ZMUC: Artists are one nation

The Small Art Center of Zemun (ZMUC), after many years of implementation of the Regional Program Mobile Residency, became, after the beginning of the Russian war in Ukraine, a host for artists who emigrated due to that armed conflict for various reasons. For SEEcult.org, Goran Denić and Vesna Tašić from ZMUC, who plan to develop their Alternative Residency Center (ARC) "Dve Babe" at the foot of Kosmaj - where they have been residing artists for a long time - into a permanently open residential space for artists who find themselves under the impact of the most diverse types of mega threats possible in the age of polycrisis in the future.

- You have been organizing residencies for artists for years, and this year you hosted artists who are temporarily staying in Serbia because of the Russian war in Ukraine. How did it come about?

Goran Denić: When we first organized a multimedia residency for former Yugoslavian artists in 2010 in the village of Karavukovo in Bač, it was clear to us in which direction we should develop the program, so that together with the visiting artists, at least for the duration of the residency, we could highlight some issue that seemed burning at that moment. So, from that year, we started the Mobile Residences Program, an oxymoron that signifies the idea of an artistic queue in the Balkans, by means of topicalization of various crisis points of recent history, which we had considered in Serbia, Albania and Montenegro until the outbreak of the pandemic. Therefore, the war in Ukraine has brought a problem that requires consideration from several angles. War is a problem, it is one of a series of crises, and since we are no strangers to the experience of war, as part of the program, we felt compelled and competent enough to provide a residency for artists fleeing war, as early as March 2022.

Vesna Tašić: As people from Artist at Risk called and asked if we could accommodate the violinist Andrey Timofeev in 24 hours, his Schengen visa was expiring and he had to leave Austria urgently. I am glad that we were "reckless", we reacted immediately and welcomed him with hot meal. With the first resident "at risk" we overcome administrative obstacles for foreigners, so today we know a lot of useful things. The fact is that this process is ongoing because there are addresses in Belgrade that deal with migrants and asylum seekers, such as the Belgrade Center for Human Rights, but not an address for providing information about opportunities in Serbia for holders of different passports - from Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainian women to the film director from India or Kurds from Turkey, which is the case we had. One artist was pregnant and wanted to escape from Turkey before giving birth, she wanted to give birth to a child in Serbia. We failed to gather information in time, it was the weekend, so she fled to another country. 

We also failed to help the rock and roll musician Yevgeniy Fedorov, who at one point was threatened with immediate deportation from Sweden to Estonia, where he arrived from. The Swedish media claimed at the time that Fedorov would face a false trial and a long prison sentence in Russia, as happened with other dissidents and cultural workers.

We could not guarantee medical and psychological help, as well as accommodation for a family of four, in a timely manner, meaning within 48 hours.

Finally, the Swedish Migration Agency succumbed to public pressure, so Fedorov was not deported.

Photo: Aleksandar Slavković

- You are one of the few organizations in the region that are involved in the Artists at Risk Network, active in helping artists in need. How would you describe the cooperation with them and what is the specific help that AR provides?

Goran Denić: Artist at Risk drew our attention back when the migrant crisis broke out in 2015 and we then, for the first time, offered them help through the Mobile Residencies program, at least to artists coming to Europe via the Balkan route. It seems that the help offered at that time was insufficient or that there were no interested artists from Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan who would like to stay in Serbia for a while.

Anyway, in March 2022, Artist at Risk contacted us by email – asking if we would be able to host a violinist from St. Petersburg? His Schengen visa was expiring and he had to leave Austria. The day after.

Artist at Risk provides a modest grant for the artists and covers some of our expenses through coordinator`s fee.

Since then, four artists have stayed with us, two are still here. Artist at Risk tries to make their stay in Serbia financially easier, and we try to find part-time jobs for them. We are talking about top professionals, therefore our effort is reduced to a minimum.

Vesna Tašić: Marita (Muukkonen) and Ivor (Stodolsky) are direct and open with hosters and very quickly find residencies for at-risk artists from all over the world. What is important to them is what happens to the residents at all times. They do not keep strictly to the European agenda but meet the human agenda. Both for us and them, artists are one nation.

They use European funds in the best possible way, which are not symphatetic to, say, artists at risk from Iraq and Syria. They are a real refreshment on the cultural scene.

We walked them through the space in one video call, and showed the current state of ARC Dve Babe, being unfinished.

- One gets the impression that there are more Russian citizens in Serbia who emigrated because of the war than Ukrainian citizens. What is the reason for such a situation in your opinion?

Goran Denić: Holders of Russian passports are denied or limited entry everywhere in Europe, visa issuance procedures are complicated, while there are no such problems with Ukrainian passports. And it is easier to sympathize with the victim than with the aggressor. Since Serbia is the only one in Europe that does not formally differentiate between one and the other, perhaps to its detriment, Russian citizens are more numerous here. Then, in Europe there is a support network for Ukrainian refugees, but not for Russian ones. It is likely that the experience of the war that Serbia went through, a war in which all Serbian citizens were labeled as aggressors no matter how many of those aggressors were against the war, led to the fact that we can easily sympathize with such deserters, traitors and the fifth column, as some call these people in Serbia.      

Vesna Tašić: From communication with a partner organization in Ukraine (Chernovci), with which we have been working since 2018, we know that male artists did not want to flee Ukraine even before the ban on leaving the country for those over 18. After the ban on leaving the country, of course, there were not many of them in Europe.

Only female artists could leave the country, and for them, Serbia was not a priority destination because they did not need visas for any European country.

On the other hand, Russian artists, "dissidents" have a direct flight from Moscow to Belgrade and enter Serbia without a visa, which is the case with several other countries in the region. AR, back in August, when we hosted three residents, announced a competition for hosters in non-EU countries, which means that they needed much larger capacities.

Goran Denić, Vesna Tšić, Andrey and Olga Timofeev, Ksenia Ilina, ZMUC, 2022.

- What, according to you, or the experience of your residents, are the most significant problems of artists who want to avoid the war and continue their professional activities in one of the EU countries, while temporarily staying in Serbia?

Goran Denić: I think that all citizens of the former Yugoslavia, and those who fled the war, as well as those who directly participated in the war, either voluntarily or as mobilized, have the experience that everything you knew until then collapsed, turned upside down, and disappeared. However, for many it represented the end of the world and for some others, a new beginning and departure from the old one, the justification they were waiting for. All those who are stuck between these two extremes are in trouble. It is difficult to discard the previous successful professional life and build a new one, especially with the stigma of being an aggressor, especially with the argument, which is often made, that you have lost your career and Ukrainians have lost their lives. Then, your driver's license expires and you can only renew it in Russia. Or any document you need to attach when searching for a job. And there, most likely, you will be arrested.  
         
Vesna Tašić: Obtaining a visa for the desired EU country. As the war progressed, more and more European governments denied visas to Russian citizens, equating them with the Russian political elite that invaded Ukraine. Although, by the way, they do not approve of the actions of the same government, which was the reason they left Russia.

We have been friends for almost a year and I got the impression that all the residents are convinced that people in Serbia have no idea, that they don't know anything about real life in Russia.

Andrey Timofeev and Olga Timofeev play in several orchestras in Belgrade, attend auditions in all the countries they can travel to, pass the auditions and get job offers, but not a visa for that country. The last such case was with the Czech Republic in August, just at the moment when the Baltic countries and the Czech Republic canceled visas for Russians.

They are currently waiting for a work permit in Bulgaria, where they found a job in an orchestra. This time they got a visa, but not a work permit, without which they cannot work legally.

Ksenia Ilina, a visual artist from St. Petersburg is currently in France, she managed to get a visa through an international organization that helps artists. The sound engineer, Roman Sorokin, went to Vietnam from Serbia, convinced that he would succeed as a DJ. Right now, even though his laptop burned, he says he's fine.

These people, as refugees, dissidents or however they feel, fundamentally change their lives and cannot be mere "project beneficiaries", each of them has different needs, more or less fear, more or less determination and none of them want to expose themselves publicly or are reluctant to do so. Some of them have a Ukrainian mother who lives in Russia, some have a brother mobilized in Russia, some have a problem with their father who supports Russia in the war in Ukraine. We only tried to provide them with safety, no matter what they decided to do in their professional careers, we guaranteed them anonymity and the possibility of staying in Serbia for as long as they needed, until they resolved their status. That's the only thing a hoster can provide to those people at a turning point.

- How to finance the provision of assistance to artists through the AR network?

Goran Denić: There are two types of grants awarded by Artist at Risk. One is a living grant, and the other is a working grant. The living grant is a smaller amount, barely enough for bare living, while the working grant is somewhat better. Both imply a contract with the artist and the hosting institution in the specific case with ZMUC. Then that amount of the grant is paid via SWIFT to the artist's account, if there is one, imagine how many such Russian citizens there are in a situation when Russia is excluded from SWIFT, or to the account of the hosting institution, which then arranges to deliver the money to the artist. According to the law, we cannot withdraw cash, and money cannot be paid to a non-resident account without a Service Contract. At the same time, foreign citizens can only open an account if they have a registered activity in the ABR, which happens after three months in Serbia, i.e. after obtaining temporary residence. So the help to artists is limited to accommodation, food, administrative assistance, finding part-time jobs for the sake of continuing their professional careers....   

Vesna Tašić: AR helps artists, but not necessarily and strictly. They encourage hosters to find living grants for artists themselves, although in the case of Serbia it quickly became clear to them that there are no such grants here.

Even with a letter of recommendation from the AR itself, it is unlikely that the Balkan organization will receive the European fund, which is normally intended for refugee artists. Maybe because of the large number of Russian artists in Serbia, i.e. the small number of Ukrainian artists.

Nobody wanted to finance Russian artists in Serbia. We all managed together, we lived together, ate together, paid the bills... Three months later, after they would have received permanent residency, registered a legal entity in the ABR, they could also receive a living grant on their own account, and they did. We no longer had to think up and edit the menu.

- Is there any institutional support for organizations that provide this kind of assistance to refugee artists?

Goran Denić: As far as I know, there is no institutional aid for refugee artists in Serbia. Perhaps something has changed in the meantime, but the institutional assistance to Serbian artists is also very questionable, since the funds determined through the tenders of the Ministry of Culture are insufficient even to maintain basic vital functions. Who else wants to mess with some strangers! On the other hand, there are too many of us artists in the world. However looking from the brighter point of view, mandatory basic health care is provided without discrimination. Still.

Vesna Tašić: No, there isn’t. We have been informally informing some addresses about the situation we are in for almost a year, but we have had no response. We were helped by individuals, such as lawyer Tatjana Petovar, composer Ivana Stefanović and Dragoslav Popović, who is a senior consultant for public health. Those people already came to the rescue in April last year. And yes, we also received two sacks of sand and a sack of mortar at the Sinđelić warehouse in Sopot.

- Do you know of similar examples of organizations in the region that have been involved in providing assistance to artists who have escaped from wartime circumstances?

Goran Denić: I'm sure there are such examples, but I can't think of any working the way we do. Maybe the Crocodile and maybe NS Capital of Culture. People from Artist at Risk asked us to contact our colleagues from the region in order to open some more doors for refugee artists, however the whole so-called region, organizationally and especially financially, does not have enough capacity. It is systemically impossible for us to make long-term strategic plans, precisely because of the extremely uncertain financial situation. Also, it is possible that only we are uninformed because since the beginning of the war in Ukraine we have relocated to our Alternative Residential Center (ARC) Dve Babe and disconnected from social networks.
    
Vesna Tašić: I believe there are such examples, but I don't know them. It's possible that they didn't advertise, as we didn't either, since at-risk residents most often need it. Again, there were no official institutions involved in such engagement. In Serbia, almost everyone referred us to tenders that have yet to be announced, which means with a delay of 11 months. Totally pointless.
    
- In your opinion, how would the eventual decision of Belgrade to introduce sanctions against Russia at the insistence of the EU affect the possibilities of Russian artists to find temporary refuge in Serbia?

Goran Denić: Serbia is a preferred destination for Russian citizens only because of the easy entry and simple procedure for obtaining residence. The moment when and if Serbia introduces the restrictions for Russian citizens that are in force in the EU, they will look for their place under the sun in some other part of the world, in Vietnam for example.
 
Vesna Tašić: I have no doubt that they would manage, even in the Far East. And I hope I sound politically incorrect. One of our residents, a sound designer, ended up in Vietnam and is doing well. I assume that the Moscow-Belgrade airline would be canceled, which was not important to our residents because they all came from Europe. But it would probably matter to the future, given that European countries have introduced rigorous visa regimes for Russian passport holders. Some of them justified as it was noticed that many of them come to European capitals for shopping.

- Today, it is increasingly difficult to define what risk is in general. Former risks, such as suppression of freedom of expression, repression of non-democratic regimes, local armed conflicts... have been replaced by a pandemic, climate change crisis, and immediately after, a war of global proportions, which, admittedly, has not yet been officially declared. How do you see that issue of risk today?
    
Goran Denić: Risks are changing and it is necessary to monitor them and analyze the situation in order to respond adequately because they are no longer limited to local areas, but have become global and require global responses. Today, it is important to recognize risks and take appropriate measures to prevent their negative consequences.

For example, the above two sentences were generated by a robot (Chat GPT), so is the development of AI a risk to humanity?

This year, the World Health Organization issued recommendations to countries on drugs which they should have in stock in case of nuclear war. PDF  form and available for download.  

Is the risk of a climate catastrophe greater than the risk of a nuclear war, or is it a camouflage for the increasing restriction of freedoms and the global robbery of citizens through inflation, war industry financing, war rhetoric, etc. I don't know, we should learn to observe the world around us from all angles,  like chameleons, in order to view the whole picture, who is working against us and who is the prey, i.e. the target group.    

Vesna Tašić: The Financial Times declared "polycrisis" as the word for 2022, which means a crisis that does not end. There is also talk of "mega threats", as the economist Nouriel Roubini calls the polycrisis.
Since the time of classic residencies has passed, one should be open for urgent and unexpected cases of necessary relocation of artists. This year we will work on the concept of such a no-rent residence.

Domestic artists have long been in crisis/threat, and mega threats only complicate such a position. It would be good if the region responds to such needs and joins those European organizations that work on specific assistance to individual artists. Today, unlike the 90s of the last century, there are enough of them.

Perhaps the priority is the global community of artists, because national communities and elites will not save us when we ourselves become refugees or dissidents, anyway.
     
- What are your future plans for the Artist Residency Program?

Goran Denić: The future is unwritten, let me answer with a quote. What is a huge problem today may already become invisible tomorrow. In this sense, we are trying to create a residence that is able to respond to all those unwritten futures. As before, we are talking about processes that are most often the result of random encounters and chaotic cooperation, rather than a defined goal and strategy. In the short term, this summer, we plan to complete the works in order to have a functional work and living space for the five artists and ZMUC, throughout the year. Whether this will involve the installation of photovoltaic panels on the roof or lead plates to protect against radioactive radiation, I do not know. In any case, in April, together with the curator Maida Gruden, we are thinking about the so-called sustainability strategies.   

Vesna Tašić: We are planning to develop the new residential space as a flexible place, no-rent, 365 days a year open and reacting precisely to mega threats or polycrisis. I don't think we will be able to "save" many artists, but we will be open to new methods of work as applied by many organizations on the European scene, which change the way of work, priorities and methods on the way, in accordance with the current situation, without pause. We will concentrate on individuals and ignore slogans.

*Photo: ZMUC

(SEEcult.org)

*Funded by the Stabilisation Fund for Culture and Education 2022 of the German Federal Foreign Office and the Goethe Institut