English version below
2012. godine Kaja je posjetila Beograd u sklopu projekta Akupunktura grada.
Cilj projekta je oživjeti dijelove grada koji su, eto, umrli. Bar naizgled.
Jedna od lokacija obuhvaćena projektom je i mali uski prolaz u beogradskom naselju Savamala. Taj prolaz nije umro, već je naprotiv bio vrlo živ. Prolaznici su ga često i rado koristili kao pristup Savi. Prolaz je u šali bio prozvan i najuža ulica u Beogradu. Dakle, intervencija je itekako bila potrebna!
Grupa u kojoj je bila Kaja je pristupila tom zadatku, a ono što su tamo napravili možete vidjeti u ove dvije prezentacije:
prezentacija 1
prezentacija 2
Snimljen je i kratki zabavni filmić:
No, zašto sada, 3 godine kasnije pišem o tome? Zato jer smo nedavno prošetali Beogradom i poželjeli smo vidjeti kako sada taj prostor izgleda i živi.
Danas taj prostor izgleda ovako:
Zanimljivo, zar ne? Nama se čini kao da je prilično nazadovao u zadnje 3 godine.
No, nije sve tako crno kako se čini. Naime, bogata gospoda sa arapskog poluotoka odlučila je investirati u Beograd u projektu Belgrade Waterfront.
Kao znak dobre volje (možda, nismo upoznati sa situacijom, samo smo tako negdje načuli) uredili su dio promenade uz Savu, postavili drvene (zapravo VPC) deckove sa kojih se može promatrati smeće koje pluta Savom, napravili zanimljivo dječje igralište, postavili klupe na kojima se mogu puniti mobiteli (nama nije radilo), i sagradili ugostiteljski objekat. Navodno preskup za prosječnog beograđanina.
Trenutačno to ovako izgleda:
No, naravno, kao i sve na Balkanu, ni taj projekat nije bez kontroverzi pa je tako i ovaj tekst izašao u The Guardianu.
S obzirom da nismo žitelji Beograda, niti smo emocionalno vezani uz Savamalu, a zapravo niti ne znamo ništa o tom velebnom projektu, nećemo prejudicirati tko je u toj priči u pravu a tko je zli vuk, već ćemo se samo nadati da ako projekat ipak i zaživi, da ćemo biti jedni od onih koji će na njemu nešto i projektirati.
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English version below
In the year of 2012 Kaja Belgrade as part of the City Acupuncture project.
The project aims to revitalize neighborhoods that are, well, dead. At least apparently.
One of the sites included in the project was a small and narrow passage in the Belgrade area Savamala. This passage was not dead, but on the contrary was very much alive. Citizens often and readily used it as access to the Sava River. People called it the narrowest street in Belgrade. So, the intervention was very much needed!
Kaja’s group approached to this task, and what they did there, you can see in these two presentations:
The short and funny movie was shot and you can see it in Croatian version.
But why now, three years later, I write about it? Because we recently walked Belgrade, and we wanted to see how this space looks and lives now.
Today, this area looks like this:
Interesting, isn’t it? It appears to us as it is quite regressed in the last 3 years.
But all is not as bad as it seems. The rich gentelmans from the Arab peninsula decided to invest in Belgrade in Belgrade Waterfront project.
As a sign of good will (perhaps, we are not familiar with the situation, just what we’ve heard somewhere) edited part of the promenade along the Sava, set up wooden (actually VPC) deck from which you can observe the garbage that floats Sava, made an interesting playground, set benches where people can charge mobile phones (out of order in our case), and built a restaurant. Apparently too expensive for the average citizen of Belgrade.
Currently it looks like this:
But, of course, like everything else in the Balkans, the project is not without controversy according to this article that appeared in The Guardian.
Since we are not residents of Belgrade, nor we are emotionally connected with Savamala, and actually do not know anything about this magnificent project, we will not prejudge who in this story is right and who is the bad wolf, but we can only hope that if the project yet comes to life, we will be one of those who will be on it and design some of the landscapes.
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