Valentina Gulin Zrnić sudjelovala je na XIII međunarodnoj konferenciji Europskog udruženja za urbanu povijest (European Association for Urban History) u Helsinkiju 24.-28. kolovoza 2016. koja se održavala pod nazviom Reinterpreting Cities.
(Sažetak)
The Heterotopia of Urban Wilderness
Urban wilderness is basically an oxymoron: “urban” connotes culture, design, planning and control while “wilderness” refers to nature, spontaneity, evolving and uncontrolled. Starting from the incongruous characteristics of urban wilderness the paper aims at discussing its complex natural, cultural, social, political and ecologic dimensions. The presentation will be based on the case studies of places and practices that embody urban wilderness in Zagreb, from plants that grow from asphalt and building cracks to informal gardening and derelict urban sites. One strand of discussion develops along the instructive concept of heterotopia (Michel Foucault) and questions urban wilderness as “spaces of otherness”. Thus, urban wilderness as a particular urban issue might provoke more general theoretical rethinking of the city in terms of ambiguousness, liminality, informality and temporality. The second strand refers to an art-based project in Zagreb public spaces which aimed at attracting the attention of people in the street to perceive urban wilderness nearby. The project simultaneously dealt with urban wilderness in a manner of critique of the current urban state in Zagreb (in the post-socialist and neoliberal contexts) but also cherishing the potential of urban wilderness for urban imagination and aesthetic which are perspectives often “derelict” in academic writing. Combining ethnographic material, theoretical insights and artistic sensibilities, the paper presents the perception and the experience of the city through the particular perspective of urban wilderness and uses it as a means to question broader issues in urban studies such as the notion and the poetics of the city.
Izlaganje je održano unutar panela (S1) Life in the Ruins: Nature and Urban Dereliction.
