The residents of Čazmanska 2 and 3 skyscrapers in Zagreb are, as residents of any buildings, a combination of different people, accidentally sharing 17 floors of each building and spending their lives close to one another (around 300 people). By chance, it turned out that these 2 buildings were homes of jazz musicians, opera singers, war journalists, painters, and a vast number of different characters, and that their tenants share a special bond to the building and their shared histories and memories.
We heard stories of children of 2 skyscrapers using entrances as goals in the football games between buildings, of youngsters pulling pranks in the elevators, of sounds of rehearsals of opera singer, and communal dinners in the halls on New Year’s Eve. We heard how 2 boys projected from their balcony images of their parents on the opposite building, after learning about their divorce.
The residents of these 2 buildings keep on being neighbours, friends, and strangers at the same time, taking care of the space where they live and hoping for the times where they knew each other more to return in their halls.
“Magic Carpets” project: Street Karma
Artists: Alina Manolache, Sara Renar, Pavica Knezović Belan
Collaborators: Yammat.fm
The activities of Street Karma focused on 2 skyscrapers in Zagreb, envisioned as 2 twin sisters, telling the tales of their many parts (people, animals, and histories). It was composed of several intertwining parts:
1. Gathering stories and experiences of the location in the shared parts of the building (halls, elevators), in the format of the experience boards, where tenants could share intimate moments of their lives. This was used as a basis for further elaboration and development of Street Karma
2. Community Radio, realized in cooperation with Yammat.fm – During 4 days of Yammat.fm’s live broadcasting from the location in between skyscrapers (communal garage), the stories of two skyscrapers in Čazmanska Street were shared through the eyes of tenants, art historians, artists, architects and passers-by who transformed architecture into living organisms through their actions or living.
3. Production of the film Giants by Romanian director Alina Manolache, realized in collaboration with artist Sara Renar, journalist Pavica Knezović Belan and cinematographer Branimir Boban. The film tells a story of two skyscrapers in the vision of two twin sisters born in 1968. Approaching the residents of the skyscraper as integral parts of the two sisters, film footage was shot in their apartments, catching the intimate moments of their life in the homes of skyscraper sisters.
Number of community members included in the project: 40
Reasons for participating in the “Magic Carpets” project: Street Karma was envisioned as a way to understand what composes a certain neighbourhood, or in this case, buildings, and to define what are the ways to engage more with the people sharing their living spaces with others. We wanted to understand different histories taking place there, the reasons for the love shared for the space by many past and current residents.