The Škurinje – Culture with a View programme explores and documents the history and future of the settlement within the context of the unfinished urbanisation and specific micro-locations of the city of Rijeka. The programme is aimed at fostering the creative and artistic activation of the neighbourhood, the forming of a stronger and more engaged community, the reminiscence of history and a view of the future, the creation of a green library of knowledge and inspiration focused on urbanism, and at an educational programme about urban green themes, do-it-yourself culture, and the creation of neighbourhood pockets for culture and art.

The Green Library collects books featuring green themes and creates places for exchange, and it also includes lectures, the exchange of seedlings, and green guerrilla interventions. And the story doesn’t end there, but goes on into various artistic initiatives, the creation of a neighbourhood fanzine, and the production of urban furniture made by the inhabitants themselves. The metaphor under which the activities take place is the Škurinje Cultural Centre – it doesn’t exist physically as an expensive infrastructure, but with the dedication of each individual, it can indeed develop at any point of the settlement – in the park, on steps, in a doorway… With a good view.” In order to strengthen and deepen their activist neighbourhood experiences, the inhabitants are expanding the collaboration with the European neighbourhood of Kaunas 2022, one which has already made them into sought-after experts in engaging the social community.

PRE-PROGRAMME

The first common non-sports-supporter mural in Škurinje
Time:
21 – 22 November, 9 am – 4 pm
28 – 29 November, 9 am – 4 pm
Hostess: Nicol Načinović
Venue: Save Jugo Bujkova, children’s playground next to the Local Committee premises

Škurinje is an area permeated with sports supporters’ murals. Other forms of creative and artistic expression are virtually nowhere to be found in visible places throughout the neighbourhood. The chosen location is found in the remains of a building which served as accommodation for the construction workers during the construction of the neighbourhood, only to be converted into a Community Centre and an inadequate socialising facility at a later stage. However, many wonderful memories were indeed made in the space, regardless of its inadequacy. Today, this area is home to a small children’s park, which is a very popular playing and socialising hotspot, soon to be further enhanced by a playful and colourful mural featuring motifs from the Croatian animated TV series for children, Professor Balthazar. The mural will be painted during two weekends in November. Any volunteers willing to help out are more than welcome.
Note: You can apply via e-mail to skurinjskisusjedi@gmail.com. Max. 10 participants allowed.

A critical walk through Škurinje + the Urban AR app
Time: Thursday, 3 December at 4 pm
Host: Kristian Benić
Venue: XIX. udarne divizije 1
Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.StudioArtlan.UrbanAR&hl=en_US&gl=US

Urban AR is a simple mobile app that enables a practical visualisation of a variety of environmental interventions, and facilitates its presentation to anyone interested in the topic. This is the first phase of the development of a broader educational concept, aimed at strengthening the role of the “common” citizen in understanding, contemplating, and implementing urban planning solutions. Critical walkthroughs around the settlement are being organised alongside the mobile app, where its history, urban planning solutions, and further possibilities are being discussed.
In other words, the Urban AR app is a tool that provides citizens with a straightforward and accessible way of making their competent institutions aware of a variety of problems, and monitoring of how the institutions solve these problems.
Note: For the time being, the app can only be downloaded from the Google Play Store, but it will also be made available for iOS devices in the App Store.

The Zoom Kitchen of Healthy December Muffins
Time: Thursday, 3 December at 6 pm
Hostess: Ana Smokrović
Venue: Zoom

Ana is a farmer, and a dear friend of the Škurinje neighbourhood, and she will be preparing food via Zoom, and given the fact we are in the middle of a global pandemic, all the participants will be joining her from the warmth of their own homes. The Covid-19 circumstances imply certain limitations, but on the other hand, they also foster innovative new approaches when it comes to spreading useful knowledge and skills that we all need in such circumstances. To anyone interested, Ana will demonstrate the skills and knowledge that will empower and prepare us for this ever so unpredictable winter. It is necessary to application via skurinjskisusjedi@gmail.com, and following a successful application, you will receive an email with the meeting link, while the recipe to be prepared can be downloaded from skurinjskisusjedi.org.

Škurinje Library Bus Friday and Škurinje Book Club
Time: Friday, 4 December, 11 am – 2 pm
Implemented by: Rijeka City Library
Venue: Save Jugo Bujkove 40 (The bus stop in the middle of the street just below the building with parking garages)

Rijeka City Library’s mobile library bus has been a cultural phenomenon for years. The mobile library bus is simply unstoppable, as this knowledge-filled bus has been relentlessly coming to the bus stop at Save Jugo Bujkova Street, where you’ll have a window of several hours to borrow your desired books. The library that comes to its citizens is an exceptional idea, which is particularly appreciated in these trying times. This is why, to commemorate the Škurinje Neighbours’ day, the Rijeka City Library has decided to treat all citizens to free Library Bus memberships on Friday, 4 December! This is a great moment for us to invite you to become a member of our new initiative, the Škurinje Book Club!

PROGRAMME

Note: The programme was supposed to have an opening ceremony at 5 pm; however, due to the new epidemiological measures, the ceremony has been cancelled.

Time: Friday, 4 December, starting at 5 pm
Venue: Save Jugo Bujkova 44, – the garage, at the plateau in the small park

5 pm A demo of 3D printing in the garage: A 3D printout of a scale model of the Škurinje Cultural Centre

The 3D printing technology makes it possible for virtually anyone to bring his/her ideas to life in 3D, in the form of a pre-modelled physical prototype. The symbolically valuable space of the Škurinje garage will host a 3D printout of a simple model of the Škurinje Cultural Centre, as a reminder of an existing vision of a non-existent space. The programme, which is to serve as a demo for anyone interested, will take place throughout the evening, until 8 pm.

5:30 pm – Škurinje in the Past – A Settlement That Grew Out From a Vineyard
Keynote speaker: Assistant Professor Marko Medved (PhD)                                                                

Based on previously unknown archival materials, the author presents multiple data sources in the which Škurinje is mentioned, predominantly in the context of the legal affairs and testaments of the ecclesiastical bodies of Rijeka. Particular attention is given to the Augustine Monastery of St. Jerome, given the fact that, in the pre-industrial age, it owned multiple facilities in Rijeka’s immediate and wider surroundings, and Škurinje was no exception to that fact.

6 pm – Showcasing a new issue of the Balcony Newspaper
Hosts: Ana Labudović & Kristian Benić

Envisaged as a means of showcasing the initiative, and Škurinje as a settlement, the neighbourhood fanzine, Balcony Newspaper, is published intermittently. What makes it stand out is the fact that it is printed in the risograph printing technique, which is in itself an innovative breakthrough in the micro-local world of neighbourhood journalism. The third issue of the fanzine is dedicated to an imaginary cultural centre, and it provides an overview of all the activities of the initiative to date, and of our common future-oriented outlook.

6:30 pm – The Škurinje Cultural Centre or how to complete urbanistic incompleteness
Hostess:  Gorana Stipeč

When contemplating the launch or realisation of a cultural centre facility, it is usually done through an idea of a physical space in the form of an adequate building or an existing space that can be tailored to an intended purpose. Our idea of a cultural centre in Škurinje goes directly against the idea of contemplating a space in a physical sense, and does not necessarily entail a physical manifestation, which doesn’t even exist in the current urban planning agenda. This idea of a cultural centre revolves around all the “software” spaces in which such an idea might be implemented. What can be done when circumstances do not allow development, and yet, culture still keeps on happening?

7:30 pm – 8 pm – A Virtual Evening with Lithuanians

Over the course of many years, some particularly close relations have been established between the Škurinje Neighbourhood and our friends from Lithuania, and between similar organisations aimed at engaging the community and fostering cultural activities in settlements. The current pandemic situation bars us from travelling, but the available online tools have already been tried out in group dinners, workshops, mushroom cooking, Kvass making (fermented rye bread drink), and in many other social events. The Škurinje and Kaunas Neighbourhoods are co-hosts of a virtual dinner to which anyone present is invited. Be sure to join our European Neighbourhoods and spice up your day with a blend of interesting stories and experiences from Škurinje and Lithuania.

ABOUT THE PROGRAMME 

The Škurinje – Culture with a View programme, in the context of the unfinished urbanisation and specific micro-locations of the city of Rijeka, explores and documents the history and the future of the settlement.  The programme includes the creative and artistic activation of the neighbourhood, the forming of a stronger and more engaged community, the reminiscence of history and a view of the future, the creation of a green library of knowledge and inspiration, and an educational programme about urban “green” themes, do-it-yourself culture, and the creation of neighbourhood pockets for culture and art.

The Škurinje Cultural Centre – a space virtually and physically distributed within the settlement, that is floating between metaphor and reality. It involves all the culture and art activities that are being organised, or are planned to be organised, in the settlement (wall painting, meetings with authors, gaming tournaments, creative-industrial conversations), aimed at creating an audience interested in culture, and ultimately creating a space for better physical accommodation.

During the autumn of 2020, happening in the context of a pandemic where it is difficult to maintain the steady flow of social activities, the programme has reached the final stage of its first phase, which is about to be concluded with the event taking place in December. The fundamental activities are geared towards international cooperation and maintaining relations with our European partners established in the process, leaving a kind of symbolic physical legacy in the form of murals and other minor interventions throughout the settlement, and in the realisation of a cultural centre in Škurinje, as the central theme of the programme.  Another important aspect of the programme is the creation of the third issue of our fanzine, which has, in its entirety, been formed as the basis of the programme, and starting point of the future cultural centre – a concept that we will continue to work on until it becomes a physical reality.