The first StartArt! Fest ended in Trebinje

The first StartArt! The festival was held in the Krš neighborhood, in Trebinje, in the period from July 3rd to 7th. The festival program was divided into two parts, "Building the Krš" and "Inhabiting the Krš", and included several activities such as a discussion about the project, a musical evening, the experience of building Krš for tourists and citizens, and the opening of two pop-up exhibitions.

Opening

The festival was opened on Monday in the presence of all participants, residents of the Krš neighborhood and representatives of various actors and institutions that participated in the co-creative process of designing the festival itself, including representatives of the City of Trebinje, the Museum of Herzegovina, the Tourist Organization of Trebinje and others.

Temporary spatial installation

The main part of the festival was the installation of a temporary spatial installation in the public space of the Krš neighborhood, which marked the place of interaction and all events at the festival. The installation points to the values and potentials of architectural heritage in the direction of developing sustainable cultural tourism. 

Its setting represents an experimental model of action in sensitive areas of architectural and cultural heritage. It also simulates the possibilities of activating numerous other public spaces in the neighborhood by using different spatial tactics, and with the engagement of local artists, artisans and creatives. In this co-creative process, carefully selected locations are temporarily revived in cooperation with the local community and a wide group of interested actors from different fields.

Authors

The installation was conceived, designed and realized by the students of the sixth semester of the architecture study program, within the scope of the small-scale design course, under the supervision of assistant professor Igor Kuvač, Ph.D. Arch., at the Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy, University of Banja Luka. The authors are Nemanja Ćuso, Miloš Marčeta, Nataša Jotić, Marijana Makarić, Tamara Novaković, Fatima Abazović, Branka Jakovljević and Dragoljub Kopranović. In the work with the students, a significant contribution was made by the mentors from the Center for Spatial Research, Assoc. prof. Isidora Karan, Ph.D. Arch., Saša Zečević, MA Arch. and Dejan Puhalo, B.Sc. spatial planner.

small SCALE project

According to the model of the small SCALE project of the Center for Spatial Research, the work involved identifying and responding to real problems and needs of public space and the inhabitants of the Krš neighborhood, using different tactics and innovative tools, such as co-creation and collaboration during the several days of the festival. Through this project, students had the opportunity to gain practical knowledge in the field of conceptualizing and creating small-scale designs with an emphasis on learning through implementation. In this case, design is not understood as a commodity, and the role of the architect moves from the passive position of one who is paid, to produce an idea for the market on someone's behalf, to the domain of socially engaged behavior in the meeting of architecture and activism.

Closing

The festival ended with an exhibition of conceptual solutions for the interior architecture of the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Republika Srpska, Banja Luka, which were created as a semester project in the course Studio project 6 (Interior and design), under the teacher Prof. Saša Čvoro, Prof. Malina Čvoro, Ass. Prof. Marina Radulj, Ass. Pof. Igor Kuvač and Una Okilj and Milana Nedimović, senior assistants at the Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy, University of Banja Luka.

Krš neighborhood, a part of the National Monument

Krš neighborhood (known as Omanovića-mahala) is one of the oldest urban areas in the city of Trebinje, and it is part of the national monument "Trebinje Historic City Area". Mahala developed during the 17th century on the steep slopes to the north above the Old Town. It is characterized by narrow and steep streets with small stone houses for living. The document on the protection of the Commission for the Preservation of National Monuments of BiH states the following: "The objects are densely grouped, of modest dimensions, single-story, covered with sloping roofs covered with stone slabs. The facades are made of stone, from broken stone arranged in irregular rows. According to the construction method and materials, the architecture is marked as folk, characteristic of Herzegovina".

Laboratory of cultural tourism

Unfortunately, this valuable monument, the cultural (building) heritage of Bosnia and Herzegovina is today marginalized and poorly utilized. As such, the Krš neighborhood is part of the laboratory of cultural tourism within the TExTOUR H2020 project, recognized as a spatial polygon within the pilot location of Trebinje, with the potential to implement one of the three actions that contribute to the integration of cultural heritage and tourism.

StartArt! festival, as well as the entire TExTOUR project, is co-funded by the European Commission.

Photo by: Saša Zečević