KRAK Center for Contemporary Culture (Hamze Hume bb, Bihac)
Symposium: Friday, December 8, 2023, at 9:30 am

In the last couple of years, civic initiatives which focus on the regeneration of public space and its inventive reconsideration have emerged in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Such developments are encouraging because they suggest a more active participation of the most diverse groups of citizens on the one hand, but also a more transparent policy of official institutions on rethinking space on the other. A favorable environment is created for more active involvement of independent organizations, professional associations and various practitioners, which ultimately leads to a more responsible and economical use of public space beyond privatization protocols and against the overwhelming tendencies of its commodification.

The one-day symposium Our spaces brings together actors from Banja Luka, Bihać, Mostar and Sarajevo, who in different ways dealt with the articulation, that is, the shaping of public space from various methodological perspectives. The desire is to gather in one place institutional and non-institutional creators of spatial policies and urban strategies from different environments, which serve the benefit of all citizens. On top of that, the symposium focuses on Bihać and what has been going on in KRAK Center for the past few years, referring to artistic and other spatial interventions in public space, realized from 2020 onwards.

After the presentation of the Creative Ecology project to the employees of the Department for Urban Planning, Construction, Real Property and Geodetic Affairs of the City of Bihać, as well as to the employees of the Institute for Spatial Planning, the Tourist Board and the Organization for Spatial Initiatives Kultivator, which was held in February 2023 at KRAK Center, the aim is to motivate mutual learning and deepen the exchange between different organizations of different profiles. Furthermore, the desire is to maintain positive practice, and in a collegial atmosphere exchange ideas for creating a protocol for the easiest and most effective operation when it comes to administration, planning and spatial execution of interventions in the public space of the City of Bihać.

Detailed program is available in a separate pdf-document.