Manja Ristic - Nothing Has To Happen, Fortress Europe by Radiophrenia published on 2023-03-17T15:12:31Z https://2022.radiophrenia.scot/artist/manja-ristic/ In January 2020 I found myself in Ljubljana exploring abandoned spaces as a continuation of my obsession with listening to the Third Landscape – Gilles Clément’s concept which considers, among other things, abandoned urban landscapes or those which suffered an explicit human intervention as places good for thriving bio-diversities which are building the genetic reservoirs that an overall Ecosystem is dependant on. I instantly got hooked by the largest city project – The Sport Park Stožice. It was supposed to include sport facilities and a vast commercial area but only the public part was built, the arena and the stadium. Eighty thousand square meters of the shopping centre remained unfinished. As often, politics and economics are inseparable, and as corruptive mechanisms become more obvious, both reveal deep submergence into necropolitics. A capital cumulation on the detriment of basic social rights leading to a radical devaluation of a human life. To cut the story short, most of the “modern” societies “background” economics can be reduced to arms sales, drugs, and human trafficking routes. Beneath them are stock value of oil and lithium, gold and diamonds. “Please be careful, you’ll be trespassing”, said a dear friend. The private partner in the public-private largest investment in Slovenia since the 1970s went bankrupt in 2012. There were irregularities in the expenditure of EU funds, the then-Mayor pleads not guilty in the latest lawsuit investigating the case. “There used to be a wonderful pond, and a hilly landscape… now it’s just concrete, wherever you look, there’s concrete.” It was a crispy January morning, I wore my army boots. The site was enormous. Several concrete terraces were covered in various surfaces, reaching as far as the eye can see. I decided to just walk. ..... (see web link for full text)..... Every time you think “That is somewhere over there. Nothing has to happen”, a child that dreamed of freedom disappears. The composition is made around an excerpt from my Stožice abandoned construction site field recording archive. Recorded in January 2020 during the reZone residency in Ljubljana. Poetry excerpts from the collection Stories Untold. Mastering by La Plant Studio Belgrade. http://manjaristic.blogspot.com/ https://manjaristic.bandcamp.com/ https://sonicmatter.bandcamp.com/ photo: Nina Pernat ‘Nothing Has To Happen, Fortress Europe’ is a co-commission between Radiophrenia and Kunstradio Radiokunst for Ö1, Austria. Genre Radio Art