skver, zaječar, miting, srbija, yugoslavia

SKVER Magazin.

SKVER news

a good spirit of zaječar

The Timok Digital Media Digitization Workshop is a four day workshop (August 22-25, 2023) in Zaječar, Serbia designed to bring archivists, cultural workers, and community members together to strengthen media preservation efforts in the region. Three archivists will lead the training, and seven to ten participants are expected. Hands-on training in identifying, assessing, and digitizing media collections will be interspersed with presentations from regional cultural workers who will discuss topics in preservation and funding opportunities. The goals of the project are to strengthen education and training in preservation, establish a foundation for a community digitization lab, strengthen community networks and collaboration in preservation, and build sustainability for preservation efforts.

Trainers + Coordinators: Siobhan HaganSmithsonian InstitutionMARMIA Mid-Atlantic Regional Moving Image Archive, Baltimore, Maryland ● Marie LascuCommunity Archiving WorkshopXFR Collective, New York, New York Kelli HixCommunity Archiving Workshop, Nashville, Tennessee Vesna Madžoski and Mikica AndrejićSKVER, Zaječar, Serbia ● B MilenkovićLibrary of Congress, Washington, DC

Guest Speakers: Sarah Ziebell, Regional Public Engagement Specialist for the Western Balkans, U.S. Embassy Belgrade ● Holly Zardus, Cultural Attache, U.S. Embassy Belgrade ● Smiljana Antonijević, Kosančićev venac Library ● Maša Seničić, a scriptwriter, an essayist and a poet ● Radiša Cvetković, Head of the Library at the Yugoslav Film Archive, board member, Kinoteka Magazine

This project is realized thanks to the volunteer work of many and the support of the Ministry of culture, Republic of Serbia.

EXHIBITION "FRAGILE: GLASS NARRATIVES, BROKEN HISTORIES"

Public Library, Bor

05.04–05.05.2023

CK13, Novi Sad

28.03.2023 Lecture “Being (A) Negative: The Spectre of Photography”

Museum of Applied Art, Beograd

29.12.2022–15.01.2023

FRAGILE: GLASS NARRATIVES, BROKEN HISTORIES is a research project initiated by Public Space With A Roof, Amsterdam (Adi Hollander, Tamuna Chabashvili, Vesna Madžoski) in collaboration with SKVER Magazin, Zaječar, Serbia and photographer Mikica Andrejić. The project focuses on creating an archive and a collection of one of the former Yugoslav factory giants, Crystal-Zaječar, whose main goal was to turn previously luxurious objects of the rich into everyday objects available to everyone. After the 1990s and the fall of socialism, this factory which used to employ more than 4500 workers, was privatized and closed down. Nevertheless, the gigantic buildings it once occupied remained and still exist as strange creations seemingly belonging to an unknown civilization.

The ‘archaeological’ research done by Public Space With A Roof brings the encounter with the world of broken objects, traces of broken lives, and evidence of a broken history. The exhibition in the museum juxtaposes the images from the past to the present ones, revealing the fragile nature of the archive and the collection assembled and studied. It shares the objects and information gathered during the research, creating a space where the visitors are able to explore this history on their own.

MORE ON EXHIBITION

VIRTUAL EXHIBITION: CRYSTAL CLEAR - PART ONE OF DIGITIZED CULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF ZAJEČAR

KTK Zaječar

ABOUT THE PROJECT

CRYSTAL Zaječar

SKVER magazin devoted the first pandemic year, the year 2020, to an ambitious task of digitizing 8000 images created in two factory giants: Crystal Factory, and Leather and Textile Industrial Complex “Zaječar”. Until the late 1990s and the beginning of the so-called privatization process, Zaječar had more than 15 factories from which today we only have individual memory, itself prone to erasure. The found photo negatives revealed an entirely new world to us: a testimony of not only the working environment of our fellow citizens, but moments and activities in their “free” time – sport, competitions, educational trips, visits to colleagues in Yugoslavia and Europe, etc.

As a consequence of the current economic situation in Zaječar, the estimate is the reduction of the population for almost 60%. The loss is not only material, as with every person that has left, temporarily or permanently, the memory on the community that once existed here is being lost too. On the other hand, the history of photography and photographers in Zaječar is still mostly unknown, hence one of our intentions is to initiate first steps in this research as well.

In late 2020, we posted daily 10 selected photos on our Facebook and Instagram page, still available to be seen, and on our website pages you will find the complete digitized material. Also, Serbian Ministry of Culture and Information’s portal www.kultura.rs devoted to digitization of cultural heritage is hosting the selection of most interesting photos.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE IMAGES:

COLLECTION KTK

COLLECTION CRYSTAL

SKVER Projects

Thanks: Historical Archives “Timok Region“ Zaječar, Branch Library “Svetozar Marković“ Zaječar, Dragana Živković, Belakva Šu, Andrej Dolinka.

Project supported by:

SKVER Projects

PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY

Memory is a highly slippery and mutable category. Together with some harsh moments we also erase the ones we should never forget. Through different editions and phases of this project, SKVER brings new studies on newspaper photography and photo-journalism, as well as on individual local photographers, professionals and amateurs, who had tirelessly memorized for us moments of ‘little’  Zaječar histories.

Bez naslova © Mikica Andrejić

INDUSTRIAL HERRITAGE

Sadly, it is very hard for us today to imagine tens of thousands of workers rushing to work every morning to dozens of Zaječar factories. Like silent witnesses, the buildings left behind all those former giants of Yugoslavia speak today of a century we have almost forgot. A century brave enough to test in practice workers’ self-management, offering a taste of an utopia. In this section, we’ll be focused on presenting new photographic work of young artists and photographers, together with collecting and exhibiting material remains and memories related to this part of our heritage. 

Živojin Pavlović, Crni talas, Na putu za Katangu, 1987, Timočka krajina, Srbija, Timok, Zaječar, Yugoslavia

THE MUSEUM OF BLACK WAVE CINEMA 

Živojin Pavlović, one of the most important Serbian film directors, considered our region to be his homeland. With this project we would like to give a recognition he deserves for everything he had done for Yugoslav and world culture. With this, our idea is to create a collection based on the material about all other authors labeled together with Pavlović as belonging to the Yugoslav Black Wave cinema, and who had filmed some of their master-pieces in Timočka krajina.

SKVER Magazin is a voice of SKVER – Centre for Contemporary Culture (Under Construction) created to share some interesting and less known details from Zaječar history. We also bring stories about inspiring people, initiatives and phenomena of today. Unfortunately, most of our material is in Serbian, but we shall give our best to translate some of the most important details and stories. If you happen to have an interest into a particular topic related to Zaječar and Timočka krajina, do not hesitate to contact us and we’ll give our best to assist you.

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