The publication AKTO SPEAKING! 2006 – 2020 is not the ultimate AKTO archive. It is not AKTO’s final outlook. This publication is simply an archive that was obviously missing from the scene, an archive of not only the festival, but also all the accompanying social and political developments over recent years. It is an outlook, a particularly meticulous and serious one, but also a discursive standpoint that needs to give way to new fields for various discussions. This publication is a visual, personal and political essay of what AKTO is, as well as the circumstances that AKTO was shaped in. It constitutes some sort of a document/artefact that needs to remind us of the significance of keeping an archive, and that would later be buried in the yard of the Officers’ House, so that some years later, when the time comes for this building to be renovated again, someone else would dig it up. We are under the impression that the issues that AKTO raised during the past 15 years need to be additionally processed for another decade, starting from scratch. On the other hand, the breaking out of the COVID pandemic gave us the chance to devote ourselves fully to archiving, something that we previously never had the funds, or time for. The pandemic that raged around the world has led to a symbolic, but also physical break from our presence in public spaces, in streets, galleries, squares, theatres. Yet, it did transport us to a different plane, partially online, but also to a new process of creating relationships, links and connections that would most likely give a completely new impetus to redefine what constitutes the public nowadays and what public space is today. Maybe this publication is just another public space for AKTO to act in.
HUSINO’S MINER
Author: Branko Šimić // Statue making: Marc Einsiedel // Music: Mirza Rahmanović-Indigo // Actor: Dražen Pavlović // Assistant author: Alen Šimic // Producer: Ljubiša Veljković // Marketing: Darko Marković // Technical realisation: Dalibor Brkić // Photo and video: Mario Ilić & Mario Stjepić
Husino’s miner, the symbol of the 1920 workers’ rebellion, is reincarnated in the form of disco culture and delivers us a speech on past morality, solidarity, readiness to fight for human and workers’ rights; but also on lostness in the post-socialist transition, the emigration of the young workforce to the west and the arrival of large capitalist corporations in the east; and lastly the power of theatre and the power of art as the only possibility and the only constant of the 21st century. Nostalgia for “better times” or a “better version” of us all is a “disease” suffered by most of those who surround us. Postmodernism and deconstructivism have challenged the hierarchy, symbols and established values, including bunt. However, those of us who believe in the power of art will not be discouraged. That is how we decided to combine the two symbols and thus announce the future of optimism, prosperity and entry into a new fight for basic workers’ and human rights, but this time with arguments, creativity, pop art and in general: the power of art and artwork. The first symbol is the monument of Husino’s miner — monolithic and exalted with a rifle in his hand, he is obvious even to those who do not know in whose name he was built. The second is a disco ball that refers to past simpler and undisturbed times. Merged, the two represent a new symbol that differs from the others because it faces the future.
Main organizer: FRU
Place: Museum of Contemporary Art – Skopje (12h) and Makka Bar (21h)
