Wild Card residency for Zeina Hana in Belgrade

This Wild Card was realised in exchange with the co-organiser Uferstudios Berlin, who proposed the emerging choreographer Zeina Hana for this residency. She was in Belgrade and in Station for two weeks where she could attend the Kondenz Festival and present her work-in-progress production «Backroom».

In her report she wrote:
“Arrival / Kondenz Festival
During the first days of my residency, I had the opportunity to watch local and international performances part of the the Kondenz dance festival. This allowed me to discover venues and spaces in different parts of the city, which gave me an immediate general overview. I was warmly welcomed and guided by the Staff of Station.
I encountered the participants of the critical practice (Made in YU) and participated to round table discussions they organized with some artists of the festival.
Working at Station – research on “The commission(er)”
Once the festival was over and the studio space was cleared, I could start a routine of regular work on my research. This mostly consisted in reading, writing and selecting documentation.
I was staying in a nice apartment in the city centre from which I could investigate the city every evening, which is for me an important part of my thinking process.
After a fist discussion with Marijana, the manager of Station, I realized that my first impulse to jump into the project was maybe to ambitious and that I actually had to research more what it means to provoke commissioned works and to question how do commissioners differ from collaborators. I questioned the content of the project: Is it a commentary on production or an attempt to find an alternative way to produce work? Can it be both? What are the decisions that lead to the emergence of a work of art in the first place? What does it imply? What are my priorities?
I delved into books such as Boris Groys's Going Public and re-read Giorgio Agamben's A man without content.
There was one aspect of commissioned work I had not considered: the commission of public art from rulers or governments to demonstrate power and wealth of a country or for a specific purpose. This would be the most improbable commissioned work because in Lebanon there is no interest in giving art a role or status in the internal affairs whether for propaganda purposes or other. And since 1974 there is no greatness to praise. So I thought to imagine what kind of work would a Lebanese politician ask for. And could this politician be from another time. Can I pretend art is important and plays a role in the society I come from? This chain of thought led me to also emphasize on the fictional aspect of the project. Among the 3 to 4 works there should be one fictional.”