YUFU Cycle
“Can a community whose past has been deliberately erased, and whose energy has then been expended in the search for legible traces of its history, imagine a possible future?” _Mark Dery
Yugo‑futurism (YUFU) arises as an alternative reflection of the generation “I don’t have enough for a burek”, which has found itself in the post-Yugoslav national-neoliberal political stratosphere, trying to regain hope for the future. A hope that was first shattered by the brutal collapse of the former common state, after which the newly formed geopolitical entities found themselves completely dislocated and embarked on a path of transition. But the neoliberal democracies that the Balkan countries have managed to build over the last 30 years are collapsing before our eyes, giving rise to unpromising and catastrophic social, economic and ecological prospects. This is why it is the right moment to activate spaces of reflection, speculative explorations and techniques for planning alternative futures. The YUFU Cycle will interrogate themes such as degrowth as a logic of sustainability, eco‑feminism, the politics of care, interspecies justice, empathy, solidarity, etc.
Curators: Pia Brezavšček, Alja Lobnik, Aleš Mendiževec
Spatial Design: Toni Soprano Meneglejte
Exhibition setup: Elena Fajt, Tilen Gorenak, Toni Soprano Meneglejte, Sara Valenci
Public Relations: Urška Comino, Asiana Jurca Avci
Producer: Polona Dolžan
Technical management: Igor Remeta
Production: Maska Ljubljana
Graphic design: Niko Lapkovski
Merch design: Mia Ventin
Photo documentation: Asiana Jurca Avci
Video documentation: Lana Požlep
Language editing and translation: Tadej Turnšek
Partners: Bunker, Krater Creative Lab, Radio Študent- RKHV, UL NTF OTGO – Department of Textile and Fashion Design
Media partners: Mladina, Radio Študent, TAM TAM
Financial support: City of Ljubljana and Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia
The YUFU series is part of the European projects TESTING GROUND: Reparative Practices for New Cultural Ecosystem and PERIPHERAL VISIONS – Towards a Transnational Publishing Culture.
The cycle will feature the premiere of Alma Gačanin‘s performance How Well Did You Perform Today? in which the artist problematizes invisible and overtime work, questioning time, money and value. With the premiere of the performance Future 14B – a kind of live laboratory and experiment in which transdisciplinary group of researchers, performers, designers and activists conceive, debate, explore, experience and (re)test what Mark Fisher calls effective virtualities – Lina Akif, Olja Grubić, Ida Hiršenfelder, Tea Hvala, Andrej Koruza, Rok Kranjc, Gaja Mežnarič Osole, Ajda Pistotnik and Metod Zupan will invite you to temporarily enter a different, radical, real utopian future. Croatian producer, composer and art historian Nikola Krgović, working under the artistic name N/OBE, will present his HYBRID DJ SET. Combining club music and sound art, accompanied by visual images of monuments to the partisan revolution, N/OBE revisits the rise and fall of Yugoslavia. An Evening of Short Films in Collaboration with Radio Študent will feature Yugo‑futurist road-trip film recordings, while the exhibition YUFU; 21st Century Šuškavke Tracksuits will present the up-cycled creations of the students of the Department of Textile and Fashion Design at UL NTF OTGO made from old “šuškavke”- tracksuits . The YUFU series will open with a presentation of the International YUFU Research group and its findings, and the launch of the website www.yufu.kompot.si, designed in collaboration with the open source programming group Kompot, where everyone is invited to add and modify the passwords of the Yugo‑futurist Community Manifesto in the Making. On this occasion, we also published a reprint of Maska magazine, no. 209-210: YUFU 2.0.
“We need something different, something on the verge of the imaginable. Something completely impractical, something that would fundamentally shake even the most progressive leftists among us, and bring Koča Popović back from the dead.” – Asja Bakić (Maska No. 209–210: YUFU 2.0)
Projects
Timetable
24.–27. JANUARY
Old Power Station – Elektro Ljubljana
► 18.00‒23.00
YUGOFUTURIST MANIFEST IN THE MAKING• Visit Kompot’s YUFU website and enter YUFU concepts
YUFU; 21st century šuškavke tracksuits • clothing exhibition
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24
Old Power Station – Elektro Ljubljana
► 19.00‒20.00
OPENING OF YUFU CYCLE: Pia Brezavšček, YUFU Experimental Research Group (Alma Gačanin, Rok Kranjc, Alja Lobnik, Diana Meheik, Vera Mevorah), Kompot programmers
► 20.00‒21.00
Alma Gačanin: HOW WELL DID YOU PERFORM TODAY? • premiere
► 21.00
Artist talk between Alma Gačanin and dramaturg Diana Meheik (The talk will be in English)
► 21.30
Opening party with 1/2 Kafe sa šlagom
THURSDAY, JANUARY 25
Old Power Station – Elektro Ljubljana
► 18.00‒20.00
Short film evening in cooperation with Radio Student • screenings
► 20.00‒21.00
Alma Gačanin: HOW WELL DID YOU PERFORM TODAY? • reprise
FRIDAY, JANUARY 26
Krater Creative Lab
► 18.00‒20.00
Rok Kranjc, Olja Grubić, Lina Akif, Metod Zupan, Ajda Pistotnik, Ida Hiršenfelder, Tea Hvala, Gaja Mežnarić Osole, Andrej Koruza: FUTURE 14B • premiere
Old Power Station – Elektro Ljubljana
► 20.00‒21.00
Alma Gačanin: HOW WELL DID YOU PERFORM TODAY? • reprise
SATURDAY, JANUARY 27
Krater Creative Lab
► 18.00‒20.00
Rok Kranjc, Olja Grubić, Lina Akif, Metod Zupan, Ajda Pistotnik, Ida Hiršenfelder, Tea Hvala, Gaja Mežnarić Osole, Andrej Koruza: FUTURE 14B • reprise
Old Power Station – Elektro Ljubljana
► 20.00‒21.00
N/OBE: HYBRID DJ SET • sound performance
► 21.00
Closing party with Balana & Đakka
Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
