Skopje Subculture Pres

SKOPJE
Subcultural research on spaces and movements
Subcultural club SHORTBUS

Is a unique queer art/music space and project in Skopje which gathers mostly young queer
people in a non-conformist and transgressive everyday practice through music, art initiatives,
food, and performances. Its space is used for everyday gatherings, exchanges, music and
drag performances, book promotions, movie projections, yoga, etc. Shortbus also maintains
a radio and art platform which identifies, supports and promotes young queer artists and
projects from Skopje.
Bar LA KANA
One of the most iconic alternative music/concert and social spaces in Skopje. Its motive is to
provide a no-bullshit low-cost approach to socialising where the main focus is on new
underground music. La Kana has curated music nights almost every day of the week with a
general rule that forbids commercial songs and artists being played. The venue of La Kana
has served as a meeting and melting point for alternative musical bands from Skopje, the
region and also serves as a concert venue for international alternative bands on tour through
the city. The owners and the community around La Kana are mostly musicians and as a
result of their long-term socialising many music projects have been produced and promoted
at the bar.
KOOPERACIJA
Is one of the rare autonomous critical art collectives to have appeared in Skopje in the
2010s. It gathered a group of avant-garde contemporary artists, curators and theorists from
Skopje with the aim of using art and culture to develop a parallel social immanence to the
one of the repressive state and government during the period it existed. Their projects were
marked with a radical note towards the conformism of the society and a strong opposition to
the official state politics. Further, Kooperacija challenged the mainstream idea of
settled/immobilized spaces for art production and exhibiting, thus opening up most
uncommon non-institutional spaces for delivering and presenting their projects, such as:
barber shops, private gardens, automobile saloons, etc.
DAMAR
It was the first bar that opened in the Old Bazaar of Skopje, which had been inactivated for a
whole decade due to its location separating the symbolic Albanian and Macedonian parts of
the city. It was an independent performance and music collective that produced indie
movies, theatre plays and queer performances. For a decade it represented a space for free
exploration of artistic motivation, and it helped generate a network of artists, activists and
theorists who later maintained their links and build new collectives and projects. In that
sense, Damar was one of the key sparks in the further development of the subcultural scene
of Skopje.
TOCKA
The Cultural centre Tocka that existed in early 2000s was a kind of cultural "counter-center",
a cultural and social site in the capital where marginal cultural groups will not only regularly
come together but joining together their efforts for self-presentation to the incomparably
larger cultural audience. Matching the need for alternative cultural public space, Tocka soon
became vivid and recognized space, not only for the project aims, but as a gathering ground
and support centre for many other cultural and public initiatives, to other cultural and artistic
organizations, groups and individuals. This made the "off program" of the centre running
very frequently and aiming at different audiences. In the period of four years, over 100
different events were held in Tocka, often with decentralized management. Tocka achieved
ton wake up the young and creative people of diverse cultural and ethnic origin from the
horrible apathy and gave example how can society be changed by cultural action. The space
Tocka was one of the first independent cultural and art spaces in Skopje which existed since
the 90es.
DUNJA/AKSC
Dunja is a social centre that is a continuation of the AKSC centre which gathers a community
of politically and culturally defined group that identifies itself as anti-capitalist, anti –
(patriarchal, hierarchical, clerical, nationalist) movement. The social centre Dunja is a
collective that enables activism, theory and art with a very clear defined ideological scope.
Dunja aims to create a society of people who not only have awareness and take
responsibility for themselves, but also, have awareness about and act responsibly toward
one another, nature, animals and the well-being of everyone. A society where people will
surmount the constraints of imposed differences, regarding class, nationality, religion,
gender, race, sexuality, etc. – a society where people will work for the common good, united
and in solidarity. This society may be at some distant point in the future; nonetheless it is the
only thing worthy of our commitment and struggle today. The social centre Dunja is a space
which aims a new culture of resistance to the dominant neoliberal policies which, by means
of economic inequality, dominate interpersonal relations, translated into an authoritarian
capitalist system. This is a space where we develop the political values of economic,
ecological and social sustainability among one another, to be attained through the
commitment to solidarity, equality, comradeship, social justice, gender emancipation,
empathy and collective awareness. The activities organised in Dunja are non-profit and non-
commercial. A vast array of events and initiatives is organised regularly, including
exhibitions, movie screenings, debates, workshops, concerts, lectures, promotions, plays,
meetings etc.

Skopje Subculture Pres

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SKOPJE

Subcultural research on spaces and movements

Subcultural club SHORTBUS

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