Hello Guardian, thank you for bringing Belgrade into the world’s limelight this little bit. Its definitely one of the most interesting and peculiar cities in Europe. And thank you for featuring my own opinion, albeit not quite correct. To whom it may concern, this is what I have really said in conversation with your kind Herbert Wright:
Whilst I am a huge fan of graphic language and cutting straight to the essence of things, my words feel twisted and, ultimately, changed in meaning with Guardian's shortening or editing. It says: "Jovan Jelovac, founder of Belgrade Design Week and the man responsible for bringing Libeskind and Gehl together on the shelved Danube plan, describes this area as “a narco-traffic shit-hole [where] you walk down the street and inhale 55 lorries going by”. He says Belgrade Waterfront “is what Belgrade deserves after 20 years of corruption”.
What I really said was: "Jelovac describes the area as 'a former shit-hole (where) you would walk down the street and inhale 55 lorries going by'. He says Belgrade Waterfront "is what Belgrade deserves after 20 years of corruption, meaning that Belgraders can’t really afford to by picky any more, with such a horrendous previous track record of neglect and disruption of normal city development procedures, and should be really thankful for this, perhaps, last opportunity to get things moving at least around the old and completely dysfunctional bus- and train stations”.
It clearly means that I am supportive of the new BW development, just like of Zaha Hadid's proposed new Beko project and the Liebeskind Port of Belgrade urban planing up the river, alongside the very same waterfront, which have both witnessed more or less the same opposition in Belgrade. This is definitely not clear from the rump of what is left from my message, in the published article above.
To be precise, the second part of my statement is of even greater importance for the understanding. The sheer arrogance of some people in Belgrade who think they are entitled to protest for example Zaha Hadid's project, or the ingenious "Cloud" proposed by Sou Fujimoto for the adjacent Kalemegdan waterfront, is beyond my belief, if I compare it to their silence on all the other monstrosities that happen almost daily in Belgrade's urban tissue. I really don't believe Belgrade can allow itself to be too picky and choosy any more given its abysmal state today - after more than 20 years of brutal private exploitation and corruption. We are pretty much in a "take it or leave it" situation towards almost any potential investor who manages at least to clean up and modernize the city, and that in almost any respect, with the only alternative being - further decline if we say no. Its as simple as that.
The golden days of our beloved city, when better deals could have been negotiated, followed by more sophisticated participation models for citizen and local professional interest groups, have been wasted away irresponsibly, brashly, and, I am afraid, irrevocably. At least for now. As I don't believe in conspiracy theories, its our own fault, people of Belgrade. That model is shattered, like so many essential former prides of Serbia - education, healthcare, culture... We now have no options but to try to carefully pick up the pieces and reassemble them, and step by step EARN to be respected again, as partners in rebuilding our city. We at Belgrade Design Week have co-founded the pan-European HUMAN CITIES initiative precisely with this idea in mind.
In this context, I truly believe that the current government, about which many different things can be said, is doing its best, and we need to cut them some slack for Belgrade Waterfront. Especially the City administration and its dynamic City Architect. I honestly don't believe anyone else could have done something better with that location at this point... Literally ANYTHING is better than the state the area was in, just a few years back, and none before them has done anything about it... It just laid there, smack in the middle of Belgrade, ugly, polluted and very, very unsafe for people living nearby or passing by. And btw, please check your facts Guardian, the new BW location is merely neighboring your beloved “gentrified” nightclubs- and arts- area of Savamala. None is crazy, hopefully, to destroy that small bit with its "art deco and industrial bricks aesthetics" (although this sounds much more than what it really is, trust me). In reality, looking at the planing, BW shall "regenerate" only the current bus- and train station hinterland, a true “shit hole” at any given time of day or year. Or past century, if you ask me.
No disrespect, but as I am a keen (daily) reader of our dear Grauniad, I feel I had to share this with your readers. Not that I think that any of my opinions about BW are particularly important for the fate of the planet, but if you care to include me in your overview, and even name me, pls do it right. Thank you.
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