What if the Walls were more flexible?

A social fabric

When Vesna Stojanovic refused to participate in political activities of the ruling party, she subsequently lost her job as a nurse at a state spa in Bujanovac, Serbia, in 2019. She had only two options: Assembly line work or emigrating in her fifties.
This hopelessness prompted Stefan Stojanovic — her Zurich-based son — and Nathalie Stirnimann to create this collaboration, which resulted in a series of artworks titled “What If the Walls Were More Flexible?” that have been exhibited in Prague, Le Noirmont, Novi Sad, and elsewhere, and were awarded this year’s City of Zurich Art Scholarship. It is about walls and borders between “East” and “West”, between the heart of capitalism and the periphery.

As part of the Neumarkt Residency, the trio continues to develop the project and invites the people of the city to participate in the construction of a flexible wall in “A Social Fabric.” Twice a week, the former tailor shop is transformed back into a workshop:

• In «Practice: Build That Flexible Wall! Collective Crocheting Session» Vesna teaches participants how to crochet.
• In «Sharings» guests from culture, community building and activism with connections to the Balkans share their craft.

Over the hours and weeks, a collectively built flexible wall emerges — crocheted into it shared time, knowledge and stories, in search of a cross-border practice. So that the walls adapt to the people — and not vice versa.

www.stirnimannstojanovic.com

«what if the walls were more flexible?» is supported by SüdkulturFonds

Events Overview

Ongoing Practice:

Build That Flexible Wall! Collective Crocheting Session
from October 20, 2021 until November 24, 2021
every Wednesday and Thursday between 15:00 and 21:00

Sharings (in English):

Lexicon of Tanjas Ostojić
by Tanja Ostojić
Tuesday, 02 November 2021, 19:30 — 21:00

The political economy of contemporary art:
I don’t want to be an Eastern European artist, I want to be just an artist
by Jelena Vesić
Tuesday, 09 November 2021, 19:30 — 21:00

Balkan.Coop in progress
by Balkan.Coop
Tuesday, 16 November 2021, 19:30 — 21:00

Goodbye evening
Finissage with concert by the Balkan band “The Nozez“
Saturday, November 27, 2021, from 18:00