Architects and urban planners often tend to imagine cities as constantly evolving structures, and 'development as usual' seems to be the answer to everything from unemployment to tackling climate change. Even in 'shrinking' or stagnating post-socialist European cities – which include Košice – people dream of big development to fill 'empty' spaces in the urban fabric – often referred to as brownfields. Alternative proposals for the real estate market are virtually non-existent or cancelled at the outset.
At Never Never School in 2019, we took a closer look at sites around the Hornád River, close to Košice city centre. We see specific qualities in the site's being stuck in a permanent limbo state between the utopian desire for new urban districts of the future and the stagnant reality. We were interested in the site not as an empty place soon to be filled but looked at it as an existing network of dynamic human and non-human relationships. The latter can be the starting point for the utopias of the mineral beyond the anthropocentric present. Through various methods of mapping, phenomenological research and dramatic storytelling, we have attempted to give voice to a variety of present and future actors and actresses, thus moving lightly between today and tomorrow.
The selected participants are young professionals and students from all over Europe, ranging from journalism, sociology, law, art and design to architecture and planning.
Participants: Orsolya Bajusz, Markéta Burkotová, Violeta Gjorgjevska, Johannes Hollenhorst, Hedvig Jansson, Zuzana Jarošová, Adéla Kolářová, Tabea Latocha, Karolina Michalik, Katarína Onderková, Klára Peloušková, Nina Vukadin, Elizabeth Short, Zsófia Szőke
Hosts: Marcel Uhrin, Philippe Rekacewicz, Michaela Zakuťanská, Kateřina Sidiropulu Janků, Ján Solčáni, Diana Lucas-Drogan, Laura Naum, Petrică Mogoș, Alin Cincă
Team: Lýdia Grešáková, Alexandra Motýľ, Viktória Mravčáková, Zuzana Révészová, Hana Skljarzska, Zuzana Tabačková
Mapping the in-between: Interdisciplinary methods for envisioning other futures
Lýdia Grešáková, Zuzana Tabačková, Spolka (eds)
The bilingual publication Mapping the in-between: Interdisciplinary methods for envisioning other futures is a collection of texts and practical methods that are a unique insight into new possible models of cooperation and collaborations that have been developed in Košice with the help of the Never Never School participants.
Never Never School – short film (teaser)
Author: Poppy Isley
Mapping with care: Never Never summer school in Košice
Article, Artalk Revue 5, Autumn 2020
21. 6. 2021, 18.00
Never Never Talk: Non-places, brownfields, vague spaces
Non-places – brownfields – vague spaces. In every city, there are many spaces that seem to have no purpose. They may not have a clear identity or use at first sight. However, they too hold unprecedented life or potential. How to look at them, how to approach them and how to shape their future? This was discussed by Michal Hladký, director of Creative Industry Košice and Zuzana Tabačková, member of the collective Spolka.
Facebook recording (in Slovak) →
23. 9. 2020
Presentation of the publication Mapping the In-Between in the VSG library
Public reading, discussion a film screening.
23. 2. 2020
City and river: Book launch and film premiere
How do we make our city a better place to live and develop with respect? Together with the Budapest audience and participants of Never Never School, we met in the new space of our partner organisation Valyo to discuss the possibility of bringing the themes and methods into the context of Budapest.
6. 9. 2019
Pop-up exhibition Mapping the in-between
The results of the 2019 summer school were presented in a multimedia collaborative exhibition.
1. 9. 2019
Mestoláska: Reality X Expectations
Today, 30 years after the fall of the communist regime, we still live in a city that was likened to the socialist dream of its functioning and appearance. Mestoláska – lecture with a discussion –provided a glimpse of this never-finished utopia that shapes our daily lives, which are also affected by our new dreams and visions, influenced by Western neoliberal democratic societies. What kind of city do we imagine ourselves today and how do we shape it through storytelling, images, writing or publishing? Mestolaska took place with the Romanian magazine Kajet and Prešov's Ta Take Town magazine and was moderated by Zuzana Tabačková from Spolka.
The 2019 edition of Never Never School would not have been possible without the support of the Visegrad Fund, Fond na podporu umenia (Slovak Arts Council), K13, Valyo - Város és Folyó Egyesület, Zahradnická fakulta Mendelovy univerzity v Brně, Kino Úsmev, Tabačka Kulturfabrik, Technická Univerzita v Košiciach, TU Berlin and Fachgebiet Städtebau und Siedlungswesen, Institut für Stadt- und Regionalplannung TU Berlin
The project is co-financed by the Governments of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.
Projekt z verejných zdrojov podporil Fond na podporu umenia.
Podujatia sa konali v priestoroch investičných projektov, ktoré boli implementované v rámci opatrenia 7.1 prioritnej osi „Európske hlavné mesto kultúry Košice 2013“ Regionálneho operačného programu a sú spolufinancované Európskou úniou vo výške 85 % z Európskeho fondu regionálneho rozvoja a vo výške 10 % zo štátneho rozpočtu Slovenskej republiky. Viac informácií nájdete na Ropka.sk, Mpsr.sk a tiež na Culture.gov.sk, ERDF: Investícia do vašej budúcnosti.