MEDIK – Mediating Difficult Knowledge

The project MEDIK – Mediating Difficult Knowledge reminds us of the initial horizons of the foundation of the Center for Cultural Decontamination in Belgrade as an independent space of the anti-war movement in 1995. The period of establishing cooperation between back then newly founded civil society organizations in former Yugoslavia was part of the process of reconciliation, fighting for basic human rights in the societies that were severely affected by individualism and competition, inequality, insecurity and the diminishing impact of civil action. Our main goal is to create a platform for sharing our experience and knowledge with artists and cultural workers from Ukraine, as well as to address the burning problem of the society and the Serbian state which is supporting the Russian war and occupation of Ukraine.

This is an educational and capacity-building project with the aim of providing residency for two partners from Ukraine. By doing so, we intend to continue our work in academic, artistic and activist research and to provide a platform for addressing ongoing war atrocities and crime. Keywords like war, world peace, citizens’ freedoms, solidarity in production, equal accessibility and distribution, public goods, and representation, which are cornerstones to democracy, will be historically and conceptually examined allowing inclusivity and participation. This will counter populism, extremism, and intolerance by breaking the (mis)perception of an absolute consensus of the support for Russian aggression in Serbian society. One of the aims of the project is to gather activists, artists and cultural workers from Serbia and Ukraine and possibly to establish new cultural collaboration grounded in mutual understanding and solidarity.

The project will start by building up the knowledge and understanding of the capacity of project partners and their immediate circle about the war events, as well as the concepts and values they put forth (peace, solidarity in production, dignity, freedoms, equality, citizens’ rights and justice). In activating our archive, we will allow participants to listen, watch, read and discuss our public programs together. The archive would be the main material base for the workshop for artists, curators, and project partners which will help in articulating visual and textual extensions of experience. The main aim of the workshop will be a self-educational platform based on in-depth research and exchange of ideas between different actors gathered in specific endeavors. The public screening and exhibition will include a presentation of our residence, as well as the Secondary Archive project presented in Manifesta 14 in Prishtina.

Funded by the Stabilisation Fund for Culture and Education 2022 of the German Federal Foreign Office and the Goethe- Institut

photos: courtesy of cultural centre Платформа «ТЮ» – Artem Bereżnjev/ photo: Sosnovski