We Have Built Cities for You
On the Contradictions of Yugoslav Socialism
The Cvijeta Zuzorić Pavilion, Kalemegdan Park
June 13 – July 2, 2018
When, in the mid-1960’s, speaking of the position of workers, the then Chairman of the Association of the Trade Unions of Yugoslavia stated that “If our workers’ situation is not good, let them go on strike!”, he had no inkling of the fact that, soon enough, that would become the reality of Yugoslavia. During the 1980’s, strikes became a regular occurrence in cities throughout the country. From “Trepča” to “TAM”, from “Labin” to “Zmaj” – working men and women went on strike demanding better working and living conditions, protesting against the austerity measures and the neoliberal restructuring of Yugoslavia, which was primarily supported and pushed forward by the political and economic leadership.
That is precisely what the exhibition and the publication entitled “We Have Built Cities for You” are about. They are about the contradictions of Yugoslav socialism, which were particularly manifest during the course of the 1980’s, and which led to the restoration of the capitalist system. However, the above-mentioned social processes did not unfold in a linear fashion or without resistance. Complex class-related forms of logic were involved, which collided and were engaged in conflicts, thus producing contradictory political-economic phenomena that it is necessary to investigate and overview anew.
The question that arises is, why is this exhibition held today? Why is it essential today to reflect once again the problem of socialist Yugoslavia? And can this knowledge be of operative value for us when it comes to consider the contemporary socio-political situation?
Today, all the states established after the destruction of Yugoslavia are nationalist-capitalist in character, and neoliberal “transition” agendas carried out by the local regimes favour solely the logic of capital. The results of a decades-long process of transformation are most evident and measurable in the sphere of work – a total destruction of the labour structures and institutions of democratic management of the economy, masses of unemployed or poorly paid working men and women who fret over their existence on the periphery of the global capitalist system. From the Vardar River to Mt Triglav, a connection still exists, but it has been transformed into the trajectory of trading in misguided investments and a cheap labour force. In such a socio-political constellation, few actors represent the interests of workers, and the discourse on there being no alternatives to the system in which we live precludes the pondering of different social relations, outside of those that are connected with the capitalist manner of production.
Within the framework of the exhibition “We Have Built Cities for You”, we return to the period of socialism and its contradictions, and through a number of researches we raise issues that are inter-related in a complex manner: from the economy, politics and workers’ self-management to leisure-time pursuits, the media, culture and art.
The development of the very concept of the exhibition, the production of the works and research projects presented, as well as this publication and the final realisation of the entire project, mostly represent the collective work of a group that was formed during the first (research) phase of the project. The group is made up of artists and researchers who, in their work so far, have already dealt with the topics initiated by this project or wished to initiate new research and activities related to the said issues. The group thus formed, together with curators and project organisers, participated in a number of discursive programmes (workshops, seminars, lectures, open-air programmes and presentations) that unfolded over a period of one year, within the framework of which the basic topics of the project were further considered, joint views were formed and various possibilities of communicating them through the accompanying exhibition and publication were explored.
The overall complexity of a social system certainly cannot be presented within the framework of an exhibition and/or a publication, especially taking into consideration the production limitations of the project framework. Thus the results of this project represent merely a part of the possible topics and approaches that we can use for the purpose of understanding the contradictions of Yugoslav socialism. It is important to point out that, although individual investigations have their analytical basis in specific “case studies” related to various spheres of social activities, after all, they all converge in certain joint hypotheses that frame the entire project, the exhibition and the accompanying publication. They reflect the overall complexity of the approach to dealing with the problem of Yugoslavia, not fearing potentially opposed and conflictual positions, within a broad spectrum of contemporary research on the Left. In other words, this exhibition and publication constitute an invitation to a discussion on socialist Yugoslavia from the perspective of the Left, including a discussion within the sphere of culture, which is still the hegemonic space of liberal ideology coupled with nationalist policies.
The project methodology is based on our experience of many years in similar work formats, which aims to include various actors interested in a particular research area and collective work. We believe that involving people with different experiences, knowledge, professional orientation and interests is of key importance for creating the possibility of a collective thinking of issues related to different (regional) cultural, economic and political relations.
We present the results of the work on the project in two equally important representational formats: that of an exhibition and that of an accompanying publication, which are directly related, but are simultaneously conceived for independent reading.
