raumlabor » [Working on] Common Ground

[Working on] Common Ground

picture in header © Tea Marta

produced with Manifesta 14 Prishtina

manifesta14.org

on site production:

Vanesa Orana

The Brick Factory is Prishtina’s largest post-industrial site. Having been placed under the administration of Kosovo’s Privatisation Agency in 2007, it was returned to public ownership by the Municipality of Prishtina in 2021. The future of the site lies in the hands of the citizens. Will it become a new cultural hub, as foreseen by the municipality? What kind of culture would it support? Would such a hub follow existing models or pioneer new ones? The discussion is only just beginning.

Manifesta 14 Prishtina, the european nomadic biennial, has invited raumlaborberlin – a collective of experimental architects and urbanologists specialising in participatory models of urban transformation – to join forces with the citizens to actively reclaim the site, to establish it as a common ground and to collectively imagine its future. Their project – [Working on] Common Ground – is a 100-day laboratory on eco-urban learning and making, which kicks off with a two-week summer school. The programme has been conceived and is implemented in collaboration with collectives from Kosovo, the region and further afield.

The laboratory relates stories it unearths on site – whether social, political, economic or ecological – to contemporary challenges, such as decontamination, conservation, circular and regenerative economies, sustainable building, mobility and climate care. People of all ages and backgrounds are invited to join in the many activities including archaeology, exploring, mapping and storytelling, building, gardening, swimming, cooking and eating. The programme also features music, film and visual arts by local and regional artists.

Text by Catherine Nichols

Imagination of a possible future of the brick factory

Round table conference on the future of the Brick Factory © Tea Marta

WORKSHOPS DURING THE COMMON GROUND SUMMER SCHOOL

COMBUSTION IN QUESTION

Mentors: temp. space-trans int.

(Mascha Fehse, Ariel Curtelin, Andries de Lange & Marius Busch)

Structured around different hot and cold experiments with materials from the Tullara brick factory, the workshop was involving sourcing, transforming, rearranging and re-making materials on site, trying out transformations on different scales.

Harvesting of clay from the factory © Andries de Lange

Pit fire © Gabriel Jacobs

Kiln for glazing bricks © Andries de Lange

THE SØURCERS

Mentor: STEALTH.Unlimited

(Marc Neelen & Ana Džokić)

Rethinking de-centrilized energy systems by hacking the city away from climate crisis and into energy independence.

Potential solar panel area in the brick factory © Ana Džokić

THE ADAPTER

Mentors: raumlaborberlin

(Jan Liesegang & Kipras Kazlauskas)

In the adapter workshop the whole brick factory site was read as a park and garden. The workshop explored and mapped out buildings, open spaces, existing green, programs and hidden corridors. Based on the analyses, new situations, connections and spaces of encounter was discussed, tested and built.

Brick smashing for garden © Ariel Curtelin

Bar construction of bricks harvested from the abandoned kiln © raumlaborberlin

Overgrown electric central area transformed into a secret garden © raumlaborberlin

Wood workshop © raumlaborberlin

CIRCLES OF LIVES

Mentor: Ecocietystudies

(Argjirë Krasniqi)

The starting point for the workshop was Ecocietystudies two-year long research-by-design project, tracing the meaning of city buildings, looking into the wounds and traumas they still carry with them, and searching ways for healing those spaces in the future. The circles of lives workshop were structured around listening to, writing and drawing upon overlapping histories that unfolded in the Brick factory.

Former workers at Cigllana © Giulia Ficarazzo

ecocietystudies_circles of life

SITE AS LIVING ARCHIVE / A POLYPHONIC CARTOGRAPHY

Mentors: Millonialiu

(Klodiana Millona & Veronika Zaripova)

A workshop about researching and materialising the history of the Brick Factory based on collective oral histories of the citizens of Prishtina. The strategy was to gather diverse voices and render visible what the legacy of the Brick Factory meant for the communities of different ethnicities; from mapping and including the histories of workers who saw the political unrest unfolding in Kosovo within the developments of the factory, to the social dynamics of workers of different ethnicities producing together, to the stories of the bricks that built and rebuilt Prishtina during various times.

Lunch with former factory worker © raumlaborberlin

DIGESTING WATER / THE BIG FAT BELLY OF A POOL

Mentors: raumlaborberlin

(Benjamin Foerster Baldenius & Olof Duus)

In Kosovo you always have to engage in the act of taking your shoes before you enter a house. It’s a gesture of care towards the hospitality and belongings of the host. So do guests in an Oda, the traditional room for receiving guests in an Albanian house. In the Brick Factory, a combined parliament and swimming pool was constructed, called the Liquid Oda, as a place for both leisure and conversations.

COMMON GROUNDING

Tour developed by Sabine Zahn

Performed during Manifesta 14 by Okan Xhemaili

Structured as a scripted tour in several acts, the Common Grounding tour was guiding attention to the ways of being with one another within the crevasses of a place suspended in time, by guiding the participants in the closed off parts of the brick factory.

Common Grounding – tour developed by Sabine Zahn © raumlaborberlin

BRICK FACTORY BEFORE INTERVENTION

MANIFESTO ON ARTS AND BUILDINGS by Benjamin Forster Baldenius

Art does not need Buildings

Buildings need Art

Art needs Space

Space is the product of social interaction, so

Art needs People

and vice versa:

People need Art

Art needs Artists and

Artists need Art

Artists need Buildings

to work

Buildings for Artists need to be

SAFE // SPACIOUS // FULL OF LIGHT // HEALTHY // FUNCTIONAL //ACCESSIBLE

and first of all

// AFFORDABLE // with long term leases

rarely need these buildings to be new

on the contrary: Atelierbuildings should better be used buildings

For Artists it´s helpful if these Buildings are also functioning as

MEETING PLACES // SPACES OF ENCOUNTER // POSSIBLE DISPLAYS

People need Art

and they need to be confronted to Art

In Museums – yes –

but also in public spaces, in public institutions, in schools, hotels, in libraries, at work, at home and in the digital world (where is the Art in the internet?)

because

through Art we can learn and practice

to ask the relevant questions

INSTALLATION TEAM

Yuan Chun Liu

Vanesa Orana

Avni Sedrini

Fatmir Aliu

Islam Llapashtica

Kadri Llapashtica

Zahir Sallahu

Izet Hajzeri

Izak Fetahi

Jeton Shala

Carlos Merino

Ragip Vllasa

Bekim Obrazhda

(ON SITE) RESEARCH SUPPORT

Gresa Kuleta

Azem Spanca

Bardhyl Gashi

Endrit Maxhuni

Hysni Gashi

Xili and all the neighhbors of ‚Cigllana‘ neighborhood

SUMMER SCHOOL PARTICIPANTS

Aleksandra Kugacka

Alma Hutter

Andia Kolshi

Antzelo Reka

Blerta Krasniqi

Dijellza Preniqi

Doruntina Sylejmani

Drinor Shabanaj

Erëz Bekolli

Erika Lowin

Ermira Gashi

Eylul Nejan Seyhan

Ferdinand Krumhoff

Florencia Pochinki

Gabriel Jacobs

Galena Sardamova

Giulia Ficarazzo

Helene von Stuckrad

İdil Mersin

Irvi Çela

Lilly Ebben

Luca Liese Ritter

Marie Köhler

Martin Huber

Matija Vujović

Melisa Hergaja

Migena Hadziu

Nora Gailer

Okan Xhemaili

Olta Hasanaj

Paulina Gilsbach

Rebecca Dathe

Servio Avdyli

Stella Konietzka

Tea Marta

Trina Hashani

Vibe Overgaard

Will Scobie

Yllka Shala