing, and depending on his talent, turns into a marginal figure that has Although I used to think that the may be before his time. If the clown lost the compass. tribunes in literature are typical of is a talented writer, he will be able to spontaneously throw in a few traces of How will each of these three types some former times, when important of writers who does not support or phases of consciousness and awareness logic among the tribunes, among the humor even when he writes of difficult, chronysterics there are a few women sad experiences. openly defying the governing policy be of the nation were being transcended, accepted? The chronysteric will quickly it seems that even in this chaotic, writers, while among the clowns there is equal distribution of men and women. About thirty five years ago, I tried, in the be transferred from the list of the confusing, porous world, the tribune micro-fiction “Comedian” to encourage privileged to the black list. still feels capable of acting, accepting It is understandable that the role of the the clown within me: and playing the role (duty) that compels. tribune in the cultural identity of his/ The tribune, we said, is experienced, For this, he is adequately awarded as her nation is exceptional. However, He put on the clown face and went skilled long-term player, and can academic, honorable citizen, respected in regard to literature and art, there around the world. measure and analyze politics. representative of his nation. are some more universal, more The tyrants considered him a jester. Yet, And the clown? He has already gotten The establishing of the tribune requires comprehensive norms in these areas, in for a long time he has been returning the used to them.

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Thomas Symeonidis (Thessaloniki, 1977) studied architecture at the National School of Architecture in Paris (Val-de-Seine) and engineering at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He pursued postgraduate studies in Economics and Political Sciences at the LSE and Architecture and Design at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) where he completed his Ph.D. in Philosophy of Art and Aesthetics. He has been an adjunct professor and a post-doctoral fellow at the Athens School of Fine Arts exploring the interrelation between ethics, politics and aesthetics. He has also lectured in a number of undergraduate and post-graduate courses at the School of Architecture at NTUA, The Hellenic Open University and the Chair Michelis at the University of Crete. He has translated Jacques Rancière’s Malaise dans l’esthétique (Aesthetics and its discontent) and Le Destin des Images (The future of the image), as well as prose, essays and plays of Samuel Beckett. He is the author of novels, plays and essays with contributions in the intersection of philosophical aesthetics, visual arts and literature. ON ART: Draft for a pocket aesthetic tractatus By Thomas Symeonidis

I. The Introduction II. The Draft the Platonic idea? Do you think they 9. The reverse now. The displacement express the absolute? Alain Badiou, of an object from the context of I often think of Wittgenstein’s 1. Begin with the necessary for example, believes that artworks are everyday life to that of art. Start by aphorism that the work of the philosopher clarifications such as: When you are events of the Platonic idea. disconnecting the everyday object consists in assembling reminders for talking about art, are you talking about from its function. Then, neutralize a particular purpose. Seemingly a particular genre of art? In which 7. Another issue, that of the it or attribute to it another function, simple, this aphorism is in fact an genres are you referring to. boundaries between art and everyday while being in an artistic composition intractable equation. On the one life. Begin with the question: What 2. Speaking of art, ask also: Who is now. Objects with unprecedented or hand the reminders. On the other, belongs to art and what to everyday unexpected properties, embedded in the purpose. We can argue, and it talking about art? What is the age or life? If we are to follow some past and period. What is the field it belongs to. exceptional formations. They force you would not be an exaggeration, that our actual perspectives on that matter, we to see the world differently. whole life is an endless process that 3. The field I feel most familiar with will come across with the view that art involves many individual processes is that of philosophical aesthetics. My and everyday life could end up being 10. In the role of art you can add the of assembling reminders. We are favorite thinkers are Jacques Rancière, the same thing, that is, an exemplary education of the senses. I am thinking constantly assembling, and at the same of Schiller here. You see in a new way time accumulating reminders, notes, or you see something that you were images, objects, files. We are assemblers. The displacement of an object from the context of everyday life unaware of its existence heretofore or We are unique, singular, constantly to that of art. Start by disconnecting the everyday object from its you haven’t seen before. You get to oscillating between the awareness of our know incidents that encompass their inconsequentiality (we are infinitesimal function. Objects with unprecedented or unexpected properties, own senses. One such example, the sounds a child produce when playing, compared to the infinity of nature force you to see the world differently. and reality) and the awareness of our the image of a child playing. Hegel in infinity (we are products of nature, his Lectures on Aesthetics (1835) refers without being exhaustively mapped, Theodor Adorno, Wittgenstein, Plato to children’s gestures as an attempt to participating in an open and non- and Heraclitus. way of life, the art of living, the culture control the manifestation of nature. prescribed manner in society and of life. See for that matter, Aristotle, This is a thought that Rancière reality). It can be easily understood that 4. I was led to these thinkers by people Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. Why not reproduces in the introduction of this process of assembling reminders, I met or other thinkers or artists I love Arendt or Agamben. Aesthetics and its discontent (2004). leaving aside the question of content, or by accident. I stayed with these Correspondingly, Adorno in his 8. In your thinking about the needs necessarily to be organized. thinkers out of love. In their own Aesthetic Theory (1969) states that the boundaries between art and everyday Umberto Eco provides us with an voice I see assembled pieces of my relation to the new is modelled on a life, add the thought of the difference example of this in his Infinity of Lists own voice, the one I have, the one I child at the piano searching for a chord between the objects of art and the (2009) which is essentially based on would like to have. Ideally, I would never previously heard. Music, thanks objects of everyday life. An object of the same logic as his other well-known like the voice, the notion of voice to be to its proper abstraction, can be more art, a painting for example, enters your study The Open Work (1962). The list, synonymous with that of thought and easily perceived as an inventory of such everyday life when it is placed on a wall while being created, is being mediated poetry. incidents. Here I am thinking of Igor of your room: a surface upon another by thought. You need to specify some Stravinsky’s excellent lectures delivered 5. Enough about me. surface. Is that enough, though? initial parameters, but this is not always in 1939-1940, grouped under the Consider the differences between the followed. What is the object of the list? Poetics of Music in the Form of Six 6. Back to the questions, a key aesthetic function of this object (the In our case, the object is given by the Lessons (1970). question now: Are you a Platonist painting) and the decorative function. title. Reminders for art, a draft for a or an anti-Platonist? Do you think A classic reference here is Adolf Loos pocket aesthetic tractatus. that artworks are manifestations of and Ornament and Crime (1908). Page 16

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Page 15 an outcome of what this place is). It 17. But what is art? this is a good lesson for to appreciate is very likely that you backtrack your the objects in your possession and their 11. Today, we have moved away from own moves under the suspicion that it 18. You might think that art is the place in your life. thinking about the rules. There is a might be you that moved the mug, but production of resemblances of reality. lot of discussion on technique but not you were so absent-minted that you do It does not copy reality, it does not 21. In Plato and Aristotle we come on poetics. Somewhere between these not remember. B. You are in the same reproduce it. Art creates resemblances across two different versions of two, in some areas, the concept of place (in the same room), in the same of reality in such a way that there is a somehow the same equation that co- creative. There are no rules for creation, situation (sitting in front of your desk). distance or difference from reality itself. articulates aesthetics, ethics and politics. only exercises and techniques that Suppose you are leaving the room for In our example, the displacement of In Plato the aesthetic representation of could release it. So, when approaching a while. Once back in the room, you the mug is the production of a small, immoral behaviors can lead citizens to art today, don’t think if there are realize that a very large opening has relatively painless, distance from reality. immoral behaviors and thus endanger rules available for appreciations. The been created on the ceiling, and for the On the contrary, the opening in the the stability of the Republic. In Aristotle, pleasure offered by the beautiful is not first time you can see inside it (say above ceiling is the production of a great, on the other hand, the representation subjected to rules (see on that, Kant’s it a roof sloped on both sides). From and rather painful, distance from of an immoral behavior and its Critique of Judgment , 1790). But if this point on, fiction and directing reality. The simultaneous production punishment (attribution of justice) the concept of beautiful belongs to is yours, you can model on Gregory of resemblance and dissemblance leads the spectators to catharsis. In both, traditional aesthetics, in contemporary Crewdson, Jeff Wall, Steven Spielberg or means that every work of art or ethics and pedagogy, the equation that aesthetics the artistic practices and artistic practice is structured upon a links aesthetics to ethics and politics is system of relationships between a set linear. But in the case of the aesthetic of resemblances and dissemblances. effect, this linearity is abolished. You might think that art is the production of resemblances of In our example, the room, its given reality. It does not copy reality, it does not reproduce it. Art creates and familiar form, is the resemblance. 22. The aesthetic effect is the experience Displacing the mug (a mild gesture of of a difference stemming from a resemblances of reality in such a way that there is a distance or art) or creating instantly an opening to disagreement. In our example, the room is governed by a system of perception difference from reality itself. the ceiling (a powerful gesture of art) is dissemblance. and interpretation (I am perceiving that the mug remains in the same manifestations of art can be considered 19. Art is the construction of position and I have an interpretation even the classic Hitchcock and Bergman presentation spaces (the room and for the choice of the position and the as suggestions for a different way of or on the other side, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, being, for a different way to exist. what will happen there) within which stability of the mug in this position) but Foreboding, is the movie coming to relations are formed (at one end of our this system is internally undermined Instead of the beautiful, let’s rather mind. focus, with respect to Rancière’s example, the mug in the desk and their by a system of perception and contributions, on art as a producer of 13. At one end, the displacement of relationship to you, on the other, the interpretation that appears to ‘‘disagree” new, paradoxical sensory experiences. the mug. At the other, the sudden ceiling above you) and redistributed with the situation as it is (I disagree appearance of an opening in the ceiling. on the basis of an unknown causality with the position of the mug and its 12. But how are these paradoxical In the first case, your relation to place is (at one end of our example, how or constant presence there). Through the sensory experiences being produced? adjusted through the rearrangement of who transposed the mug and why, disagreement comes a redistribution. To begin with, I will try to define the relations that objects have or could have at the other, how or who created the What’s so important about it? two ends of the spectrum. A. Say you opening on the ceiling and why). in space. In the latter case, your relation 23. Art redefines materially and are in a room, say you are seated in to place is not merely adjusted. You The manifestation of this unknown front of your desk. There you have causation creates a suspension of the symbolically the reality. In our example, are invited to exist in a new space and the room has been redefined materially various objects, mainly souvenirs. On think about what this space is. conventional ways of perception and the right side, you have two mugs, filled experience. Confronted with that (the mug has been transposed, the with pencils and other writing tools, 14. At one end and the other, forces condition, you are submerging in opening in the ceiling has been created), one of them is from the Wimbledon are implied. However, this is not a state of undecidedness. You need but also symbolically (the changes in the tournament, it has the Logo printed an exercise in science fiction or room as thumbnails of changes in a on it along with the year 2005, you metaphysical quest. The two examples remember right, it is the year when (the two ends of the spectrum) Art redefines materially and symbolically the reality. It produces Roger (Federer) won the trophy for have been fashioned in a way to the third time in a row, beating Andy understand the logic under which the resemblances, that suspend the usual perception of reality and upset (Roddick) for the second time in a row. art of today and the contemporary its diagram. That in turn raises (critical) questions: What could be In women, winner Venus Williams. art operate. At one end, then, there That’s for the mug. So, let’s suppose exist artistic practices structured in in place of what already exists? And how? that you step out of the room for a the rearrangement of objects and while and once back in the room you images, the redefinition of relations realize (immediately or later) that the and the creation of new ones. We time to perceive or re-establish new large-scale common space). In this Wimbledon mug is missing or has are talking about objects, images and relationships between things. Art affects instance of the aesthetic effect, we could changed place. Let’s also assume that no relations that are inseparable from you: you are in a state of aesthetic effect. identify the notion of the aesthetic play one else came into the room while you our daily lives. At the other end, in the form of a cognitive function in were out, or even better, let’s assume no there is the pursuit of expressing or 20. The aesthetic effect is not the Kant and Schiller, but also in the form one is in the house at the moment. So, even causing an unusually strong same as the moral effect (see Plato) or of a condition that is widespread in in this case, focusing solely on what’s sensory experience. Here, we can give the pedagogical effect (see Aristotle). contemporary art (the suspension of happening to the senses, imagine, you, prominence to the radicality of art, to The aesthetic effect invalidates any meaning of the artistic phenomena). In in a state of perceptual alertness. The the uniqueness of the artistic objects determined relationship between the fact, art no longer claims to have the displacement of the mug (whether in that are being produced. Summing artist’s intention and the production of power to transform the world nor art a place you can spot or not) leads you up, at one end, we are in the field of a specified effect to the spectator. In our intent to do it. It produces to an inspection of the place (where relational art, at the other, in the field example, the moral effect would have resemblances of reality but not large- is the mug), of the objects in this of sublime art. been: The mug has been lost or the mug scale propositions for what should be place (what else may have changed in changed position because you left the reality. It produces resemblances, terms of disposition or disappeared), 15. Basic references for relational art: room. So, the subsequent ethical rule is: paradoxical sensory formations, that of sounds in that place and outside Nicolas Bourriaud, Jacques Rancière. do not leave the room again to avoid the suspend the usual perception of reality same thing happening again to one or and upset its diagram. That in turn of it (in search of signs regarding who 16. Basic References for sublime might have moved the mug), but also more objects. Similarly, the subsequent raises (critical) questions: What could art: Immanuel Kant, Jean-François pedagogical effect: The mug has been be in place of what already exists? And in a questioning of the nature of the Lyotard. place (what happens in this place as lost or the mug changed position and how?

16 Dossier Editorial

Andro Martinović, film director from Montenegro. Graduated World Literature and Film and TV Directing. Director of the Montenegrin Cinematheque. Professor at the UDG and Faculty of Visual Arts. Author of several award-winning short films, which are screened in the competition selection at more than twenty prestigious international film festivals. Coauthor of the documentary “Montenegro and The Great War”. He published articles in newspapers and professional journals. “Neverending Past” is his first feature film, supported by the Ministry of Culture of Montenegro and Film Center Serbia. The project was developed in cooperation with CineLink Industry Days – Sarajevo Film Festival.

• Festivals: Belgrade (Golden Plaque of Belgrade, 2002), Huesca (Spain, official selection), Montpellier (France, official selection),Tangier (Morocco, official selection), Drama (Greece, official selection), Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina, official selection), Festival on Wheels (Turkey, official selection), Motovun (Croatia, official selection), Reykjavik (Iceland, special screening), European Short Film Festival (Berlin), Warsaw (International Historical and Military Film Festival – Special Award, 2016), Montreal (First Fiction Film Competition), FEST (Belgrade, Competition), CineDays (Skopje, CineIndustry Film Market), South East Europe Film Festival (Paris – Best Feature Film, 2019), Alexandria Film Festival (Competition), Ravno Selo (Best First Fiction Film, 2019), Green Montenegro IFF (Zabljak – Special Mention, 2019) etc.

Andro Martinović: When everything else is put aside, culture remains Interviewed by Amila Kahrović-Posavljak

In the Balkans there are currently rules which one needs to follow the most precious value because it is a Culture depends on the situation two opposite concepts of culture, the in order to be accepted, today this value in itself, and the fact that there in the society. If we take a look to nationalist and the one that represents dictate originates from ideological are artists who commit horrible crimes the past, we can see that the traces itself as anti-nationalist. What could be reasoning. and embrace fascist ideologies, such as from distant times are the closest in their prospective, generally, in the role it happened in World War Two, or for what is really our cultural heritage. Do you think that this kind of of culture in the society? example the writers who were shooting In order to have the appropriate opposed cultural concepts deepens on Sarajevo under the siege? development we need continuity, A. Martinović: You are right on the divisions? If so, what would be a because time lost is a permanent the money. I am going to use the solution? In his “defence” of art, Aristotle handicap. Let us alter what needs medical terminology, because I truly started with the assumption that In the sociology of culture this to be altered, which is similar in all do see nationalism as an incurable the art sublimates the empirical issue has been subject to scrutiny, of former Yugoslav countries. I do illness. Let me remind you that Kiš human being. The question, of as well as the idea of bridging strongly believe in common cultural had described it as a collective and course, is whether the work of art space and in our joint struggle. individual paranoia. The apotheosis of the national in culture is not Communication is the foundation of art, with oneself and with It seems that in the global context unfamiliar to our people, although, of art we are associated with only as a rule, resulting from that notion the Other. a few kinds of subjects. Before the there are often works considered war it was the sort of image given to be rather irrelevant in aesthetic by socialist realism in the movies, cultural distances. I believe, above terms. I am inclined to believe can be exempted from the shadow now it seems that our whole artistic all, that we should stick to the that this model of culture is based cast by its author. Sometimes the experience must fit into anti-war principles of modern, civil society. on temporal effect intended to controversy about the author may poetics. How do you see this issue? Are The path to reach a higher level of happen right here and now. The contribute to his fame, although there any expected subjects we must social cohesion is set through the purpose of nationalistic products the justification of tragic crimes by write about in order to be recognized educational system and culture in culture is simply to strengthen him is denounced. If manuscripts abroad? in the broadest sense, which also the homogenization in the political do not burn (Bulgakov), people do. implies modern hospitals, parks and I touched that issue briefly before. context. On the other hand there playgrounds; through the sense of From your personal experience, as a There are, of course, subjects often are platforms with reference justice and solidarity. filmmaker, what is the prospective revisited by art. Cioran had opined systems which can be limiting to of culture in the countries of former that we experience two climaxes: a certain extent. If you ever had How do you see the incompatibility Yugoslavia and, after all, Balkans? style guidelines as a set of certain between Aristotle’s idea that the art is Page 18

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Page 17 orgasm and despair. The difference is that the former lasts only for a moment and the latter the whole life. The danger truly lies within that horizon of expectations. An image once formed on an issue whose topics are reserved for one ambience and whose manner is plausible to treat changes slowly, only when it reaches a certain level of saturation. Whatever leaves that frame, usually stays out of focus. As a rule, artistic practice should confirm an established opinion. There is always some sort of discordance between the role of art as such and the role of art as a form of approaching the Other. How is it perceived in our with oneself; one should discard the organized by the Church remind me contrary. And indeed, if we have lost cultural circles? sense of self-exclusivity; and only then of scenes from Vargas Llosa’s novel something, it is the status that the Communication is the foundation of could reconsider the collective or “The War of the End of the World”, art should have in the society, that art, with oneself and with the Other. national. where whole families follow the feeling for which the artistic event is It is like a message bound to reach something of essential importance. its destination sooner or later. It is There is a belief that art must be engaged, meaning that it In the end, what do you see as the basic a reflection of reality, of the visible role of an artist nowadays? and the invisible one. Let us take, should be critical towards the establishment, the government, for example, Kafka or Van Gogh, various anachronisms… More often than not, it leads to the Never give up, even if it is the only way to keep one’s peace. for whom one feels that they are instrumentalization of art. always writing the pages of their own Your movie is (was) nominated for personal, intimate journal. Two of Oscar and gained great success. What the most important Kafka’s texts start Regarding discussions on religious Advisor and his dangerous sermons are your further plans? with the waking up of the character, freedom in Montenegro and the laws blindly. but waking into a nightmare. related to that, are there any artists who I am working on preparation for two movies. One is documentary, about Can culture help in the relations with raised their voices, and in what way? Are young people and their culture related to art now as they used to be for Montenegrins participating in creating other nations and cultures? Voices related to this could seldom decades of the twentieth century? If not, the Turkish football club with the be heard. There are, however, social When everything else is put aside, what do you think is the reason? most trophies, “Galatasaray”, and the culture remains. It is the most reliable developments which are calling unlikely friendship of two sovereigns, testament of the world, sometimes for unequivocal expression. The The answer to this question lies in Montenegrin and Turkish. The other even as a hint of it; as the philosopher phenomenon of church protests, I adequate research. Based on my is about the Montenegrin prince from Stagira might have said, it is feel, is such an example. experience working with younger Danilo I, which in a certain sense can generations, I can voice my opinion be a film about present Montenegro. what we could have become and what These protests have essentially a we should have been. It is paradoxical, political character. Many a time, therefore, that we see the cultural due to actions of a certain church When reconsidering, one should start with oneself; one should singularities as the reason for mutual outside of the legal framework, the discard the sense of self-exclusivity; and only then could destruction. country is facing serious challenges. reconsider the collective or national. What about the critical aspects of a Other than religious, there are civil culture? Have we become a bunch of laws to be followed and respected. This is why the resistance to changes closed societies who expect culture to It is not so much about delusive which are bound to happen is always criticize the Other and never that the consequences of tectonic historical analogies, but about the expected. asks inconvenient questions about our movements in the educational crucial importance of heritage of own nations? Those many in such events that look system are very visible. Even in art a person dedicating his life to the schools there are students with no There is a belief that art must be like processions are influenced by idea of creating a modern country. engaged, meaning that it should be In the background of that struggle there are the intrigues, conflicts, critical towards the establishment, the If we have lost something, it is the status that the art should government, various anachronisms… resistance. Danilo dealt with them More often than not, whether have in the society, that feeling for which the artistic event is the only way he could, in the spirit consciously or not, it leads to the something of essential importance. of times he had lived in, musing on instrumentalization of art. It is a a different fate of the nation whose psychological phenomenon that we prince he was, with the iron will are bothered with another person’s to subordinate everything to the basic knowledge of art history. This, features reminding us of ourselves. dissatisfaction generating from a highest political cause… And that however, does not imply that there When reconsidering, one should start growing sense of social inequality. is what it has always been freedom Having said that, the manifestations is no interest in the art, quite the of will.

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Burhan Sönmez is the author of four novels, which have been translated into forty languages. He was born in Turkey and grew up speaking Turkish and Kurdish. He worked as a lawyer in Istanbul before going to Britain as a political exile. His writing has appeared in newspapers including The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, and La Repubblica. He translated the poetry book of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake into Turkish. He lectured in Literature at the university of METU. He received Vaclav Havel Library Award in 2017 and the EBRD Literature Prize in 2018. A board member of PEN International, he divides his time between Istanbul and Cambridge.

The Yellow East, The White West By Burhan Sönmez

When I was a child, in a small And we did not know that White buried. Now I know that this place Sultan Mehmet II captured the village in the middle of a steppe, Sea meant Mediterranean Sea in was not an empty land. There were city he claimed to become the my mother would tell us fairy some other language. Greeks and Armenians. Before inheritor of Roman Caesars and tales, under the dim light of a gas them were Galatians, Phrygians began to use the official title of Anatolia, the main land of current lamp. In a tale, she would say, and others. They all have now “Kaiser-i Rum” (“Caesar of the Turkey, is a peninsula situated there was a palace between Black been forgotten by local people. Romans”). His authority was between Black Sea in the north Sea and White Sea where lived a Forgetting is an epidemic disease celebrated by Orthodox Christian and White Sea in the south. My that runs within human cultures. subjects too and they called him village is right in the middle of “Sultan Basileus” as protector of that vast land. Many Kurdish Anatolia has become home to Orthodoxy. The tribe of my village tribes, along side Turkish tribes, many civilisations from the presumably came here ran into Anatolia coming from Hittites in the second millennium Sultan Mehmet II desired to about three centuries eastern lands hundred years ago. BC to the Ottomans in the second spread his power across old The tribe of my village presumably millennium AD. The longest rulers Roman territories and sent his ago. Who were here came here about three centuries were Romans who had occupied army to invade Italy, an attempt then? When we ask ago. Who were here then? When Anatolia for nearly two-thousand- that ended up in failure. Before we ask this question to elderly years until Ottomans captured long his proud title of “Caesar this question to elderly people they easily answer: there Constantinople in 1453. of the Romans” was forgotten was no one here, apparently this and overpowered by other, newly people they easily The modern name Anatolia open lands were empty and good obtained, title that was the Caliph. was coined by the people who answer: there was no for the flocks and herds of our His grandson Selim I invaded lived on the western coast of ancestors. Arabia in 1516 and Ottoman one here Aegean Sea. It means “east” or sultans had become the Caliph of Reading and studying in big “where the sun rises”. Ottoman Muslims until twentieth century. cities have given my generation Turks came from the east and prince and princess. For us, little opportunity to search and headed for Constantinople Of the history of Caesars and kids, it was magical to imagine understand the memory and fate the capital of Eastern Roman Caliphs another kind of culture places beyond our village, how of the land where our grand- Empire that was ruled by Caesars might have developed in Anatolia could we know how far was a sea. grandparents were born and traditionally. When Ottoman Page 20

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Page 19 school onwards we do not need to It evaporates like air. It rains like Then we feel to ask: what is the look in maps any more. Maps are clouds, runs like rivers and fills in meaning of east or west any more? and across White Sea. Mixing of everywhere and so we do not see the vast seas. Does east still mean the place where races, migration of nations, and them. We forget how powerful is the sun rises? Or, is the White Sea interaction of cultures are feeding The first coffee shop was opened the connections of lands, rivers, still the centre of the world? a new, and hopefully positive, way in Istanbul’s Galata district in mountains and seas. We do not of understanding each other. If 15th century as soon as the city perceive how important the history we have not lost our neighbours was captured by Ottomans. of maps that reflect the universal Still we can ask another of different nations and religions The European took coffee as a development from migrating everything could have been Turkish drink of Istanbul while question: is it possible primates between continents to different. Turks composed songs saying that moving armies of destitute people to stop the current of their coffee had originally come The idea of nation states created towards rich countries. from Yemen. People of Yemen nations from one land opportunity to flee the oppression Maps were created by people to would say that their coffee was of old empires while it paid a high to another? broaden our view of the world brought from Ethiopia by Somali price by leaving other nations and beyond geographical lines by merchants. Only following the cultures on the other side of the seeing that the earth had no various shapes of the word coffee The White Sea of Mediterranean borderline at all. The language of in different languages (kahve, used to be like a universe, closed The idea of nation states colours and the reference of names qahwah, kaffa, koffie, kafe, café) upon itself. It had a black hole, helped to communicate with in a is good enough to show how named Gibraltar, through that it created opportunity to different symbolisation of human immense is the transforming power could swallow anything. The only flee the oppression of old contact. Caravans that travelled of culture. It can break any wall thing it swallows today is the weak empires while it paid Silk Road to east and west, and and cross any border. Of course it boats of immigrants who are facing ships that crossed White Sea to is not always innocent and self- death to cross the giant waves of a high price by leaving south and north were not carrying regulate. When you visit today’s this great sea towards north. They other nations and only fine fabric or good wine but Istanbul you will witness that carry their culture with them, their also art, desire, fear and hope the whole city has been captured fear and their hope. But none of cultures on the other for another kind of world. Maps by American coffee companies. these merits has a a market value side of the fence. store these diverse worlds in their It will not be surprising to come in world trade and they end up memory with colourful shades. cross a Starbuck’s on every corner. disappearing in the deep water. Maps have a memory that we Global trade has always influenced Still we can ask another question: created ages ago and now we are countries in the past but it has is it possible to stop the current of fence. We ended Ottoman Empire about to lose it. never seized the whole world as nations from one land to another? one hundred years ago as around much as it does today. Has not that current formed the the same time we lost the people White Sea was the first sea that I existence of human kind on the of other nations on these lands. saw when I was at high school at planet since the travels of primates Elderly people in my village do not the age of seventeen. After realising Is Turkish coffee in fact and first tribes? have knowledge that once there how enormous was it I believed that Greek coffee? were other nations here. it was a world on its own. White When I went to school I realised Sea was a single, closed up entity. Culture flows like fluid. that both Black Sea and White In the olden times cardinal points By consisting countries, continents, Sea were a long long way from my were described by colours. South It goes into soil, reaches and islands, it did not need anything village in the countryside. Then was red (e.g. the Red Sea); north else. It was self-sufficient. There was underground currents. I noticed that my little village was black (Black Sea), and west was a world of White Sea and the other was right in the middle of the white (White Sea / Mediterranean). It evaporates like air. It parts of the planet were the rest. land between those two seas. The The east was yellow (or sometimes rains like clouds, runs Maybe that is why during ancient palace my mum told in her tale blue). Despite three seas of colours times it was also named as “the was located in our village. Like there is not a sea of the east-colour like rivers and fills in centre of the world.” the prince and princess, who got like Yellow Sea. In the east was the vast seas. cursed and lost their palace, before Anatolia, that’s how old Greeks After developments of ages we Only following the long we got cursed too and left named it, “east-land”. It is an now like to believe that nations our home for cities. That is the inland, a pastoral country between should have left many of prejudices various shapes of destiny of mankind to leave home, seas, while Mediterranean is a sea behind. That is why it is strange the word coffee in to change, to be changed, and to between lands. Ancient people to see that still there are national- create a new home. We are not named Mediterranean “the Great cultural rivalries in our times. Is different languages is any more destined to die in the Sea” or “Our Sea” or more properly Turkish coffee in fact Greek coffee? good enough to show same land where we were born. We “Internal Sea” (Mare Internum). Is Greek yogurt that I buy in Italy are strolling around to find a new The name Mediterranean refers actually original Turkish yogurt? how immense is the soil to be buried in. As everything similar connotations as “in the Though this kind of little rivalries transforming power of changes maybe fairy tales should middle of lands”. sound annoying it also shows culture. It can break change too with one exception. how powerful is the constantly Since we have captured the whole Fairy tales are for happy endings, changing form of culture. Culture any wall and cross any picture of the earth and assumed and we want our lives to have flows like fluid. It goes into soil, the knowledge of it from primary border. happy endings too. reaches underground currents.

20 ArsArsEditorial Poetica Poetica Vladislav Bajac is a Serbian author, translator, and publisher. He was born in Belgrade in 1954 and later studied philology at the University of Belgrade. His early writing is inspired by esotericism and experiences of eastern art, and his later books concentrate on historiographical metafiction and national and individual identity. In 1993 he founded the publishing house Geopoetika, which publishes fiction as well as nonfiction books about history, art, rock & roll, and archeology. His best-known work is his 2008 novel, Hamam Balkanija, for which he won the International Literature Prize Balkanika. He is a founding member of Academia Balkanica Europeana.

A work of stunning intellectual, structural and narrative complexity, written in clear, engaging and witty prose. Hamam Balkania is a novel of ideas in pursuit of age-old questions of identity and culture, and chases those questions in refreshingly unique ways. Set in two distinct time periods, this riveting story swings back and forth between the 16th century Ottoman Empire and our modern, contemporary world. It is the story of Bajac’s first-person, present-tense search for the nature of identity that encounters Orhan Pamuk, Allen Ginsburg, Leonard Cohen and Zen Buddhists. It is also a “historical novel” that traces the journey of Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, a Bosnian forced into servitude and Islamic conversion as a teenager in the 1500s by the Ottoman Empire, who ultimately rose to the highest positions of power under three Sultans. Bajac expertly weaves these disparate characters, story lines and time periods into a fascinating and compelling meditation on identity, culture and literary conventions. We are publishing a fragment from this novel.

BEFORE THE BEGINNING one on the River Drina and the other on the River Žepa – were built of the very same white stone mentioned in my haiku poem: with the love and money of (the Turkified or Islamized Serbs) Mehmedpasha Sokolović and Jusuf Ibrahim, made eternal in the humble and wise Višegrad, like any other place, has its own real life. Yet, like few others, words of Andrić , the man who attributed his own life’s motto to his it also has its own abstract life. My experience with the metaphysics of literary hero: there is safety in silence. Višegrad began in April, 1977, on approaching the town, before I ever When I complained to a friend that I had perhaps dried up in my saw the famed bridge on the Drina, which certainly fixed the town’s writing, he told me not to worry in the slightest. He had a certain cure place in history forever. In my little haiku notebook, which I still have, for that illness. He was, actually, expecting the arrival of the Turkish I noted down a geopoetic commentary “on the gravel of Višegrad” with writer, Orhan Pamuk, with the same diagnosis, so that the two of us the poem that I saw through the window of the bus: could be cured at the same time with his prescription. The only thing I knew about Banja, about Sokollu’s Spa, the Spa of A stone between them Višegrad, as everyone called it, besides being the source of crystalline two sunbathed firs, a parting made calcium carbonate used to build the bridge in Višegrad, was that there in the forest. was a medicinal spring in this place three miles from the town. It was here that Mehmed-pasha Sokollu, in his waning years in 1575, built a domed Turkish bath, wanting to give something (more) to his My host and friend from my university days, Žarko Čigoja, thought that the bridge of Mehmed-pasha Sokollu (as it is written in Turkish) birthplace. In a brochure from 1934, I read that the radioactive waters (at an altitude of more than 1200 feet) treated rheumatism, neuralgia from 1571 – the bridge Andrić wrote about – was enough of a prize and a pleasure, for that occasion, so that he did not even show me the other and women’s disorders. The brochure further claimed that the spa attractions of his hometown. He could not even imagine how selfish waters have an especially beneficial effect on barren women. “When a I was, actually even unhappy, that I had to share this magnificent barren wife hails at the spa, and then begets a child, the village round bridge with others. However, how could I have imagined that deeper doth shake its head, saying: By God, if she hadn’t hailed at the spa and knowledge of the secrets of the environs of Višegrad would have to her incantations said, she never ever would have bred...” be earned by future experience, on the basis of which I would be able So it was that I also traveled through the thick forest to the spa, to actually enjoy what was being offered to me? Once again, a secret which I nicknamed “the Maidenhair” after the magical looking rare brotherhood was in question. I had to wait twenty-six whole years to grass that grows only there. I was happy to meet enter that brotherhood! It was worth it. It was actually Ivo Andrić who up with my old acquaintance, Orhan Pamuk, the most famous Turkish taught me to wait – in reading him writer, a native of Istanbul. I was mildly surprised that he, too, was again; during my literature studies I was not yet able to connect his suffering from a dry spell, because he was known to be a prolific writer. masterpiece with real life: too flippantly had I passed over his notes on If perchance in some period of his writing life he did not publish a the beginnings of the bridge’s construction – on its very essence – on book for a long while, the one that followed was sure to be a hefty the “transportation of stones from the quarries that were opened in baby. the hills near Banja, an hour’s walk from the town”. What is more, the I gave birth to my children less often, and most often they were two most important bridges, at least in literature, in all of Bosnia – this of medium weight. Such was my rhythm. However, in the last couple - 1 - - 2 -

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of years I had not conceived a single one, and I was getting seriously pleasure in the beauties of the heavenly gardens, Valhalla and Jannah. worried. That was why I went to visit the stone that gave birth to This hamam could have been an ideal place for a caravansary. How water: such fertility revived my faith. The stone on which I stepped much money would travelers leave behind here! However, nature (and had been polished for more than four centuries! A stone the colors of perhaps fate) wished to hide it from the busy byways, and so placed grass and moss! The water, hot but not boiling, just next to being of it at an altitude that discouraged the weary traveler from the very heavenly warmth. And my body was turning into a ghost! Alive, but thought of climbing up to it. That is why the stones of the hamam dead! Pamuk and our host tried to talk through the water vapor, but were polished by decades and centuries, and largely not by the hand of the words disappeared in the glass windows of the dome and lost all man. Although, it must be admitted, that hand got involved wherever their meaning. We turned into the heroes (monkeys) in the film with and whenever it could: thus it is possible to find quotations in old the Sufi title Baraka by director Ron Fricke: standing in place we float manuscripts (recognizing them by their language, but without the need across the surface that turns into mist and takes on another aggregate to cite their source and date) that overlap with the present: “Next to the state, taking all forms of intellectualism with it. Our eyelids close, but spa stands a building where a popular investor maintains a restaurant our eyes do not go to sleep. When this threatens to happen, I push and has rooms for overnight. In front of that building there is a large my way through the powerful water, to be under the heavy stream that veranda in front of which spread magnificent panoramas of nature.” rushes from the mountain into this small pool, now across my back. I don’t know who the popular investor is nowadays, whether a I am beaten as I never have been before. And I am happy to the point private businessman or not, but he has not deprived himself either of of silliness. This is the meeting point of the Cabbala, Zen, Sufism, the “restaurant” nor of the “veranda”. For, it is true, the satisfaction Orthodox Estheticism, the Catholic erasure of the fear of sin, artistic of bathing in the tiny heavenly pool would not be complete if one Islam... Just as the maidenhair fern can grow nowhere else but here, does not go to the restaurant veranda afterwards, over a sort of small only here does the water arrive from a depth of 590 feet and from a bridge. It is, in fact, a large hanging balcony without glass, above a deep more important historical depth of thirtyeight thousand years. An age mountain ravine that expands your thoughts with its marvelous view, sufficient so that no one doubts its reason for existence or for speaking thoughts that do not seem, reflecting off the Bosnian hills and vales to the world. that stand shoulder to shoulder with you, to return to you infertile. It is also the reason for my relationship with the past. The antiquity And the food! Along with the domestic appetizers, you will be served that is inhaled here is completely authentic and cannot be resisted. The royal young trout, just pulled from the nearby rapids, ordered by spirit first loses its orientation, and then the concept of time, and then telephone to Zlatibor only an hour before. This is trout that has gone the body also loses its orientation, all winter without eating, and has just begun to feed on pristine food. and then its concept of space. This peculiar nirvana transformed me However, the modern structure of this restaurant should not be into a large question mark: Was the barren woman at this bath, perhaps, confused today with the caravansary in the 16th century. That, it is not. serviced by a man who was renowned for his healthy seed? Was this Today, for those who wish to enjoy these marvels for a while longer, bath perhaps a male harem for desperate barren women? What kind there is a hotel – a rehabilitation center called “Maidenhair”, with all of pleasure this tucked-away pool must have been for beys, pashas, the necessary comforts and also a modern pool which, of course, is viziers or sultans, whether they were the hosts or guests here, regardless! also filled with the thermal waters. The source of their radioactivity Whichever of the genders served these active waters and their bathers is radon, and where there is radon there will also be doctors and – they say, it is noted in text gone lost, that making love under this physiotherapists. Clearly, you do not have to be ill or concerned about mountain stream (at a temperature of 95 degees) is on par with the

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your health to come to this place. In fact, by going there healthy, you And that is why (in my mind) it was there, at the hamam, at that prove to yourself that you have not yet rid yourself of hedonism. particular time, that the best and most popular, and indeed most controversial, contemporary Turkish writer, Orhan Pamuk showed Even Mehmed-Pasha himself did not make a caravansary of the up with me – because, if there is any ideology in novel writing, he hamam, of “the beautiful spa with its dome”; he built it a bit lower dedicated his books to the relations between East and West, and down, “next to the River Drina as Sokollu’s stone inn or caravansary, thereby continued down the path followed by some of his ancestors. which could take about ten thousand horses and camels under its I had the opportunity to reassure myself of this in my discussions roof”. Do you think the numbers are exaggerated? I wouldn’t say so. with him, not just from reading his remarkable books. And there If they are, then they are not far from true. Just imagine what a task is another reason: his masterpiece novel My Name is Red deals with it was like to build a bridge like the one in Višegrad in the 1570s! the Ottoman Empire (and in part with Mehmed-Pasha’s time, and In Mehmed-Pasha’s time Višegrad had about seven hundred homes, a also with the consequences of that time) and it informed me of the mosque named Selimiye, a fountain, about three hundred stores, an important relationships of the Turkish system – the conquering rule imaret (hospice) that fed the village’s poor, and a Dervish monastery – and the vanquishing of new territories for art within the Empire, about a tekya. In the village of Sokolovići (which got its name after the pasha, something of which I knew almost nothing. For all that effort, and or the pasha got his name after the village, it makes no difference), there for the benefit of others, Pamuk deserved a virtual (perhaps for him was a mosque called Sokolovićmosque, but there was also a place for a Dervish’s) bath. Among other things, there is never enough cleanliness Christian church where, according to legend, the pasha built a church and purification. Nor is there enough enjoyment, or akshamluk “the dedicated to his Orthodox mother. This, of course, should not surprise Bosnian custom of sitting on the grass in the evening, usually by a anyone, if it is generally known that it was actually Mehmed-Pasha body of water, drinking brandy, singing and talking”. Sokollu who, as a vizier of the Turkish D v n, in 1557, personally had ī ā What kind of writers would we be if we did not, sometimes, next to the Serbian Patriarchate at Pećrenovated and then placed his brother the hamam, enjoy a bit of akshamluk ourselves? Under Makarije at the head of the church, as the sources say, the condition that we understand this word simultaneously and equally at the moment “when Orthodoxy was in chaos and disarray, and the as being hedonistic and philosophical. national idea of the Serbian people was beginning to wane in the heavy The writers’ problem, one of countless others, is that they often shackles of its slavery”. Some historians hold the position that, with the confuse reality and imagination. That is the source of the famous loss latter, “the great vizier through this decree preserved the Serbian people of the boundary between what happened and what was experienced. from final extinction and destruction”. This cannot be far from the That is how I began to temporally mix my encounters with people close truth if one knows to what extent the Serbian people of the time, no to me; I want to say, I brought those who lived five centuries before longer having their own independent state, lent importance to the only me closer to my own time, and transferred myself and my friends (or existing replacement for statehood – the Serbian Orthodox church. characters, it makes no difference) with ease into lives centuries older This is the reason for the widely held qualification that Mehmed-Pasha than we are. That is how it could happen that our encounters, real and Sokollu was “an unshakeable Moslem and, at the same time... a good unreal, became more frequent. patriot who paid his dues to his people with dignity”. He believed that It was one of the ways of fulfilling the writer’s dream about the he made peace between Islam and his Bosnian homeland, his Serbian temporal omnipotence of words. roots and the Orthodox Christian faith. Because of that dream, among other things, books come into being. - 5 - - 6 -

Translated by Randall A. Major 22 EditorialOur essay Bashkim Shehu is an Albanian fiction writer, who lives in exile in Barcelona. Many of his books have been published in Albania and some of them have been translated and published in French, English, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Rumanian, and Serbian. He was awarded with the Prize Balkanika (2015), the most important literary award in the region, with the Special Mention of the Jury of Prix Méditerranné (France, 2018), and with several Albanian national prizes. He is also a translator of literature and of books from the field of humanities and social sciences. He is a founding member of Academia Balkanica Europeana, and editor-in-chief of The Bridge. Photo credit: Ioana

THE UNHOLY TRINITY OF NEW MEDIA, POST-TRUTH AND POPULISM By Bashkim Shehu

I apologize, just in case, if the title Does the preposition “post” imply sciences”. Further on: “Social science Gramsci, a Marxist thinker, on of this text may give the impression that truth is dead, in the same way faculties (the political scientists, cultural hegemony. Meanwhile, the that the second and the third term, that we speak about the death of economists, sociologists, and many liberals, or the progressive, or the analogically corresponding to the God, or the death of the human historians) tend to be liberally left, or whatever we may call them, Holy Ghost and the Son, emanate being, or the death of metaphysics, or oriented”. What Lewis Powell Jr. adopted a defensive attitude, stuck from the first one. Their relations the death of the novel, or the death of strategically proposed was, among in a triumphalistic orthodoxy and are much more complex, and other art, or the death of modernity itself, other things, an ideological purge the newspeak of the “politically factors interfere by all means. whose history would be a long series of the universities and a surveillance correct”, leaving thus to their of necrologies? What is the novelty, of the textbooks by corporate conservative opponents the attitude Let me start with the second term. now, with regards to the truth? business appointed committees. of anti-conformism and anti-taboo. What does it mean “post-truth”? His confidential memorandum was And the conservatives have won the Why don’t we call it simply a lie? “As Kulturkampf. One of the consequences the vilest writer hath his readers, so of this turn of the tide is significantly the greatest liar hath his believers: “Populism” is a buzzword, and it is loosely applied to a the loss of prestige of the humanities in and it often happens, that if a lie be wide and motley range of political phenomena: The only our societies. This anti-Enlightenment believed only for an hour, it hath tendency is complemented by leftist done its work”, wrote Jonathan thing they share is their divergence to mainstream politics intellectuals with their post-modern Swift in 1710, in his essay The Art and statu quo relativism and a discourse no less of Political Lying. Further on: “We identitarian than the conservative: are told the devil is the father of lies, for instance, Enlightenment is said and was a liar from the beginning; discovered by the Washington Post to be Eurocentric, chauvinistic, so that, beyond contradiction, In 1971, the corporate lawyer Lewis columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner related to slavery and colonialism the invention is old: and, which is Powell Jr. addressed a confidential Jack Anderson, who denounced and imperialism, and it is also said to more, his first Essay of it was purely memorandum to the Director of it as an attempt to undermine the be patriarchal and antifeminist. On political... But although the devil be the Chamber of Commerce of the democratic system. However, it the other hand, according to Michel the father of lies, he seems, like other United States. It was, indeed, a call is considered as the blueprint of a Foucault, there is no knowledge, but great inventors, to have lost much to arms for a political cultural battle, cultural campaign that gave rise to something like power-knowledge, a of his reputation, by the continual and the enemies were identified as a powerful network of conservative kind of centaur image. And Richard improvements that have been made follows: “the college campus, the think-tanks. It looks like the Rorty has banned the word “truth”, upon him”. Where are we, then, in pulpit, the media, the intellectual conservatives have learned better by replacing it with the word comparison to the good old times? and literary journals, the arts and than anyone the lesson of Antonio Page 24

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Page 21 At a certain moment, the author read it, sometime around 1979. This from Carles Puigdemont to Beppe “pragmatic”. goes to the future, to 1979, when leads me now to another term of the Grillo, from Podemos to Alternativ communism has been established unholy trinity: the term “populism”, für Deutschland. The only thing All these are eloquent symptoms of all over the world, and there is a although, except for despise towards they share is their divergence to the cultural background in which the scene of the world parliament, where democratic representation, it does mainstream politics and statu quo. notion of post-truth appeared. Now, there is nobody: the seats are empty. not have much in common with For a clearer notion of populism, what is the meaning of this notion? But, instead of a microphone, each communism. I would, first of all, refer to a Its first definition is attributed to definition by the incisive political the environmentalist blogger David scientist Ivan Krastev, drawing a Roberts, who, four hundred years Term “populism” is quite often a post-truth product, by distinction between populism and after Jonathan Swift, in 2010, and virtue of the usage of this term: quite often it is pronounced socialism in the broadest sense of more precisely, and by coincidence, the term, be it social-democratic or on 1st of April, wrote that post- with the intention of stigmatizing all those who question authoritarian, radical or moderate, truth politics is the disconnection or challenge the ruling ideological gadget dressed up like libertarian or totalitarian. While between public opinion and the populists identify themselves with substance of legislation. It amounts economic science. the people and pretend that they are to systematic misinformation of the people, socialists are an elite or the public. However, this definition a vanguard that pretends to go to “Populism” is a buzzword, and it reminds me of another kind of seat has a loudspeaker, through the people, to enlighten the people is loosely applied to a wide and disconnection between the public, which the voices of the non-present and be the leadership of the people. motley range of political phenomena: i.e. the voters, and their legislative members of the parliament can be I would even say that socialists from Donald Trump to Syriza, body: currently, a considerable part heard: thus, the empty parliament almost do not speak of “people”, from Bernie Sanders to the United of them do not feel represented. And is made of by all the people of but of “working class”, although Kingdom Independence Party, from it reminds me also of a play written the world. This is at least what I nowadays not so much, alternating Jeremy Corbyn to Marine le Pen, by Vladimir Mayakovski in 1929. remember: I was very young when I it rather frequently with the idea of

24 Our essay the societal majority. However, their I don’t know whether this outline the legislative body, and therefore calls the biggest information war in idea about society implies diversity, of populism is sufficiently clear the rise of populism, happens history. But no smaller is the threat whereas “the people” of populism and distinct, insofar as things can because people are ill-informed. I stemming from us, from within our is something like a block of steel be clear and distinct when we talk think this is a mistaken diagnosis. societies and within the individuals. or ice, homogeneous through and about politics. Moreover, I am According to Princeton Professor According to the British political through, and essentially pure. In this not an expert. It is an attempt, Jan Werner-Müller: “Voters do scientist Mark Leonard, the new respect, populism is very similar a reaction to the prevailing not need detailed knowledge and media are endangering our individual to nationalism, and that’s why it conceptual chaos. In any case, preferences on every policy question; autonomy: “The secret algorithms tends to blend with nationalism, before using a term, we have broad orientations and the capacity to of the big technology companies as it does, though less frequently, to know what it means. Well, take cues from trusted authorities... determine how we perceive the world with other ideologies, whence the according to one of the most can be enough... The problem starts and make it more difficult for us difficulty to define it. Basically, the current definitions, a politician when citizens view every issue purely to consciously make decisions... In specific difference of populism is who addresses to the emotions as a matter of partisan identity, so the digital age, the greatest danger anti-elitism. I would also refer to of people is a populist. I wonder that the credibility of climate science, is not that technology increasingly a definition by the French scholar whether politicians had ever not for example, depends on whether faces free and autocratic societies, but Guy Hermet. It has to do with addressed to emotions. Or is it one is a Republican or a Democrat”. that the worst fears of both Orwell time. While democratic liberal that, when speaking to the public The first and important step in this and Huxley become manifest in governance is intentionally slow, they are emotional and when direction was taken when, in 1987, the both types of systems and create a government of the United States was different kind of dystopia. Citizens able to revoke the so-called fairness will have the illusion of being free Evgeny Morozov, an outstanding scholar in this domain, doctrine, which forced television and and empowered, as they are fulfilling considers that diversity in the web is smaller than in radio to expose different points of view many of their deepest desires. In on controversial issues. And it became, reality, their lives, the information traditional media, and that people tend to go to the according to some experts, the catalyst they consume and the options website where they can read the information and the for the first information bubbles. It they prefer will be determined by was a step towards trench journalism. algorithms and platforms controlled opinion that would confirm their own opinion. A further step, much more important, by corporate and government was taken with the appearance elites that do not have to be held of Internet. Evgeny Morozov, an accountable”. A whistleblower of and this is more beneficent than they do it among themselves they outstanding scholar in this domain, Cambridge Analytica, which was harmful, and it is conditioned by are purely rational? If so, should considers that diversity in the web is involved in the last presidential priorities, so that the problems they abstain from speaking to the smaller than in traditional media, and elections in the United States in cannot be resolved all at once, public and should they become that people tend to go to the website favour of Donald Trump and also populist politicians promise to verbally endogamic and collectively where they can read the information in the Brexit campaign in favour of resolve everything immediately, and autistic and do everything indoors? and the opinion that would confirm Brexit, reveals the following: “We sometimes they give the impression As I said, there is nowadays a their own opinion. In many other exploited Facebook… and built that they do, especially when their disconnection between the political countries the situation is not better. models to exploit what we knew about power is not limited by checks and class and the citizens, as many And it is getting worse with the thrust [their users] and target their inner balances and by normal procedures of them do not feel represented. of other new media. demons.” On the other hand, a team of legislation. This definition, Populism is of course a political of researchers from Massachusetts I am not saying that technology though, has to be complemented disease, but at the same time it Institute of Technology have come to is the cause of populism and with that of the characteristic is a symptom of another disease: the following conclusions: “Falsehood post-truth. Technology in itself is of anti-elitism, and many times a crisis of representation. When diffused significantly farther, faster, neutral. It only empowers people, indeed they go inseparably the machinery of democratic deeper, and more broadly than the and it depends on people whether together. For more specification, I representation does not work would point to another distinction: properly, when the usual channels of symptomatically, populism tends to connection are blocked somewhere, Technology in itself is neutral. It only empowers people, express itself through movements, then populism appears and tends to and it depends on people whether such an empowerment or through the idea of movement, produce a dangerous short-circuit rather than parties. Moreover, it between the citizens and the political will be positive or negative: it depends on our predisposal. tends to despise parties as elite power. It is the other side of popular So far, in terms of freedom, the balance is negative rather organizations. While parties imply sovereignty, the dark one. It is like representation, be it fictitious as Mr Hide to Dr Jekyll. Besides, not than positive. in the case of totalitarianism, only populism itself, but also the populism blurs the division term “populism” is quite often a between civil society and the post-truth product, by virtue of the truth in all categories of information... such an empowerment will be political sphere, or rather between usage of this term: quite often it is We found that false news was more positive or negative: it depends on the street and governance: it pronounced with the intention of novel than true news, which suggests our predisposal. So far, in terms of annihilates therefore the symbolic stigmatizing all those who question that people were more likely to share freedom, the balance is negative dimension of popular sovereignty or challenge the ruling ideological novel information”. This goes against rather than positive. The threat and, by the same token, it gadget dressed up like economic the belief that reality exceeds fiction. comes from different sides. Russia is annihilates popular sovereignty science. As I am a fiction writer, which means using Facebook as a weapon against itself. It is the accomplishment of “a person with a license to lie”, I am Now, it is a common belief that the Western democracies and in favour Mayakovski’s utopia. proud of it. disconnection of the voters from of populism in what the NATO

25 Staff Address: Ethical Board Bashkim Shehu (editor-in-chief) Rr. Gjik Kuqali, P. 2, Sh. 2, Ap. 4, Sonja Biserko Skënder Minxhozi (editor) Tirana, Albania Ana Blandiana e-mail: Ismail Kadare Aida Kumi (graphic designer) [email protected] Ivan Krastev Granit Gjana (webmaster) www.bridge-magazine.net Adam Michnik