Understanding City Growth _ Informal Documents: A series of reflective photographs
The accelerated growth of the city caused by a large population influx as a result of political and social changes in the last thirty years has led to major changes in the urban fabric of Belgrade. Citizens of the capital city often talk about the threatened identity of the city, problems in functioning, inadequate infrastructure, pollution. In contrast, there are unquestionable qualities, 7000 years of uninterrupted urban history, the position at the confluence of two large navigable rivers, the overlap of numerous cultural influences, but also countless demolitions and rebuilding as a consequence of life on the limes, turbulent history and war destruction that repeats itself every 40 -50 years. The urban identity of Belgrade is formed by buildings, objects and interspaces created in all historical periods. Cultivating the spirit of a place means recognizing and marking significant memory and material layers of the city.
What today makes Belgrade recognizable on the urban map of Europe is precisely the material testimony of a long continuity of existence through fragments of preserved traces and with the culmination of the inter-war and post-war period of modernism. We invited LINA fellows, young emerging creatives, to Belgrade to give an insight into the development potential of Belgrade from their perspective through various media. This year, the focus is on New Belgrade, more precisely the Bežanija settlement/village and opposed brutalist mega structure of Bežanije blocks 61, 62 and 63. This border territory in permanent transformation, at the meeting point of the rural environment and the structure of mega blocks, is a great challenge for urban planners and architects. The first part of the Understanding City Growth, as part of the 2024 LINA Architecture Programme, the residency period, was dedicated to the research, meetings and workshops. During their stay, LINA fellows, in addition to the opportunity to get to know each other and exchange experiences, achieved cooperation with representatives of various institutions and organizations, local residents and representatives of different generations. The later period, upon their return, was dedicated to analyzing and defining the proposal. The last one was the joint exhibition “Understanding City Growth” during the BINA 2024 festival, organized in the BINA pavilion. For the occasion of the exhibition all fellows gathered again in Belgrade to present their proposals that would contribute to improving the situation and quality of life in the neighborhood, preserving the identity of the place and transformations in accordance with the requirements of modern life and the needs of the residents.
Having in front of us the results of the work of all six LINA fellows teams, it can be concluded that by applying different methodologies, in a certain sense, they all came to similar conclusions. The first obvious fact is that even after almost half a century since the construction of the new housing blocks, there is a clear division between the old rural matrix of the village of Bežanija and these structures of Blocks 61-64. These very different, but very close residential areas largely function separately and without insight into the history of some and the specifics of others. The second conclusion is that since the creation of urban plans relating to the entire territory and since the construction of blocks, there have been significant changes in political and social system, lifestyle and standards and that it is necessary to rethink the situation on the ground and make certain changes that would contribute to the quality of life of citizens.The identity and order of the old matrix of the Vojvodina settlement Bežanija, as the oldest settlement on the territory of New Belgrade, is threatened, and the memory of the place is also suppressed. However, within the settlement itself there are oases of common life and self-organization of residents who are fighting for the survival of their community. It is precisely these values, in the opinion of LINA fellows, that should be preserved and for the purpose of which the community should be strengthened and support provided by the system, through local authorities and institutions for the protection of monuments, culture and education.
On the other hand, when analyzing the blocks created in the period of the 70s of the last century, and which are still being extended, LINA fellows conclude that despite the former planned construction, the passage of time, changes in lifestyle, but also often insufficient maintenance or inadequate use of space, clearly indicates the need to first of all rethink and adapt public spaces to new conditions, habits, but also to global phenomena such as climate change, which dictate different needs of residents. When studying the assigned territory, LINA fellows also recognize positive models of appropriation and spontaneous use of public space by citizens such as spaces for gathering and socializing, bocce ball court, etc.
All these insights, created during a short residential stay, once again confirm how useful exactly this kind of transdisciplinary analysis, contact with the local community and citizens are, as a preparation for further planning and corrections in order to improve the current situation on the ground. A discussion with local urban planners organized during the opening of the exhibition: Božana Lukić (Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure), Žaklina Gligorijević (Society of Female Architects) and Ana Graovac (New Planning Practice) confirmed this position and indicated the need for precisely this type of analysis and preliminary work that would largely contributed to the quality of urban plans but for which there is often no will due to financial, but also circumstances dictated by the market, investors demands and politics.
Collaboration with LINA fellow Isidora Koščica, Jana Čvertkov and Lana Jeremić
Informal Documents: A series of reflective photographs
Urban spaces are in the state of eternal expansion. In their nature, they are developing, as they suppress and force other environments to retreat. Yet within their own structure, cities are also prone to changes, reflecting the state of the society and spirit of the age with these transformations. If we consider these changes from a distance, we shall see the geopolitical, or historical context (of the creation and growth) of a city. But what happens if we endeavour to seek changes in details? If for a moment we accept the metaphor of a city as a theatrical stage for everyday narratives, we may understand man as the protagonist. Though evidently hidden behind the scenery, man integrates into and interacts with urban space, adapting and shaping it. Human impact inevitably peeks out of the city structures. The project titled Informal Documents tries to research this phenomenon and provide insight into the daily existence of a city through its metamorphoses and micro-changes. By studying these questions, we take the role of a collector, explorer and storyteller of a first-person narrative, as we record the complexities of urban reality.
In its form, the project is an attempt at mapping the neighbourhood of Bežanija, i.e. blocks 61, 62, 63 and 64 and Old Bežanija (Bežanija Village), while the methodology comes down to a series of walks, the result of which is a series of reflective photographs/spatial notes. Due to its history marked with transformations, the space of Bežanija represents a picturesque example of the urbanisation process and its consequences. The modernist architecture of the blocks clashing with that of Old Bežanija leaves the impression of a dichotomy, but simultaneously opens up the question of their similarity. By recording the routes of these unplanned walks through Bežanija, our interaction with the space becomes visible and documented. Through this approach, by exploring and drawing new, informal borders, we map a different Bežanija, shaped through human agency.
By using the media that are in their essence documentary and artistic, the project exists on the edge between art installation and archive. In this sense, the photographs and maps keep their dual function. On the one hand, they are the documents of the research process, while on the other, they represent attempts to catch and record the ephemerality of the city: the city as is now, as a reflection of the society, which tomorrow will have undergone some other transformation already. In spite of this transformative force of the city (or even being influenced by this very force), Informal Documents are an attempt to fix an urban portrait, with all its specific traits, permutations and the influences that shape it.
