in defence of the
ear
The collapse of the wave function describes the change from a system
that can be seen as having many possible quantum states to its being
found in only one of those possible states. The collapse is thought to
be caused as a result of measurement, thus observation. To collapse
the wave function an observer is needed. It is said that the universe
splits into two nearly identical universes whenever a measurement is
made. Once the quantum system interacts with the macroscopic measuring
instrument known as the eye all other possibilities vanish. The
collapse is an irreversible event. To resist collapse, there must be
no measurement. No measurement entails no possibility of observation;
restraining the complex architecture of the eye from fixing a
measurement means enabling entangled states to resist collapse or
popularly known as the many worlds interpretation.
To do so we turn to the ear.
Doorkeepers, Timekeepers
Words
Words
Doorkeepers, Timekeepers
Doorkeepers, Timekeepers
x
Klodiana Millona w/ Yuan Chun Liu (millonaliu)
09'13"
sketches on an invisible architecture produced by the weaponization of waiting of institutionalised visa regimes. The ear oscillates from waiting halls to the raised ridges of the palmar surface of the hands. Between a fingertip, a bedroom, and the pulse of the wrist, an ecology of waithood is mapped; reading its inscription both extra- and inter-corporeally, with the biological body turned into a machine -readable “text”, irreversibly stored in the repositories of biometric data banks.
This work is part of a broader research that uses critical cartography in investigating the spatial implications of the institutionalized practice of citizenship, from immigration offices to one's own bedroom, addressing how also domestic space is made precarious where queuing of the body is contained until further validation from the nation state.
09'13"
sketches on an invisible architecture produced by the weaponization of waiting of institutionalised visa regimes. The ear oscillates from waiting halls to the raised ridges of the palmar surface of the hands. Between a fingertip, a bedroom, and the pulse of the wrist, an ecology of waithood is mapped; reading its inscription both extra- and inter-corporeally, with the biological body turned into a machine -readable “text”, irreversibly stored in the repositories of biometric data banks.
This work is part of a broader research that uses critical cartography in investigating the spatial implications of the institutionalized practice of citizenship, from immigration offices to one's own bedroom, addressing how also domestic space is made precarious where queuing of the body is contained until further validation from the nation state.
Passer (To enter)
Passer (To enter)
x
The little booklet with limited pages and a hard cover, which we
have come to call passport is a form of architecture par excellence.
As a document of identification the passport constructs and
deconstructs thresholds. It is not additional to space, but rather
an ingrained part of spatial and territorial organization.
It is architecture in the way it shapes space and alters how we move through it. One might even regard it powerful to a greater extent than architecture, in its ability to bend and maneuver what appears as hard and immobile, allowing one to even walk through walls.
The etimology of the word passport itself derives from this embedded power of moving through; From the French words “passer” (to enter or leave) and “port” (port or harbor). But at the same time, while for some it gives the ability to pass through the “porte” of a city wall, for others it becomes a gate itself. It is almost impossible not to think of the ultimate legislative citizenship document —that of passport— in spatial terms and properties.
It is architecture in the way it shapes space and alters how we move through it. One might even regard it powerful to a greater extent than architecture, in its ability to bend and maneuver what appears as hard and immobile, allowing one to even walk through walls.
The etimology of the word passport itself derives from this embedded power of moving through; From the French words “passer” (to enter or leave) and “port” (port or harbor). But at the same time, while for some it gives the ability to pass through the “porte” of a city wall, for others it becomes a gate itself. It is almost impossible not to think of the ultimate legislative citizenship document —that of passport— in spatial terms and properties.
Who is 'I'?
Who is 'I'?
x
Google translate screenshot taken on October 2021 based on
immigration office decision of residence permit extension request
Who is 'I'?
Who is 'I'?
x
Biometrics refer to body measurements and calculations related to
human characteristics. Passports are the most common artefact that
carry biometric data unique to our bodies, such as fingerprints,
retina patterns, faces and hand measurements. Identification
techniques reduce the body to passports. Passports become bodies at
border crossings.
Citizenship
Immigration Office Counter, Rotterdam
One's own room
One's own room
x
Citizenship refers to the legal right to belong to a particular
country. To belong to a particular country for some means to merely
be allowed to exist. A nation grants certain rights and privileges
to its citizens, as denies and refuses others that are not entitled
to it. The process in time in which one engages in meeting these
requirements — so that one gains rights which allow them to exist
and belong to a place, — is comprised by a long series of actions
that are performed within different architectures, and at the same
time are inextricably related to the ways one navigates and operates
in other spaces. Namely, the one hosting the institutionalized
processes of citizenship and the architecture on which its policies
apply different protocols of navigation and participation, sometimes
the ones of rejection of subjects with precarious status — in the
process of asking for citizenship or in the conditions of not
granted one.
Who Bowed The Head?
Words
Words
Who Bowed The Head?
Who Bowed The Head?
x
Diana Malaj & ATA
13'49"
Do not lower your head Mr. Koleci, you must stand with your head held high! are the words of the judge directed to the only allowed activist to attend the court session of 25 January 2021. Since 2018, the residents from the Zall-Gjocaj National Park, Albania, have been protesting against the construction of two dams in their village, opening four lawsuits against state institutions and the private company of hydropower, who has been exploiting its river and depriving the inhabitants from their source of life; water.
In each of the hearings, they have been excluded. In each of the hearings, the judge's ear to the residents has been missing, as has the residents' voice to the judge. When the bodies of these voices have taken part in the process, they have either been silenced or taken out of the hall. In other cases they have not been allowed to enter, escalating in the instrumentalization par excellence of the conditions of the pandemic, with the residents being obliged to only hear from the courtyard what was being decided inside the courtroom about their fate, violating a basic human right which has been denied unjustly.
During this project, Diana Malaj and the activists of the group ATA enter in an exhaustive and draining process in recovering at least the recorded audio of these hearings, to then only find themselves obtaining a disturbing low quality recording of the session, in which they decide to bring against the judge's only audible voice upon which he proclaims justice as based on law, the missing voices of the residents on whom the law itself must be based to be rightful.
13'49"
Do not lower your head Mr. Koleci, you must stand with your head held high! are the words of the judge directed to the only allowed activist to attend the court session of 25 January 2021. Since 2018, the residents from the Zall-Gjocaj National Park, Albania, have been protesting against the construction of two dams in their village, opening four lawsuits against state institutions and the private company of hydropower, who has been exploiting its river and depriving the inhabitants from their source of life; water.
In each of the hearings, they have been excluded. In each of the hearings, the judge's ear to the residents has been missing, as has the residents' voice to the judge. When the bodies of these voices have taken part in the process, they have either been silenced or taken out of the hall. In other cases they have not been allowed to enter, escalating in the instrumentalization par excellence of the conditions of the pandemic, with the residents being obliged to only hear from the courtyard what was being decided inside the courtroom about their fate, violating a basic human right which has been denied unjustly.
During this project, Diana Malaj and the activists of the group ATA enter in an exhaustive and draining process in recovering at least the recorded audio of these hearings, to then only find themselves obtaining a disturbing low quality recording of the session, in which they decide to bring against the judge's only audible voice upon which he proclaims justice as based on law, the missing voices of the residents on whom the law itself must be based to be rightful.
there is a voice right at the gates of the body
there is a voice right at the gate of courts
there is a voice right at the gate of courts
There is a voice right at the gates of the body, There is a voice
right at the gate of courts
x
There is the voice, right at the gates of the body, like a letter in
the bag of the postman, on the way to address another body. Beyond
the body there is always a voice; the voice that persists within and
without. Even when we think of ourselves as something internal and
separate from the outer world we speak of an internal voice, like an
internal intruder, a daemon calling upon our body. A voice indeed
because it is beyond the gaze staring at a body.
The voice is the embodiment of my internal split that makes the other so intimate to the point that it turns myself into such. The voice is the split that is not content with itself, it is a drive beyond the body, a drive beyond life and death, like the relentless mouth of the Not-I of Samuel Beckett.
The voice is a call directed to the other, a call in which we risk being suspended outside ourselves, in an undecidable space, waiting for a response, between myself and the other. Through the voice we readily lose the safe distance that we keep with the other. My body is mortal and solipsistic, but it guarantees my independence for now. An illusion indeed. Whereas, my voice is a longing ready to give itself to the other, ready to bear the void beyond bodies. The eye sustains and stabilizes the body through mirrors, shapes and forms whereas the voice asks for more, it disrupts and breaks mirrors, calling upon the bodies to act and change, to stop staring and being frozen in a gaze.
The voices of Zall-Gjoçaj are such relentlessly calling voices, calling organized crime by name, calling local and central institutions to represent their representatives, calling upon activists to show solidarity with them and calling upon courts to stand by the law. Voices from an impoverished and forgotten region, voices from elderly bodies, but strangely loud and clear, relentless indeed. In their case, there is a mute background that seems to direct everything by never showing and proclaiming itself, that privatizes natural resources, destroys local communities, buys politicians and secures obscure capital that seems to direct everything. A dark voiceless background that is sucking up the rivers and wasting lands. And then there are these voices in this seamless space, proclaiming voices that seek more than losing themselves.
If you take the fabric of reality what you are left with is the void and the voices. Who bowed the head? tries precisely to dwell in this space of voices without bodies. It montages the voices of protesters and the voice of a judge. We get to hear how a judge speaks, beyond his verdict and we get to hear how protesters speak in the midst of confrontations in protests. We hear these voices outside courts, in protests and resistances, and right at the gate of courts, excluded from the courtroom or asked to stay mute during proceedings. And yet they persist, up to the point where even the judge is forced to respond, letting his dead-legal voice speak to them beyond the law. Despite the fact that he is forced to obey the letter of the law and close the proceedings due to procedural restraints, he cannot close it without responding to their call, supplementing with his voice the voiceless procedures of the law and sharing with them his conviction that the people of Zall - Gjoçaj are in their right and they should pursue justice ahead beyond his courtroom, beyond himself.
The voice is the embodiment of my internal split that makes the other so intimate to the point that it turns myself into such. The voice is the split that is not content with itself, it is a drive beyond the body, a drive beyond life and death, like the relentless mouth of the Not-I of Samuel Beckett.
The voice is a call directed to the other, a call in which we risk being suspended outside ourselves, in an undecidable space, waiting for a response, between myself and the other. Through the voice we readily lose the safe distance that we keep with the other. My body is mortal and solipsistic, but it guarantees my independence for now. An illusion indeed. Whereas, my voice is a longing ready to give itself to the other, ready to bear the void beyond bodies. The eye sustains and stabilizes the body through mirrors, shapes and forms whereas the voice asks for more, it disrupts and breaks mirrors, calling upon the bodies to act and change, to stop staring and being frozen in a gaze.
The voices of Zall-Gjoçaj are such relentlessly calling voices, calling organized crime by name, calling local and central institutions to represent their representatives, calling upon activists to show solidarity with them and calling upon courts to stand by the law. Voices from an impoverished and forgotten region, voices from elderly bodies, but strangely loud and clear, relentless indeed. In their case, there is a mute background that seems to direct everything by never showing and proclaiming itself, that privatizes natural resources, destroys local communities, buys politicians and secures obscure capital that seems to direct everything. A dark voiceless background that is sucking up the rivers and wasting lands. And then there are these voices in this seamless space, proclaiming voices that seek more than losing themselves.
If you take the fabric of reality what you are left with is the void and the voices. Who bowed the head? tries precisely to dwell in this space of voices without bodies. It montages the voices of protesters and the voice of a judge. We get to hear how a judge speaks, beyond his verdict and we get to hear how protesters speak in the midst of confrontations in protests. We hear these voices outside courts, in protests and resistances, and right at the gate of courts, excluded from the courtroom or asked to stay mute during proceedings. And yet they persist, up to the point where even the judge is forced to respond, letting his dead-legal voice speak to them beyond the law. Despite the fact that he is forced to obey the letter of the law and close the proceedings due to procedural restraints, he cannot close it without responding to their call, supplementing with his voice the voiceless procedures of the law and sharing with them his conviction that the people of Zall - Gjoçaj are in their right and they should pursue justice ahead beyond his courtroom, beyond himself.
marooned evidence
the machine in the garden
the machine in the garden
x
Local inhabitant in front of machines of destruction
concrete river
concrete river
x
Recording the traces of irreversible violence on the river
for us you are the invader
for us you are the invader
x
Protest banner held by the residents; calling on the criminal
activity of the government and their implications in the ongoing
ecocide
earthmovers
earthmovers
x
Damaged destructive machines as a way to resist the progression of
its violence on site
policing freedom
policing freedom
x
Local police in the national park preventing the protest of local
community
crime foundations
crime foundations
x
Concrete foundations in the river bed progressing their work on the
implementation of illegal hydropower project
daily labour
daily labour
x
Mapping local resident's daily life
interrupted
interrupted
x
River taken away by hydropower constructions
cartography of operations
cartography of operations
x
Cartography of operations Mat river, the area and the hydropower
plan
A
B
―
―
―
―
―
A
B
―
―
―
―
―
Legend
Act of operation of hydropower ZAJS
Act of operation of hydropower SEKA
Tunnel
Pipes with underground pressure
Part of canyon that will be left without water
The borders of the protected area of Lure-Mali i Dejes
Area with permeable rocks
Act of operation of hydropower ZAJS
Act of operation of hydropower SEKA
Tunnel
Pipes with underground pressure
Part of canyon that will be left without water
The borders of the protected area of Lure-Mali i Dejes
Area with permeable rocks
a dialogue for one
a dialogue for one
x
Three requests for audio materials of the court sessions developed
in the absence of activists, and behind closed doors.
Crossways
Words
words
Crossways
Crossways
x
Giulia Francavilla
Wind: Seeking Woods - 05'42"
Crickets: Countryside - 06'18"
Drops: Inner Scope - 04'12"
Crossways is a triology of three pieces originating from field recordings made over 2021. It expands on the notion of soundscape within our current worlding, portraying multi-sited disaster environments in non linear time, namely waving into the legacy between a post earthquake, a pandemic and the ongoing slow and not so slow ecological disaster. Firstly investigated through the microphone and afterwards through sound processing and composition, these three places bring to the ears three different relationships between human and surroundings.
Wind: Seeking Woods - 05'42"
Crickets: Countryside - 06'18"
Drops: Inner Scope - 04'12"
Crossways is a triology of three pieces originating from field recordings made over 2021. It expands on the notion of soundscape within our current worlding, portraying multi-sited disaster environments in non linear time, namely waving into the legacy between a post earthquake, a pandemic and the ongoing slow and not so slow ecological disaster. Firstly investigated through the microphone and afterwards through sound processing and composition, these three places bring to the ears three different relationships between human and surroundings.
42.350337, 13.398845
Drops: Inner Scope - 04'12"
x
Drops: Inner Scope listens to a tiny alley in L'Aquila. Along this
street, like many others, the majority of the buildings result in an
abandoned state or half-destroyed in the aftermath of the earthquake
that happened in 2009. It portrays the urban life of a small town,
where the traces of a preceding disaster are now doubled and etched
even deeper by the silence echoing in the alleys.
42.389178, 13.403640
Wind: Seeking Woods - 05'42"
x
Wind: Seeking Woods sonically depicts the space of a wood that
overlooks L'Aquila, the artist's hometown. It represents a
space where the human sonic presence is avoided in recording and
also in the sound processing which in the piece is absent, hearing
beyond an androcentric spectrum.
49.770146, 16.218526
Crickets: Countryside - 06'18"
x
Crickets: Countryside amplifies insects micro-activity and its
cycles through the grass, shifting the attention both in recording
and sound processing to a non-human ecologies of being.
Time is Chemical Weapon,
Unleashed
Unleashed
Words
Words
Time is a chemical weapon, unleashed
Time is a chemical weapon, unleashed
x
Endi Tupja
12'32"
moves within the stillness imposed by a national lock down between two micro historical events that occurred in the city of Tirana in 2020: the demolition of the National Theater and the theater-performance of the activist group ATA of Kamza. The friction between the two, represents something falling (National Theater as a building) and something rising (the theater of Kamza); a flight and a fall between the center and the periphery. Center and periphery is herein seen as an opposition between the urge to demolish the past in the name of a progressive western-like modern Albanian cultural identity (case of the National Theater of Tirana) and the periphery of Kamza as an alternative ex-slum turned city, resisting the institutionalized pressure of the center (Tirana as both, a cultural and legislative center).
A special focus is put on challenging the idea of domesticity related to homes and how, from an activist point of view, the streets become the domesticity of a collective effort.
12'32"
moves within the stillness imposed by a national lock down between two micro historical events that occurred in the city of Tirana in 2020: the demolition of the National Theater and the theater-performance of the activist group ATA of Kamza. The friction between the two, represents something falling (National Theater as a building) and something rising (the theater of Kamza); a flight and a fall between the center and the periphery. Center and periphery is herein seen as an opposition between the urge to demolish the past in the name of a progressive western-like modern Albanian cultural identity (case of the National Theater of Tirana) and the periphery of Kamza as an alternative ex-slum turned city, resisting the institutionalized pressure of the center (Tirana as both, a cultural and legislative center).
A special focus is put on challenging the idea of domesticity related to homes and how, from an activist point of view, the streets become the domesticity of a collective effort.
If the image was the place and you have been removed,
does the sound then become the non-place?
does the sound then become the non-place?
If the image was the place and you have been removed, does the
sound then become the non-place?
x
I have heard about it
To hear is to be concentrated, a pause from the image,
disconnecting from the visual. Simulate visual darkness to
generate the depth of sound. Manifest the hearable.You enter a
vortex of impressions, sensations, feelings. Images still persist
but are generated differently. They remain on the inside of your
thoughts and are actualized otherwise, through the stimuli of
sound. How do you un-train the ear to sound? And if you un-train
the ear, do you also inevitably un-train the eye? Can you still
keep listening if there is no image? If the image was the place
and you have been removed, does the sound then become the
non-place? Unplaced, as in a longing for something that has been
taken. Something that has been torn down. Are there futures of
listenings? Futures that incorporate the things lost as well as
the persistence of the present?
Aleks is over there
laughter
in fact I
10 beers
that's how it's going to be
again
laughter
in fact I
10 beers
that's how it's going to be
again
I put the attention onto the risk of historical repetitions.
Events re-occurring. Lessons of collectivity not learned.
Unlearned consciousness of (not) being together. Or of being
together in hurt.
don't waste your breath now
Or should we persist in looping breath? Making an effort in sound.
Committing to give an ear to the crowd, to the activists, to a new
nomadic theatre:
"[..] speaking - long considered to be a fundamental act of human subjective communication - is, in fact, an act of pure auto - affection that is built on a set of differences. For Derrida, this auto-affection is a function of hearing oneself speak, becomes fundamental to any assertion of subject-hood".1 To be intimate with the body in the auto-affection of the voice, speaking to oneself, to the other, is a radical gesture of self care. Voicing out delivers us to subject-hood and implies at the same time, the re-appropriation of space as a political act of self-determination where, the voice within the body and the voice of the body operate in levels that are never detached.
1. Ming-Yuen S. Ma, There is no Soundtrack. Rethinking Art Media and the Audio Visual Contract, Manchester University Press, 2020
"[..] speaking - long considered to be a fundamental act of human subjective communication - is, in fact, an act of pure auto - affection that is built on a set of differences. For Derrida, this auto-affection is a function of hearing oneself speak, becomes fundamental to any assertion of subject-hood".1 To be intimate with the body in the auto-affection of the voice, speaking to oneself, to the other, is a radical gesture of self care. Voicing out delivers us to subject-hood and implies at the same time, the re-appropriation of space as a political act of self-determination where, the voice within the body and the voice of the body operate in levels that are never detached.
1. Ming-Yuen S. Ma, There is no Soundtrack. Rethinking Art Media and the Audio Visual Contract, Manchester University Press, 2020
He played with all the women,
exposed them all naked
exposed them all naked
ATA, (third person plural female pronoun) is an activist group of
Kamza founded by three women. They raise their voices, they gather
voices, mostly of younger generations of the marginalized
periphery, by dissenting and calling out. They created an activist
theatre: the Theater of ATA. It is a nomadic theatre placed in the
auto-affection of listening to the self-determining voice. "I
here propose to consider these moments of dissent precisely as
moments of joyful insurrection. By being a killjoy you are
actually enacting and enabling the possibility of a form of joyful
insurrection to emerge."2
2. Zarranz Libe Garcia, Joyful Insurrection as Feminist Metodology or the Joys of being a Femminist Killjoy, in: 452oF # 14, University of Manitoba
2. Zarranz Libe Garcia, Joyful Insurrection as Feminist Metodology or the Joys of being a Femminist Killjoy, in: 452oF # 14, University of Manitoba
birds singing
the peoples party,
the peoples party
we were wrong
the peoples party,
the peoples party
we were wrong
Which voice is right? Which voices have the right? Should the
voice be plural? If plural then how are they to intertwine?
Overlapping, overhearing.
Giving space to the ecstasy of crying out is more than a scream.
Giving space to the ecstasy of crying out is more than a scream.
and this is true democracy,
true democracy is when you face
the people and tell them the truth,
like I am here unafraid to talk to you,
thank you very much!
cheering people
clapping
true democracy is when you face
the people and tell them the truth,
like I am here unafraid to talk to you,
thank you very much!
cheering people
clapping
Isolated sounds in electronic compositions, samples of a new way
of rediscovering noise. The ruptures of sound. Narratives of sound
collages. Fragmentation and unification. Patched realities of
noise, cheering(s), ruins, angered cry outs. Signification!
apparently the ground surface now officially belonging to the
municipality is 8822 square meters. So the city council has
reached the verdict of destroying a public property that never was
under its jurisdiction and for this it will be held accountable
and the mayor should resign and not hide behind political forces
bravo!
bravo!
"At the beginning of the 20th century, many groups
and collectives in Russia identifying with the Futurist ideals,
explored the sound and the rhythm of words to achieve a radically
new experience of language. Their best known manifesto was
published in 1912 under the title 'Slap in the face of public
taste' "3
3. Aden Maike, Listen the world is sound in: Disonata. Art in Sound Up To 1980, Edition Museo Nacionl Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, 2020
3. Aden Maike, Listen the world is sound in: Disonata. Art in Sound Up To 1980, Edition Museo Nacionl Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, 2020
shame shame shame
go go go go
clapping
go go go go
clapping
What I attempted to create is sounding images. Visual sounds of
story-hearing.
today we need to find
deep within ourselves
a new way of rebuilding our dignity
our freedom
deep within ourselves
a new way of rebuilding our dignity
our freedom
My research for the present project followed the idea of
un-forming for which the form is relevant and functional in the
actualization of its opposite, that is, dismantling forms to
create a narrative that reveals the disruptures underlying any
infatuation concerning solidity. "Jean Dubuffet's dislike
towards organized knowledge and structures used the techniques of
manipulation as a weapon against the imperative of competence
which was nothing but unnecessary theoretical knowledge that
generates cascades of notes so that we can hear what we do not
feel"4 I was thus very careful in sampling and
remixing for the sake of balancing disconnections out,
disconnections that lead to new ways of restructuring our
perceptions in relations to political events, our own memory and
collective memory.
4. Aden Maike, Listen the world is sound in: Disonata. Art in Sound Up To 1980, Edition Museo Nacionl Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, 2020
4. Aden Maike, Listen the world is sound in: Disonata. Art in Sound Up To 1980, Edition Museo Nacionl Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, 2020
He found the right moment
Make us hear what we do not feel. Believe what we do not hear.
Feel the opposite of what was being asked for. We thought we were
asking for a way to be heared together? The present sound piece
relies heavily on the craving of being heard, personally and
collectively. The collective voice in the sound of protest is a
collectivity of painful admissions of what is actually wrong,
therefore also an admission of the will to heal and hence to love.
Albania to the Albanians
Death to the traitors
Albania to the Albanians
Death to the traitors
Death to the traitors
Albania to the Albanians
Death to the traitors
Where does noise and where does sound begin and end? Regular wave
structures and irregular wave structures overlapping. Pleasant and
unpleasant sensations of something being taken, appropriated. A
public gathering is an outcry for a public listening. The volume
is adjusted according to the repressive measures taken.
Hello, where are you?
Come, we are here, near the cloud
We have fought for freedom,
it has been 30 years
trying to understand
what freedom is
Come, we are here, near the cloud
We have fought for freedom,
it has been 30 years
trying to understand
what freedom is
Speculation, cutting up, dissecting, seminating and disseminating
knowledge through activist work. Grassroots levels of mobilizing
desires of expressions which are not allowed to be. ATA were not
supposed to speak. No cultural public buildings in Kamza made
accessible for the very youth of Kamza. How does one then
translate the notion of public without ever having known it
before? The public common as a forbidden (non) place of the
displaced. Words and sounds in scripts and gardens, side roads and
the backyard of a house yet to be finished. Spaces remain
unofficial and are conquered temporarily as a stage. The
placelessness is thus naturalized in continuous movement. The
space of cultural expression becomes in fact the research of the
space itself. Placelessness becomes the perpetual imperative to
(re)stage and claim the unheard voice.
the son of Kadri Hazbiu,
the son of Kadri Hazbiu
we are here,
tens of thousands of Albanians
the son of Kadri Hazbiu,
the son of Kadri Hazbiu
the son of Kadri Hazbiu
we are here,
tens of thousands of Albanians
the son of Kadri Hazbiu,
the son of Kadri Hazbiu
Is what a protester called from the top of his lungs during the
protests against the demolition of Tirana's National Theater. I
remained stuck hearing the statement and could not help but
isolating and resampling this visceral outcry. An intimate thought
linking the past of the dictatorship to the present of a „liberal“
government. Many interpretations can arise, but the anger of the
voice was very attractive to me in terms of colliding
temporalities of two distinctive forms of brutalities; the death
of Kadri Hazbiu's son and the brutal action of tearing down the
National Theater of Tirana, while activists were still inside the
building. Both moments are intertwined heavily with violence and
oppressive government secrecy. They both stand for an undemocratic
approach in politics. Kadri Hazbiu's trial recalled back an
unprocessed, deeply criminal political past of murder and
persecution, not only of the simple population of Albania but also
the cannibalistic political complotisim of a dictatorial
government. On the other hand, my generation, who strongly helped
elect the current government's leader in the ecstasy of a promise
for a new political left, was being beaten during the protests and
put into prison by the same leader they helped so vehemently
elect. Moreover, the current government has perpetually tried to
hide, as well as strongly oppose, the right to protest of the
Kamza activists of ATA supporting the ecological protests for the
preservation of the natural park of Zall Gjocaj. Generational
trauma and violence manifesting in a loop of overlapping realities
and histories. Collision. Collapse. Vanishing. Emerging. I decided
to describe the official version of the death of Kadri Hazbiu's
son, Agron Dautaj to reference precisely this feeling of
unprocessed forms of violence of the past and its lingerings in
the present.
The son of Kadri Hazbiu,
the son of Kadri Hazbiu,
after his father was arrested,
he was senteced to forced labor
in the mines of Kurbnesh
in the Albanian region of Mirdita.
He worked in the depth of the mine
to extract copper.
Every day he would steal
some of the explosive for himself,
after he managed to secure
a significant amount,
he covered himself with it
and blew himself in the air.
It was 1989
the son of Kadri Hazbiu,
after his father was arrested,
he was senteced to forced labor
in the mines of Kurbnesh
in the Albanian region of Mirdita.
He worked in the depth of the mine
to extract copper.
Every day he would steal
some of the explosive for himself,
after he managed to secure
a significant amount,
he covered himself with it
and blew himself in the air.
It was 1989
Kadri Hazbiu was the chief of the Directorate of State Security
(Sigurimi) Albania's secret police, and Deputy of Internal Affairs
Minister from 1950 to 1954. On 23 July 1954, he was the successor
to Mehmet Shehu (who became prime minister) as the Minister of
Internal Affairs until 26 April 1980. He was also chief supervisor
of the Secret Service, Sigurimi. On 15 October 1982, Hazbiu was
arrested and lost his membership in the People's Assembly and in
the Politburo. He was accused of Mehmet Shehu ́s death and of
comploting against Albanians supreme leader, Enver Hoxha, A part
from Hazbiu, numerous other Party and State figures were arrested
and convicted in 1983 in secret trials. Hazbiu was executed on 15
September 1983 near Tirana. His youngest son, Agron (born in
1959), became a title-winning footballer with Dinamo Tirana in
1980 under the name Agron Dautaj. His career ended in 1982 when
his father was arrested and Agron was interned in Kurbnesh with
the other family members. His death on 28 January 1989 in one of
the Kurbnesh mines was deemed as a suicide by the communist
rulers.
time is chemical weapons, unleashed
time is chemical weapons,
unleashed
time is chemical weapons,
unleashed
How can we look at time? Is it possible to make backward leaps
while moving forward? Circular movements headed forward, inward
and past-ward. What type of relation is created between
information, invocation and evocations of historical events
resulting in a composition of knowledge that is spinning because
of inward investigation inertia and yet orbiting around other
forms of knowledge and events? In queer methodology, Jack
Halberstam, describes knowledge production as a "scavenger
methodology that uses different methods to produce and collect
methodology. A queer methodology attempts to combine methods that
are often cast as being at odds with each other, and it refuses
the academic compulsion towards disciplinary coherence"
5
5. Jack Halberstam, Female Masculinity, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998 in: Stacey White, The writer as Scavenger: Queer interventions in teaching and wrting, Radical Cut Up: Nothing is Original, E.by Feireiss Lukas, Sandberg Institute Amsterdam
5. Jack Halberstam, Female Masculinity, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998 in: Stacey White, The writer as Scavenger: Queer interventions in teaching and wrting, Radical Cut Up: Nothing is Original, E.by Feireiss Lukas, Sandberg Institute Amsterdam
crazy?
No I don't accept that,
I am not crazy
This act of aggression was
to derail the peace process
No I don't accept that,
I am not crazy
This act of aggression was
to derail the peace process
"Remix is made possible by a state of meta, which in turn, is
the process, by which the question of the beginning of anything is
displaced in order to develop ongoing signification." Euardo
Navas elaborates in his research about remix and sampling on a
diagram model framing the tautological process of meaning
creation. In appropriating the sample song Neurotoxin from Pariah,
I rely on its interaction with the sound footage of the activist
Theater of ATA and the protests for the National Theater, thus
initiating a process of ongoing signification and friction between
different voices and forms of sound.6
6. Navas Eduardo, Re-visioning the element of selectivity.Transformaton and Originality after Remix, in Radical Cut-Up, nothing is original
6. Navas Eduardo, Re-visioning the element of selectivity.Transformaton and Originality after Remix, in Radical Cut-Up, nothing is original
ok I will be crazy then,
Yes Mr Director,
I will pretend to be crazy,
are you pleased now?
Very well
long live
liberty
Yes Mr Director,
I will pretend to be crazy,
are you pleased now?
Very well
long live
liberty
If we are to know the past, the present and the future of
ourselves, in what is only the now of collective trauma and
violence then, we will have to mash it up, to dissect, to
un-compose and recompose, to use words and sound as weapons
against a linear projection of time. The activist Theater of ATA
move through public spaces creating intimacies of soulful
investigations. It is their living rooms taken to the streets. The
protesters of the National Theater took an inner anger to the
streets. Protesting is all about making the outside as much
aligned to the emotional turmoil unfolding in the living room of
your own gutter. It is essentially about types of homely spiritual
intimacies domesticating the public space with feelings. "And
I want to argue that writers must all commit to learning to
disrupt, to read differently, to ask more of texts, to ask more of
the world than linear, normative functions allow."
7
Voices, sounds, ruptures accumulate in the psyche, in the soul, in the visceral. They are repressed, requestioned, they seemingly disappear, return vehemently in anger and in doubt. The personal body and the collective body are made to be separated. But the meanings they inter-wave with the environment, be this natural or urban, remain un-resolutely inextricable. Being heard, sharing voices, is the outmost form of intimacy and act of self love. If we dissent and share feelings in the public space, it is the public space being domesticized by the personal body. The public space is the gutter, the living room and finally the body is united in its surface, interiors and openings.
7. Stacey White, The writer as Scavenger: Queer interventions in teaching and wrting, Radical Cut Up: Nothing is Original, E.by Feireiss Lukas, Sandberg Institute Amsterdam
Voices, sounds, ruptures accumulate in the psyche, in the soul, in the visceral. They are repressed, requestioned, they seemingly disappear, return vehemently in anger and in doubt. The personal body and the collective body are made to be separated. But the meanings they inter-wave with the environment, be this natural or urban, remain un-resolutely inextricable. Being heard, sharing voices, is the outmost form of intimacy and act of self love. If we dissent and share feelings in the public space, it is the public space being domesticized by the personal body. The public space is the gutter, the living room and finally the body is united in its surface, interiors and openings.
7. Stacey White, The writer as Scavenger: Queer interventions in teaching and wrting, Radical Cut Up: Nothing is Original, E.by Feireiss Lukas, Sandberg Institute Amsterdam
We will clean this river here,
we will make it like a pool to swim in,
why not?
with a trampoline, why not?
because this young man here
asked for it
They will also built a trampoline,
we will have a great time,
we will have a great time,
we will jump with our heads on
time is chemical weapons
unleashed
we will make it like a pool to swim in,
why not?
with a trampoline, why not?
because this young man here
asked for it
They will also built a trampoline,
we will have a great time,
we will have a great time,
we will jump with our heads on
time is chemical weapons
unleashed
I have heard about it
I have heard about it
(Collapsed in words)
(Collapsed in words)
x
I have heard about it Aleks is over there
laughter
in fact I
10 beers
that's how it's going to be
again
He played with all the women, exposed them all naked. birds singing
the peoples party, the peoples party
we were wrong
and this is true democracy, true democracy is when you face the people and tell them the truth, like I am here unafraid to talk to you, thank you very much!
cheering
people clapping
and the mayor should resign and not hide behind political forces bravo
shame shame shame go go go go clapping
today we need to find deep within ourselves a new way of rebuilding our dignity our freedom.
He found the right moment
Albania to the Albanians Death to the traitors Albania to the Albanians Death to the traitors
Hello, where are you?
Come we are here, near the cloud
That animal tore it down
sure of course
shame shame shame shame shame shame shame no to the dictatorship
oh you violators of children
where have you left us
why your rage against our children?
Free the activists, free the activists
We have fought for freedom, it has been 30 years trying to understand what freedom is
the son of Kadri Hazbiu, the son of Kadri Hazbiu we are here, tens of thousands of Albanians, the son of Kadri Hazbiu, the son of Kadri Hazbiu time is chemical weapons unleashed, time is chemical weapons unleashed,
crazy?
No I don't accept that, I am not crazy
This act of aggression was to derail the peace process,
ok I will be crazy then,
Yes mr Director, I will pretend to be crazy, are you pleased now? Very well
long live liberty
We will clean this river here we will make it like a pool to swim in, why not? with a trampoline, why not? because this young man here asked for it
They will also built a trampoline, we will have a great time we will have a great time, we will jump with our heads on
woman laughing
time is chemical weapons unleashed
laughter
in fact I
10 beers
that's how it's going to be
again
He played with all the women, exposed them all naked. birds singing
the peoples party, the peoples party
we were wrong
and this is true democracy, true democracy is when you face the people and tell them the truth, like I am here unafraid to talk to you, thank you very much!
cheering
people clapping
and the mayor should resign and not hide behind political forces bravo
shame shame shame go go go go clapping
today we need to find deep within ourselves a new way of rebuilding our dignity our freedom.
He found the right moment
Albania to the Albanians Death to the traitors Albania to the Albanians Death to the traitors
Hello, where are you?
Come we are here, near the cloud
That animal tore it down
sure of course
shame shame shame shame shame shame shame no to the dictatorship
oh you violators of children
where have you left us
why your rage against our children?
Free the activists, free the activists
We have fought for freedom, it has been 30 years trying to understand what freedom is
the son of Kadri Hazbiu, the son of Kadri Hazbiu we are here, tens of thousands of Albanians, the son of Kadri Hazbiu, the son of Kadri Hazbiu time is chemical weapons unleashed, time is chemical weapons unleashed,
crazy?
No I don't accept that, I am not crazy
This act of aggression was to derail the peace process,
ok I will be crazy then,
Yes mr Director, I will pretend to be crazy, are you pleased now? Very well
long live liberty
We will clean this river here we will make it like a pool to swim in, why not? with a trampoline, why not? because this young man here asked for it
They will also built a trampoline, we will have a great time we will have a great time, we will jump with our heads on
woman laughing
time is chemical weapons unleashed
Still_01
Still_01
x
Red coffin
Still_02
Still_02
x
Head in white scarf
Still_03
Still_03
x
Pink escape
Kafe e Dynja coffee and the world
I Tell 'em It's for My Soul!
I Tell 'em It's for My Soul!
Words
Words
Kafe e Dynja coffee and the world
I Tell 'em It's for My Soul!
Kafe e Dynja coffee and the world
I Tell 'em It's for My Soul!
x
Tijana Cvetkovic / Vahida Ramujkić (minipogon)
12'48"
records a day in the neighbourhood of Kamendin and life contained within it, as it encounters the microphone and the ear who is listening. Structured as a documentary without images, it gives voice to its inhabitants and the spaces they dwell in their entirety. Composed mainly of refugees and Romani families, it finds itself in the conditions of a segregated settlement on the outskirts of Belgrade, Serbia. The poorest and most vulnerable category of people live in it and who are structurally made inaudible all year long. While during the pandemic an image of equally exceptional precarity was created as given birth from a global virus,— with home portrayed and considered to be the refuge to keep bodies safe, —in Kamendin little did change. Risk is a constant given for 24/7 in the life of these inhabitants, within and out of their dwellings. In fact home itself has served as an apparatus to contain and control bodies and life within it.
*kafe e dynja is the title of an Albanian song which is played by one of the residents during the field recording
12'48"
records a day in the neighbourhood of Kamendin and life contained within it, as it encounters the microphone and the ear who is listening. Structured as a documentary without images, it gives voice to its inhabitants and the spaces they dwell in their entirety. Composed mainly of refugees and Romani families, it finds itself in the conditions of a segregated settlement on the outskirts of Belgrade, Serbia. The poorest and most vulnerable category of people live in it and who are structurally made inaudible all year long. While during the pandemic an image of equally exceptional precarity was created as given birth from a global virus,— with home portrayed and considered to be the refuge to keep bodies safe, —in Kamendin little did change. Risk is a constant given for 24/7 in the life of these inhabitants, within and out of their dwellings. In fact home itself has served as an apparatus to contain and control bodies and life within it.
*kafe e dynja is the title of an Albanian song which is played by one of the residents during the field recording
Stay safe at Home, for Whom?
Stay safe at Home, for Whom?
Kamedin sheltered in debt
Kamedin sheltered in debt
x
Kamedin, a segregated settlement on the outskirts of the city of
Belgrade, hosts 80% of social housing of the city and more than 600
residents. The condition for acquiring an apartment was based on the
income of families. After the settlement, these families were faced
with the fact that the monthly overhead costs are approximately 200
euros, in addition to the rent and tax costs for a social apartment.
Controversially the residents are paying for an apartment that is
not owned by them. The majority of them live in extremely low
pensions or social assistance, confronted with the choice between
paying bills and making ends meet. This situation has put the
residents on the verge of survival pressured by accumulated debts,
followed by enforcement proceedings that have caused many families
to be without electricity for months and face risk of forced
eviction from the city of Belgrade, increasing the danger of ending
up in the streets. The mechanism of social assistance and subsidy
acquiring are based on the condition of regular payment of bills,
thus increasing the risk to loose subsidies. Among the residents,
there are some of them that are even more precarious such as the
Roma community, more specifically women of this community. Most of
them are engaged with informal work such as collecting and selling
scarp material or working in junkyards, or even when they are
formally employed, usually it is the case with jobs that are not
preferred by others, such as garbage disposal.
the sky is so beautiful, full of stars!
the sky is so beautiful, full of stars!
x
Kamedin Dynamics: A Schematic Depiction of Class Struggle in
Kamendin, 2016 Drawing by Vahida Ramujkić, produced for a project
with Nebojša Milikić & Tadej Kurepa;
it is better for us to fight against the poor than they are
against ours
It's better to nail them, for where they are than here, you
know...(the pool factor)
the sky is so beautiful, full of stars!
EU Politician
we are the comprador elite. we serve to transmit pressure
messages from the eu mmf reads the ears of the ecb to those we
manage
the basic message is: to join 99% of the social must fall into
the hands of the 1% of the richest
that is why we have the task of increasing the number of the
poor in society, because that way, the workers are more
disciplined
they are afraid of falling into complete poverty, they are
happier to see that there is someone upstairs
all this together is politically correct called 'eu
integration', 'economic recovery', ' private
garden', etc.
aaah let me go, I'll fall
republican and city politicians
Roma outside!
they do not have a culture of living they need to be provided
with courses
we are happy that we do not belong to the poor, we do our job!
we mimic what our bosses dictate, and the goal of our boss is to
add in those 1% except that by encouraging racism and
chauvinism, one can always boast
ah, you trampled me !! we are old Roma or we have never seen
such uncultured Roma
We are Serb brothers
a common storage space should be created so that things are not
taken out of containers into buildings
partial human rights and partial justice
it's not funny to leave laundry on the table! The last building
inhabited is being stolen a lot!
city services, NGOs, better suited apartment users new mari
racisic mood tenants
They told us that the apartment costs 2-3000 per month, and it
turned out to be 10-20000, especially in winter!
why do they get housing stock and not us who have been living
for years
they don't know how to behave. and I would protest against
them
they beat children and pay nothing!
we don't have to pay! 9 months are received socially and the
rent is paid 12
we haven't had electricity for months and the bills have been
several thousand
how come you pay for a Kamendin station like in an apartment in
the city center?
there we stopped paying since then just piled up debt
how can my child go to school when they don't understand
anything there, they often tease and harass him?
there are rich people here who got social housing, drive
expensive cars, 2-3 salaries in the house...
poor black poor social veterans disabled
00:00:00 --> 00:00:07
00:00:00 --> 00:00:07
entrance
entrance
x
Here's your cup and thank you for the coffee.
Your welcome...I have to help these people, I might need them
sometime!
00:00:24 --> 00:00:30
00:00:24 --> 00:00:30
entrance
entrance
x
.jpg)
Just foreigners here.
No, they are not foreigners.
We are not, we are not foreigners, we are from here...
00:00:51 --> 00:00:57
00:00:51 --> 00:00:57
entrance
entrance
x
Do you want to come to my place?
Good, she will explain everything to you...
Good, she will explain everything to you... Let's go, is it ok?
Yes of course!
00:01:37--> 00:02:20
00:01:37--> 00:02:20
Cveta home
Cveta home
x
.jpg)
My name is Cveta and my last name is Stanković, I am married to an
Albanian, he is Ademi...we got married and we have five children.
(Cveta speaks in Albanian) my name is Cveta Ademi...after her stay in Belgium and Germany she returns to Serbia and becomes beneficiary of welfare... she then comes to Kamendin and describes how she lives there...
(Cveta speaks in Albanian) my name is Cveta Ademi...after her stay in Belgium and Germany she returns to Serbia and becomes beneficiary of welfare... she then comes to Kamendin and describes how she lives there...
00:02:39 --> 00:02:41
00:02:39 --> 00:02:41
entrance
entrance
x
Swearing in Romani...
00:02:41 --> 00:02:49
00:02:41 --> 00:02:49
Cveta home
Cveta home
x
.jpg)
Every time you bring some people home, you should know who those
people are...are you Serbs, Albanians?
00:03:16 --> 00:03:31
00:03:16 --> 00:03:31
entrance
entrance
x
.jpg)
Only dealers and shaners around me...(kids are singing the
previous song)
I was born here...grandpa, grandma...
But then how are you from Albania?
...mother, father...
They were all born here?
No there, Tirana...I was in Stuttgart, Mannheim, Castrop...there,
I was in Munster...
00:04:20 --> 00:05:36
00:04:20 --> 00:05:36
parking
parking
x
.jpg)
Look how the children are cleaning! Children work here?
Children don't do nothing here, look what mess it is! Hey!...so,
where are you?
Good afternoon! What do you have here for free?
Do you speak Albanian?
What?
Shiptar, Albanian?.
No!
And what about your college?
...I am a from Blacksmith Tsigani line, and Blacksmith Tsigani do not speak Tsigani language, they only speak Serbian and we used to have servants...
...I am a from Blacksmith Tsigani line, and Blacksmith Tsigani do not speak Tsigani language, they only speak Serbian and we used to have servants...
Don't pretend...you have Blacksmith Tsigani, you have Wanderers,
you have Mechkare (those with bears), you have Ashkali...there are
many kinds...
...Vlach Tsigani...there are as many as you want...and we are all
Tsigani, but he grew up in...
But different Tsigani ...
But different Tsigani ...
...in Romania, he grew up among the Shiptars, I grew up among the
Serbs, do you understand?
You're a nice Tsigani and this one is a bad Tsigani?
You're a nice Tsigani and this one is a bad Tsigani?
Not that, but there are a hundred billion of us here...
There are no real Shiptars here, there are no real Romanians
here...I tell you that there are no real Tsigani here... so, I
grew up where the Serbs live and I speak Serbian purely
dialectal... this one grew up where Romanians are and he speaks
Romanian...this one where the Shiptars are and is speaking
Shiptar.
00:07:23 --> 00:08:29
00:07:23 --> 00:08:29
Fekrija home
Fekrija home
x
.jpg)
First I studied for a hairdresser...no…for a pedicure,
manicure…and then I literally worked for the Chinese, then in a
bar...I am not receiving social welfare, I am not receiving child
benefit...I only get 7000 (60 eur) per month, what can I do with
7000?
7000 for three children?
What can I do with 7000...this child wants milk, this child wants
Pampers, this one wants something to eat and drink, literally I
need to get everything...that's why I'm telling you I've been
through a lot... we are women, and we need to think about
everything, honestly, since my husband is in there I am breaking
my head...she knows...she and I help each other, when I have
nothing she gives me, when she has nothing I give to
her...literally...I didn't have milk for the child the other
day...I went out of milk at three o'clock in the morning, and she
was there for me...
00:08:29 --> 00:09:44
00:08:29 --> 00:09:44
Cveta home
Cveta home
x
.jpg)
When he came from social service, he said you can't live like
this, he said go chasing for papers and you will get an
apartment...well...I said ok if I am going to get an apartment,
but I don't have...I can't pay 4 thousand...and now on every bill
it is written 3 thousand and something extra to pay for the
utilities, we paid 4, 5 thousand for a couple of months...after a
year 10 thousand, then 12, then 15, then 19 thousand...I stopped
paying, not only me…but we all in the neighborhood stopped paying.
Let's say if I had a job and I have 100 thousand, I would set
aside 25 thousand, why not, let's say now, with this 39 thousand
in a month I need to eat something, and I smoke…he smokes and I
smoke, and now I have 5 thousand with this grandfather, how much
do we owe him 6 thousand?
No, 2...
... the last time…
I have to borrow and...as soon as you get the money, you have to
give it to this one, give it to that one, in the end you don't
even have 10 thousand left...and I have the electricity bill from
last month 15 thousand.
00:09:44 --> 00:10:03
00:09:44 --> 00:10:03
Fekrija home
Fekrija home
x
When we don't have cigarettes, we smoke this, when we have
cigarettes we are smoking cigarettes... should I buy cigarettes or
should I buy something for my kids?...and when I'm think
it's much better to buy tobacco, what should I do?...I
cough...in the morning when I get up I'm suffocating...Fekrija
Beba Jakupi.
00:10:26 --> 00:10:46
00:10:26 --> 00:10:46
Cveta home
Cveta home
x
When I went to Kosovo... mine are from Kosovo... when I got married,
let's go to see the family... his father sets hot peppers on
the table, I didn't like to eat spicy... and he puts everything
in front of me, everything he cooked, everything is spicy... I say
what is this, this is all spicy, shut up daughter-in-law and eat...
00:10:46 --> 00:11:01
00:10:46 --> 00:11:01
Fekrija home
Fekrija home
x
His sister said to me if I want to get married, I ask whit whom? And
she points to her brother and I say yes I will... and what he could
have done, he marries me... literally our destiny was completely
upside down...
00:11:01 --> 00:12:42
00:11:01 --> 00:12:42
Cveta home
Cveta home
x
.jpg)
We had three children here in Serbia, our first, second and third
we had here, and the fourth and fifth we had in Bosnia…Bosnians...
One man who is silent beware of him, and one who barks a lot, from
him...there is nothing there...the earth is…what?
The earth is... no... the sky is high and the earth is hard... do
you say it like that, does it exist, that saying?... the sky is
high and the earth is hard...
He is repeating that saying in Albanian... utters a prayer from
the Qur'an...
Where did he go?
To see Angie... you know what, when somebody here quarrels I turn
on this music loud, they ask me why are you playing this?... and I
say it is for my soul...
song Sefë Duraj - Kafe e dynja.
Note
Note
x
The translation of the transcript is as close to that of the
original spoken language of the recordings,(not much of the
intimidation of a perfect English affected its version), maintaining
a 'brokenness' we believe honors truth to the diverse
versions of languages spoken by the people encountered, among them
and with us.
We have tried to hold as much truth as possible to the dialogues recorded.
Among these dialogues we want to specify that the term Tsigani is being uttered by a member of the Roma community of Serbia.
We have tried to hold as much truth as possible to the dialogues recorded.
Among these dialogues we want to specify that the term Tsigani is being uttered by a member of the Roma community of Serbia.
About The Project
about The project
x
In opposition to the current collapse of a homogenous imagery by a
fixed gaze, we ask for a possible conversion from excessive looking
towards listening, using the aural as a form of inquiry. This
collaborative project started during a lockdown that was relatively
synchronized around the world, including our own different
locations; Tirana- Kamza- Rotterdam- Belgrade- Berlin
-L'Aquila. It looked for the possibility of a sonic remapping
of this moment of worlding which questions and examines power
through sound and articulates the invisible, from the body to the
scale of the environment, and the bits of matter, energy and force
dwelled with and within.
Each work focuses on what by looking has been collapsed into a state that disables a present possibility, what is and remains unseen but which is entangled with what is visible and which stands inaudible. This aural landscape addresses partly the personal and intimate, while elsewhere take more of a distant and forensic approach. At large the collective work articulates a geography of sound as a geography in favour of what is rendered invisible.
*
Initiated, produced and curated by millonaliu
(Klodiana Millona w/ Yuan Chun Liu)
Works by Diana Malaj supported by ATA, Endi Tupja, minipogon (Tijana Cvetkovic w/ Vahida Ramujkic), Giulia Francavilla, Klodiana Millona, Yuan Chun Liu
Mastering
Giulia Francavilla
Digital Space Development
Yuan Chun Liu
Technical Support
Heidi Mao
Digital Space Design
Yuan Chun Liu w/ Klodiana Millona
Cassette Manufacturing
Headless Duplicated Tapes
Supported by
Each work focuses on what by looking has been collapsed into a state that disables a present possibility, what is and remains unseen but which is entangled with what is visible and which stands inaudible. This aural landscape addresses partly the personal and intimate, while elsewhere take more of a distant and forensic approach. At large the collective work articulates a geography of sound as a geography in favour of what is rendered invisible.
*
Initiated, produced and curated by millonaliu
(Klodiana Millona w/ Yuan Chun Liu)
Works by Diana Malaj supported by ATA, Endi Tupja, minipogon (Tijana Cvetkovic w/ Vahida Ramujkic), Giulia Francavilla, Klodiana Millona, Yuan Chun Liu
Mastering
Giulia Francavilla
Digital Space Development
Yuan Chun Liu
Technical Support
Heidi Mao
Digital Space Design
Yuan Chun Liu w/ Klodiana Millona
Cassette Manufacturing
Headless Duplicated Tapes
Supported by
these soundworks
are meant for the ear
for better listening
please use headphones
are meant for the ear
for better listening
please use headphones
ears
x
millonaliu
(Klodiana Millona w/ Yuan Chun Liu) is a duo of spatial
practitioners, based in Rotterdam, working at the intersection of
architecture, research and image making, focusing on the politics of
inivisibility in space and invisibilized spatial practices in
dominant narratives of the built environment and entangled readings
of socio political imaginaries mediated by spatial
representation.
website
Diana Malaj is one of the founders of the activist group ATA whose priority is the fight for the use of cultural spaces in the city of Kamza, Albania. Diana is a lawyer and an activist focusing on social justice, and the right of accessibility to culture in the periphery, with a specific focus on the role of women in activism, art and literature. Through activism with the ATA group, she has been able to explore various disciplines such as law, journalism, anthropology, art, literature, all of which are ways of re-conceiving the dimension of social movements and activism.
Endi Tupja is an artist, filmmaker/storyteller and cultural practitioner based between Berlin and Tirana. Her research is centered in experimenting with strategies of memory recuperation and the potential of re-enactment with time witnesses. She explores the limits of (self) representation as well as its tangential relation to video art. There is a friction between the essential and a sense of exaggeration omnipresent in her search for clarity. She continuously tries to challenge a certain idea of established institutional formality in artistic research and academic language. Her work has been shown in festivals and exhibitions in Germany, Kosovo, Mexico, UK, the Netherlands, Georgia, Ukraine, Italy, San Marino, Greece etc.
website
Minipogon (Tijana Cvetkovic w/ Vahida Ramujkic) is a collective consisting of artists, activists and scientists based in Belgrade, working on a project that implies intervention in the field of work (in culture), its deconstruction and a new creation within the marginal and discarded. Through their practice they explore alternative methods of production, cooperative relationships, self-management and develop the concept of equity with an economic foothold.They are trying to create a field for the production of new values, but also to create a place where the politicization of production relations will be practically feasible and possible, in order to create material conditions for social equity.
website
Giulia Francavilla is a composer, sound designer and performer, currently based in Italy. Her practice is centred around the immersive aspects of sound and listening, which she mediates by the usage of algorithmic composition. She approaches sound as a plastic and malleable matter, revealed in the form of wide artificial soundscapes. She is also identified by her solo project named Rae.
soundcloud
website
Diana Malaj is one of the founders of the activist group ATA whose priority is the fight for the use of cultural spaces in the city of Kamza, Albania. Diana is a lawyer and an activist focusing on social justice, and the right of accessibility to culture in the periphery, with a specific focus on the role of women in activism, art and literature. Through activism with the ATA group, she has been able to explore various disciplines such as law, journalism, anthropology, art, literature, all of which are ways of re-conceiving the dimension of social movements and activism.
Endi Tupja is an artist, filmmaker/storyteller and cultural practitioner based between Berlin and Tirana. Her research is centered in experimenting with strategies of memory recuperation and the potential of re-enactment with time witnesses. She explores the limits of (self) representation as well as its tangential relation to video art. There is a friction between the essential and a sense of exaggeration omnipresent in her search for clarity. She continuously tries to challenge a certain idea of established institutional formality in artistic research and academic language. Her work has been shown in festivals and exhibitions in Germany, Kosovo, Mexico, UK, the Netherlands, Georgia, Ukraine, Italy, San Marino, Greece etc.
website
Minipogon (Tijana Cvetkovic w/ Vahida Ramujkic) is a collective consisting of artists, activists and scientists based in Belgrade, working on a project that implies intervention in the field of work (in culture), its deconstruction and a new creation within the marginal and discarded. Through their practice they explore alternative methods of production, cooperative relationships, self-management and develop the concept of equity with an economic foothold.They are trying to create a field for the production of new values, but also to create a place where the politicization of production relations will be practically feasible and possible, in order to create material conditions for social equity.
website
Giulia Francavilla is a composer, sound designer and performer, currently based in Italy. Her practice is centred around the immersive aspects of sound and listening, which she mediates by the usage of algorithmic composition. She approaches sound as a plastic and malleable matter, revealed in the form of wide artificial soundscapes. She is also identified by her solo project named Rae.
soundcloud
credits
x
Doorkeepers, Timekeepers
- millonaliu (Klodiana Millona w/ Yuan Chun Liu)
Soundscape:
Yuan Chun Liu, live recording, phone call with * , between the period of 2020-2021
Visuals:
All visuals are a courtesy of Yuan Chun Liu and Klodiana Millona
*
Who bowed the head? - Diana Malaj w/ ATA
Soundscape:
The judge voice: taken from the Administrative Court of Tirana, the last session, 25th of January 2021.
The voice of the Jugde: Bezart Kaçkini. The material was facilitated by the lawyer of the case, Dorina Asllani Ndreka.
Diana Malaj, live recording of The women's voice, recorded in Mat, Burrel 2020
Ronald Qema, live recording of The protester's voices, recorded in Mat, Burrel 2020
Ronald Qema, live recording of Sali Koleci's voice, recorded in Tirana, 2021
Diana Malaj, live recording of Adem Xhokola's voice: recorded in the National Park of Zall-Gjoçaj, 2021
Lorin Terezi, recording of other voices taken from the video - documentary "Voices from the river" directed by Lorin Terezi 2020
Visuals:
Photos from National Park of Zall-Gjoçaj by Ronald Qema
Map prepared by Aurora Leka'
People:
The persons who helped in realizing the materials and during the production process: Aurora Leka, Pavjo Gjini, Giulia Francavilla, Klodiana Millona
*
Time is chemical weapon, unleashed - Endi Tupja
Soundscape
Endi Tupja, live recordings of the protest about the National Theater of Tirana, 17th May 2020
Endi Tupja, live recordings of the protest about the National Theater of Tirana, 18th May 2020
Endi Tupja, live recordings of the theater-performance of ATA in collaboration with director Anila Balla for "Vidh nje cike me pak" (Steal a littte less), Frutikulture, Kamza, 2020
Song sample: Neurotoxin by Paraiah in Free Music Archive
Visuals:
All visuals are a courtesy of Endi Tupja
*
Kafe e dynja I tell 'em its for my soul - Tijana Cvetkovic w/ Vahida Ramujkic
Soundscape:
Tijana Cvetkovic w/ Vahida Ramujkic, live recording of inhabitants voices, in Kamendin neighbourhood, Belgrade, October 2021
Song played in the background from one of the residents is Kafe e Dynja - Sefë Duraj
Visuals:
Vahida Ramujkić, drawing 'Kamedin Dynamics: A Schematic Depiction of Class Struggle in Kamendin'; part of a project by Nebojša Milikić & Tadej Kurepa
All visuals are a courtesy of Tijana Cvetkovic and Vahida Ramujkic unless stated otherwise
*
Crossways - Giulia Francavilla
Soundscape:
Giulia Francavilla, field recording, Wind-Seeking Woods, L'Aquila,in the woods, August, 2021
Giulia Francavilla, field recording, Crickets - Countryside, Lubna, Czech Republic, in the period of July-August, 2021
Giulia Francavilla, field recording, Drops - Inner Scope, L'Aquila, in the city, August, 2021
Visuals:
All visuals are a courtesy of Giulia Francavilla
Soundscape:
Yuan Chun Liu, live recording, phone call with * , between the period of 2020-2021
Visuals:
All visuals are a courtesy of Yuan Chun Liu and Klodiana Millona
*
Who bowed the head? - Diana Malaj w/ ATA
Soundscape:
The judge voice: taken from the Administrative Court of Tirana, the last session, 25th of January 2021.
The voice of the Jugde: Bezart Kaçkini. The material was facilitated by the lawyer of the case, Dorina Asllani Ndreka.
Diana Malaj, live recording of The women's voice, recorded in Mat, Burrel 2020
Ronald Qema, live recording of The protester's voices, recorded in Mat, Burrel 2020
Ronald Qema, live recording of Sali Koleci's voice, recorded in Tirana, 2021
Diana Malaj, live recording of Adem Xhokola's voice: recorded in the National Park of Zall-Gjoçaj, 2021
Lorin Terezi, recording of other voices taken from the video - documentary "Voices from the river" directed by Lorin Terezi 2020
Visuals:
Photos from National Park of Zall-Gjoçaj by Ronald Qema
Map prepared by Aurora Leka'
People:
The persons who helped in realizing the materials and during the production process: Aurora Leka, Pavjo Gjini, Giulia Francavilla, Klodiana Millona
*
Time is chemical weapon, unleashed - Endi Tupja
Soundscape
Endi Tupja, live recordings of the protest about the National Theater of Tirana, 17th May 2020
Endi Tupja, live recordings of the protest about the National Theater of Tirana, 18th May 2020
Endi Tupja, live recordings of the theater-performance of ATA in collaboration with director Anila Balla for "Vidh nje cike me pak" (Steal a littte less), Frutikulture, Kamza, 2020
Song sample: Neurotoxin by Paraiah in Free Music Archive
Visuals:
All visuals are a courtesy of Endi Tupja
*
Kafe e dynja I tell 'em its for my soul - Tijana Cvetkovic w/ Vahida Ramujkic
Soundscape:
Tijana Cvetkovic w/ Vahida Ramujkic, live recording of inhabitants voices, in Kamendin neighbourhood, Belgrade, October 2021
Song played in the background from one of the residents is Kafe e Dynja - Sefë Duraj
Visuals:
Vahida Ramujkić, drawing 'Kamedin Dynamics: A Schematic Depiction of Class Struggle in Kamendin'; part of a project by Nebojša Milikić & Tadej Kurepa
All visuals are a courtesy of Tijana Cvetkovic and Vahida Ramujkic unless stated otherwise
*
Crossways - Giulia Francavilla
Soundscape:
Giulia Francavilla, field recording, Wind-Seeking Woods, L'Aquila,in the woods, August, 2021
Giulia Francavilla, field recording, Crickets - Countryside, Lubna, Czech Republic, in the period of July-August, 2021
Giulia Francavilla, field recording, Drops - Inner Scope, L'Aquila, in the city, August, 2021
Visuals:
All visuals are a courtesy of Giulia Francavilla
readings
x
A collective of readings (some lost along the way among text
messages shared late at night, links in zoom calls or pictures
shared of book pages) consulted, discussed and influential to the
works produced
Ming-Yuen S. Ma, There is no Soundtrack. Rethinking Art Media and the Audio Visual Contract, Manchester University Press, 2020
Zarranz Libe Garcia, Joyful Insurrection as Feminist Metodology or the Joys of being a Femminist Killjoy, in: 452ºF # 14, University of Manitoba
Aden Maike, Listen the world is sound in: Disonata. Art in Sound Up To 1980, Edition Museo Nacionl Centro de Arte · Reina Sofia, 2020
Jack Halberstam, Female Masculinity, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998 in: Stacey White, The writer as Scavenger: Queer interventions in teaching and wrting, Radical Cut Up: Nothing is Original, E.by Feireiss Lukas, Sandberg Institute Amsterdam
Navas Eduardo, Re-visioning the element of selectivity.Transformaton and Originality after Remix, in Radical Cut-Up, nothing is original
Stacey White, The writer as Scavenger: Queer interventions in teaching and wrting, Radical Cut Up: Nothing is Original, E.by Feireiss Lukas, Sandberg Institute Amsterdam
Bardhoshi, Nebi. “The “Citizen” and the “Transformation” Period in Albania: The case of Tirana's Periphery”, Citizenship and the Legitimacy of Governance. Anthropology in the Mediterranean Region, edited by Italo Pardo and Giuliana B. Prato, University of Kent, UK, Routledge, 2016.
On Their Theatre
Community based theatre performances in different areas of Kamza
https://kosovotwopointzero.com/en/the-story-of-their-theater/
Dolar, Mladen. "A Voice and Nothing More", Short Circuit Series, edited by Slavoj Zizek, MIT press, 2006.
Francavilla, Giulia. Immersive sound / Immersive listening .Perception, consciousness, algorithmic composition. Master Thesis, Institute of Sonology The Hague, May 2021
Bierbach, J. B. Frontiers of Equality in the development of EU and US citizenship, 2015
Yeshion, Ted. Ph.D. Thesis, Anthropometry:The first system of identification taken from The Forensic Teacher Magazine 2014 (revisited in 2021)
Keshavarz, Mahmoud. Design-Politics. An Inquiry into Passports, Camps and Borders, 2016.
Mak,Geertje., Bultman, Saskia. Identity in Forms: Paper Technologies in Dutch Anthropometric Practices Around 1900
Archive of consulted texts visibilizing a chronology of the long fight for Zall Gjocaj National Park Courtesy of the activists group ATA (only in Albanian):
https://nyje.al/liria-nuk-merr-leje/
https://nyje.al/re-gure-uje-interviste-me-antropologun-nebi-bardhoshi/
https://nyje.al/shfuqizohet-vendimi-per-licencen-e-prodhimit-te-energjise-ne-hec-et-mbi-lumin-flim/
https://nyje.al/proteste-ne-mat-kunder-hec-eve-seke-e-zais-rezistenca-per-jeten-vazhdon/
https://nyje.al/protesta-e-zall-gjocaj-hec-et-kapak-varri-per-zonen-tone/
https://nyje.al/kryepleqte-e-zall-gjocajt-te-vendosur-edhe-pa-vule-do-e-mbrojme-parkun-kombetar/
https://nyje.al/zhvillohet-seanca-e-procesit-te-zall-gjocajt-banoret-ende-ne-pritje/
https://nyje.al/banoret-e-zall-gjocaj-mos-i-vdisni-parqet-kombetare/
https://nyje.al/zall-gjocaj-ne-rrezik-shkaterrimi-mjedisor-si-biznes-i-zakonshem/
https://nyje.al/3454-2/
https://nyje.al/edhe-nje-here-per-zall-gjocajn/
https://nyje.al/rrezohet-padia-kunder-ndertimeve-te-hec-eve-ne-zall-gjocaj-gjykata-favorizon-firmen-koncensionare/
https://nyje.al/rrezohet-padia-kunder-ndertimeve-te-hec-eve-ne-zall-gjocaj-gjykata-favorizon-firmen-koncensionare/
https://nyje.al/perpjekja-per-zall-gjocaj-vazhdon-me-dy-procese-te-reja-gjyqesore/
https://nyje.al/zall-gjocaj-me-7-shtate-pale-halle-ndertohet-diga-shkaterrohet-parku/
https://nyje.al/banoret-e-zall-gjocaj-djegin-serish-makinerine-e-firmes-qe-po-nderton-hec-et/
https://nyje.al/zall-gjocaj-mes-humbjesh-dhe-fitoresh-te-vendosur-per-te-vazhduar-rezistencen/
https://nyje.al/hec-i-ne-park-kombetar-zall-gjocaj-padit-institucionet-ne-spak/
https://nyje.al/zera-nga-lumi-dokumentari-mbi-rezistencen-3-vjecare-te-mbrojtjes-se-zall-gjocajt/
https://nyje.al/bien-kembanat-per-gjykaten-ceshtjet-e-zall-gjocaj-me-shume-se-1-vit-ne-sirtare/
https://nyje.al/degjohen-kemboret-e-zall-gjocaj-apeli-pranon-kerkesen/
https://nyje.al/shtyhet-seanca-gjyqesore-per-ceshtjen-e-zall-gjocaj/
https://nyje.al/banoret-e-zall-gjocajt-protestojne-kunder-ndertimit-te-hec-eve/
https://nyje.al/ekspertet-e-mjedisit-bashkohen-per-zall-gjocaj-zona-me-pyjet-me-te-vjeter-ne-shqiperi-nen-rrezikun-e-hec-eve/
https://nyje.al/flimi-ne-tuba-hec-i-le-zall-gjocaj-pa-uje/
Ming-Yuen S. Ma, There is no Soundtrack. Rethinking Art Media and the Audio Visual Contract, Manchester University Press, 2020
Zarranz Libe Garcia, Joyful Insurrection as Feminist Metodology or the Joys of being a Femminist Killjoy, in: 452ºF # 14, University of Manitoba
Aden Maike, Listen the world is sound in: Disonata. Art in Sound Up To 1980, Edition Museo Nacionl Centro de Arte · Reina Sofia, 2020
Jack Halberstam, Female Masculinity, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998 in: Stacey White, The writer as Scavenger: Queer interventions in teaching and wrting, Radical Cut Up: Nothing is Original, E.by Feireiss Lukas, Sandberg Institute Amsterdam
Navas Eduardo, Re-visioning the element of selectivity.Transformaton and Originality after Remix, in Radical Cut-Up, nothing is original
Stacey White, The writer as Scavenger: Queer interventions in teaching and wrting, Radical Cut Up: Nothing is Original, E.by Feireiss Lukas, Sandberg Institute Amsterdam
Bardhoshi, Nebi. “The “Citizen” and the “Transformation” Period in Albania: The case of Tirana's Periphery”, Citizenship and the Legitimacy of Governance. Anthropology in the Mediterranean Region, edited by Italo Pardo and Giuliana B. Prato, University of Kent, UK, Routledge, 2016.
On Their Theatre
Community based theatre performances in different areas of Kamza
https://kosovotwopointzero.com/en/the-story-of-their-theater/
Dolar, Mladen. "A Voice and Nothing More", Short Circuit Series, edited by Slavoj Zizek, MIT press, 2006.
Francavilla, Giulia. Immersive sound / Immersive listening .Perception, consciousness, algorithmic composition. Master Thesis, Institute of Sonology The Hague, May 2021
Bierbach, J. B. Frontiers of Equality in the development of EU and US citizenship, 2015
Yeshion, Ted. Ph.D. Thesis, Anthropometry:The first system of identification taken from The Forensic Teacher Magazine 2014 (revisited in 2021)
Keshavarz, Mahmoud. Design-Politics. An Inquiry into Passports, Camps and Borders, 2016.
Mak,Geertje., Bultman, Saskia. Identity in Forms: Paper Technologies in Dutch Anthropometric Practices Around 1900
Archive of consulted texts visibilizing a chronology of the long fight for Zall Gjocaj National Park Courtesy of the activists group ATA (only in Albanian):
https://nyje.al/liria-nuk-merr-leje/
https://nyje.al/re-gure-uje-interviste-me-antropologun-nebi-bardhoshi/
https://nyje.al/shfuqizohet-vendimi-per-licencen-e-prodhimit-te-energjise-ne-hec-et-mbi-lumin-flim/
https://nyje.al/proteste-ne-mat-kunder-hec-eve-seke-e-zais-rezistenca-per-jeten-vazhdon/
https://nyje.al/protesta-e-zall-gjocaj-hec-et-kapak-varri-per-zonen-tone/
https://nyje.al/kryepleqte-e-zall-gjocajt-te-vendosur-edhe-pa-vule-do-e-mbrojme-parkun-kombetar/
https://nyje.al/zhvillohet-seanca-e-procesit-te-zall-gjocajt-banoret-ende-ne-pritje/
https://nyje.al/banoret-e-zall-gjocaj-mos-i-vdisni-parqet-kombetare/
https://nyje.al/zall-gjocaj-ne-rrezik-shkaterrimi-mjedisor-si-biznes-i-zakonshem/
https://nyje.al/3454-2/
https://nyje.al/edhe-nje-here-per-zall-gjocajn/
https://nyje.al/rrezohet-padia-kunder-ndertimeve-te-hec-eve-ne-zall-gjocaj-gjykata-favorizon-firmen-koncensionare/
https://nyje.al/rrezohet-padia-kunder-ndertimeve-te-hec-eve-ne-zall-gjocaj-gjykata-favorizon-firmen-koncensionare/
https://nyje.al/perpjekja-per-zall-gjocaj-vazhdon-me-dy-procese-te-reja-gjyqesore/
https://nyje.al/zall-gjocaj-me-7-shtate-pale-halle-ndertohet-diga-shkaterrohet-parku/
https://nyje.al/banoret-e-zall-gjocaj-djegin-serish-makinerine-e-firmes-qe-po-nderton-hec-et/
https://nyje.al/zall-gjocaj-mes-humbjesh-dhe-fitoresh-te-vendosur-per-te-vazhduar-rezistencen/
https://nyje.al/hec-i-ne-park-kombetar-zall-gjocaj-padit-institucionet-ne-spak/
https://nyje.al/zera-nga-lumi-dokumentari-mbi-rezistencen-3-vjecare-te-mbrojtjes-se-zall-gjocajt/
https://nyje.al/bien-kembanat-per-gjykaten-ceshtjet-e-zall-gjocaj-me-shume-se-1-vit-ne-sirtare/
https://nyje.al/degjohen-kemboret-e-zall-gjocaj-apeli-pranon-kerkesen/
https://nyje.al/shtyhet-seanca-gjyqesore-per-ceshtjen-e-zall-gjocaj/
https://nyje.al/banoret-e-zall-gjocajt-protestojne-kunder-ndertimit-te-hec-eve/
https://nyje.al/ekspertet-e-mjedisit-bashkohen-per-zall-gjocaj-zona-me-pyjet-me-te-vjeter-ne-shqiperi-nen-rrezikun-e-hec-eve/
https://nyje.al/flimi-ne-tuba-hec-i-le-zall-gjocaj-pa-uje/
merch
audio publication
audio publication
x
Comming Soon!!
Alongside these sound works, we have produced a cassette tape and a publication that are put together in dialogue and offer an expanded reading of the project(s) different as presented in the medium of the digital space. It comes in a limited edition of 50 copies.