silvia stecher
out there between the balkans
a brief tour
…
While the rest of the continent starts the „Europeanization“ of the
Balkans, we start the reverse process: we are balkanizing Europe.
Please help with your contributions. A Graz artist collective is asking
collaborators to send in their images, texts and sounds to contribute to
the future balkanizing of Europe. in other words: let’s balkanize it! and
the professional balkanizer and šalabajzer danko rabrenović explains the
diverse culture of swearing and the differences between serbian and
german, because when cursing, german and yugo worlds diverge.
german is a very rich and precise language, ideal in technical and
philosophical contexts, but when it comes to expressing emotions, my
mother tongue trips over its own feet. – this may help you understand
why he carries an endless hegel quote with him that he refers to, he who
you will have taken along to THE BALKANS , but which in the sadness feels
all balkanesque, BALKANESQUE like the sevdah. jano mori, jano lele,
sevdalino, moja rosna, jano mori, detelino
::Monika Moteska:: from the Serial:: Apocalypse::
to YOUR BALKANS, however, no train goes anywhere, for there, there they
have buses. they lie like whales in the stations, which can only be entered via a turnstile
if you insert a coin.from THIS BALKAN LAND you travel to the rest of europe by bus,
and with such guest and worker buses you also travel to THE BALKANS, whereby the bus driver
usually not only transports passengers, but for a small fee also provides a personal
delivery service, usually for documents or food, without which the
relatives at the other end of the route wouldn't be able to supposedly or
actually get along very well: cheese, bacon, sarma. (and this reminds you
how your aunt living in Switzerland, instead of buying the same
chocolate in austria, also still resists globalization today by continuing to
fill the trunk at home in ticino with swiss chocolate bars year after year
just as they did in the 60s and exposing it to several midsummer melts
until finally reaching you.) in YOUR BALKANS the bus-courier enjoys more
trust than other delivery routes and the drivers themselves in turn make
you a courier as a guest if you're willing to take the one bar of memphis
allowed to you across the borders for them. and it'll take quite a while
before you finally understand what the old woman at sarajevo train
station wants to ask you: when the bus from vienna finally arrives, she's
waiting for a suitcase full of clothes into which her daughter has sewn
money.
Translated from the German by:: Mark Kanak