Marginal Notes by ogino:knauss

Early start this morning at TRANSEUROPA Festival. The ogino:knauss collective are installing their exhibition “Marginal Notes” at Belgrade’s Remont Gallery. The exhibition can be viewed October 1-5, 11am-6pm. Opening reception on October 1, 8-10pm. More info at: http://www.remont.net/galerija.html

Marginal Notes is an exhibition of photographic and video works which explore the urban space produced by the modernist ideology and the everyday life practice and struggles that transform urban peripheries. Exhibition derives from the Re>centering Periphery (R>CP) project and it shows past explorations of the cities of La Habana, Moscow, Berlin, Kiev and Belgrade, conducted by the Berlin-based collective ogino:knauss.

The exhibition is intended as the starting point for a reflection on the modern city and its contradictions. Modernism in the architectural and planning field has been a dominant ideology influencing the urban explosion at a global scale and affecting the way millions of people live their life in suburban, marginalized territories of the modern city. The modernist city of Novi Beograd was built in the second half of last century with the aspiration to create from scratch the capital of the multicultural state of Yugoslavia. Today, trough the dissolution of the Federation, the privatisation of the building stock and the impact of neo-liberal economy’s paradigms, what is left is an urban periphery in search of a new identity in relation to the historical centre. The exhibition proposes a reflection on the dreams and failures of modernist utopias facing contemporary challenges of Belgrade, and wants to be the starting point for a reflection on the value of the city as a common ground for social practice and solidarity. The aim is to raise questions about the fate of public space, the capacity to support solidarity among communities and to develop ground for alternative practices and economies.

As a part of TRANSEUROPA Festival 2015, and in collaboration with Transnational Dialogues, the exhibition is running parallel to the workshop “Belgrade: City of Commons” (1-2 October, Belgrade) and is the starting ground for a forthcoming project on Belgrade by ogino:knauss.