Spaces of Encounters, Spaces of Freedom

Who has the power to create public spaces? We first ask the question to Katarina Popovic and Maja Maksimovic from the University of Belgrade. We sit down in a kafana in Belgrade to talk about cultural identity, practice dark Eastern European humour, and reflect on the value of a stolen Yugoslavian passport. We also do some experiential learning around the concept of Dionisian socialism. We then meet with Iva Cukic and Jovana Timotijevic from the Ministry of Space, a collective that reflects on the future of cities. Iva and Jovana tell us how collective practices can recreate a sense of community, and what it means to fall in love with an abandoned building (relationship status: it’s complicated). This episode also features discussions about the Serbian model of gentrification, the Turkish approach to slow food, and the German take on nostalgia.