Plaveč – week #1 – Beyond the maps, an unexpected twist of Ideology

DEADLINE #2

Jan Sowa – An unexpected twist of Ideology
Neoliberalism and the collapse of the Soviet Bloc

The article addresses the process of neoliberal transformation of the Soviet Bloc in the late 1980-ties and early 1990-ties as analyzed on the example of Poland. Its trajectory generally confirms Loïc Wacquant’s thesis put forward in his article Three steps to a historical anthropology of actually existing neoliberalism, that neoliberalism tends to rather capture and use than simply dismantle and weaken state structures and power mechanisms. The author shows that the transition from planned to market economy in the former Soviet Bloc was also accompanied, backed and made possible by powerful ideological operations that reshaped the construction of subjectivity and made it compatible with the neoliberal capitalism. This proves that two modes of analyzing neoliberalism – structural analysis of state power and focus on governmentality – should be treated as complimentary tools of understanding neoliberal transitions. However, contrary to Wacquant, the author claims that in this respect there is nothing new about neoliberalism as a practice, since capitalism has always required a help from the state to maintain a seemingly autonomous rule of the market.

László Milutinovits – Workshop

The workshop was meant to create space for discussion on our personal and group aims within the ‘Mechanisms of an Entente’. The objective was to talk about our expectations and fears/concerns regarding the project and more specifically regarding our one-month stay in Plaveč. Additionally, a third question was also imposed, namely, ‘What is your understanding of the project?’. After the group was informed about the task, we were divided into small groups of 5-4 persons, and each of the groups were asked to create a ‘poster’ of the outcomes of their discussions. The posters were later presented in a plenary session, which started before dinner, and was continued later in the evening. According to my opinion, many of us found the dicussions useful, however, some expressed a need to continue the process. Accordingly, we also agreed that from the following day we should have a daily morning meeting regularly, and started to gather other ideas to be realized later.

Click on the images to enlarge and read the texts :

Roman – Cristina Seydou – Luzja – Fred

László – Marta Janek – Alexis

Łukasz – Joanna Beáta – Jarek

Tomas – Edyta Judit – Nils

Julie Chovin – Blind Yellow

Agathe Tournier-Desmesure – Plaveč : Beyond the maps

Looking for my personal entry to the project, I fell back on my basic tools: the representation in plan as a working basis to be confronted to the reality of the ground. Starting from the plan views of bare Plavec successively uncovered, I propose this reading of the village favouring the opening of new working tracks (runways).
GEOGRAPHY
this picture of the village taken from the hill has surprised (temps à conserver) everybody: is the river curving such as it appears, or is it a distortion due to focalization. Walking through the village we could’nt guess this shape: the checkerboard with the orthogonal streets seemed in contradiction with that image.
Back home in the evening, I watched the maps of the other cities walked across during our trip as far as Plavec, and I had a closer look into Ljubljana map. its urban organization sticks perfectly to its geography.
The focal point is the castle, at the top of a hill, The river flows, the roads run around it and meet rhere: and city and geography coincide ! Then how can we account for the contradiction between geography and structure in Plavec ?
STRUCTURE
The “official” document handed to us by the mayor includes a plan of the village, showing clearly the unhabited zone. We can imagine the houses built up along the well designed streets. This plan also intrigues me. because most of the streets seem closed in by a black line at their extremity. The village appears as a finished set.
Is it really so ? Walking along down to the end of these streets, we discover that a length of new street extends into Janka Krala street and that a pedestrian path goes beyond and connects Vansovej and Janosikova streets, They moreover open into all the plots of land cultivated by the local residents.
BORDERS
Wandering along these paths, one perceives what constitutes the north end of the village! You have guessed it: it is of course the railroad which delimitates and creates the border of the village ! Doubled by a high-voltage line, the railroad has set up an impassable elevated barrier. Yet it is in no way represented on the “official” plan !
FRINGE
What is the status of this fringe zone built between village and railroad ? Though it is not represented on the map, it is not at all derelict. The slightest surface is cultivated, on small plots of land of varied cultures. Shared common space? Plots of land attached to every house? Appropriated by the inhabitants ? In any case differently from the house gardens, they are not enclosed !
OPENINGS
Back home in the evening I completed the plan with the observations of the day, thinking that I had not yet paced up and down the three “open” roads drawn upon the plan, and that I would do it the day after.
I compared this small plan to the detailed regional map, and the observation of this new map offers me a new intriguing scheme. These 3 open streets represented as “to be continued” lead towards three other methods of transport:
– The bus line on the main road to the South, over the bridge above the river,
 – the railway station, northeast,
and the aerodrome, to the west. But who comes to Plaveč by plane?

Julie Chovin – Plaveč // Hollywood

Beáta Kolbašovská and Lujza Magova
Videotutorial for slovak touristic dictionary
Lesson 1- Ordering

Dobrý deň– Hello [do-bree dhenh] Volám sa Bea– My name is Bea [vo-laam sa Be-a] Toto je Lujza– This is Lujza [to-to ye Loui-za] Lujza je moja kamarátka– Lujza is my friend [Loui-za ye mo-ya ka-ma-raa-tka] Toto je strom– This is the tree [to-to ye strom] Strom je vysoký– The tree is tall [strom ye vy-so-kee] Jedno pivo– One beer [yed-no pe-vo] Dve pivá– Two beers [dve pe-va] Slivovica– Plum brandy [slee-vo-vee-tsa] Ďakujem– Thank you [dha-ku-yem] Dovidenia – Goodbye [do-ve-dhe-nhy-a]

Fred Desmesure – the village

Collective – Football Match

The members of one of the team dress as women to denounce sexism in football.

Seydou Crépinet – A constructed world

Plavec, 2013/07/20

Seydou Crépinet – A Constructed World