Outstanding Recognition: About Kana Radević at Princeton University

The seventh architectural conference in a row in the series entitled "Womxn in Design and Architecture", behind which stands the School of Architecture at Princeton University (Princeton School of Architecture, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA) will be dedicated, believe it or not - Svetlana Kani Radević - that is, her image and work - strictly within the framework of "current topics and research" (timely topics and inquiries).

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Don't be alarmed by the term "womxn" - the word, says Wikipedia, if Wikipedia is to be believed - about an alternative way of writing (spelling) the English word "woman" - which has been around since the XNUMXs. It is, he says in another place, an intersectional term - which means that many meanings, connotations and references are crossed under (or over) that term - and it was introduced, primarily, in order to completely exclude relational terms from women's (feminist) discourse. attitudes towards men (man - woman), and that, historically speaking, in the white feminist discourse (white feminist discourse) included excluded categories - which, at first, referred to black women (black women), women of color (women of color), then to trans women - and recently to many other categories - including, of course, non-binary people - people who define their gender neither strictly male nor strictly female.

The essence is, of course, in the mentioned intersection and inclusiveness. Until about thirty years ago, for example, it was hardly possible on the so-called the international architectural scene was interested (i) in the manifestations and varieties of the so-called modernist paradigms (whatever that means) in countries on the periphery of events - in countries outside the center. Today, things are somewhat different - we are still angry exotics, let's face it - mainly because there are no high-quality, carefully systematized sets of information about the happenings in these rugged and fiery areas of ours - not even in the announcement - but it happened that discursive wave (timely topics and inquiries) unfortunately removed the debris from these untidy spaces of ours - but in more detail, certainly, in one of the following issues.

Womxn is, therefore, just one of the terms - "lexical and social phenomena", as he says in the third place, like "folx" (folks = people, folx = people + LGBTIQA+), or "Latinx" (a gender-neutral term that has recently been used instead of the standard terms Latina or Latino) - which have in common everything that stands in opposition to the standard, so-called patriarchal worldviews - on any basis.

Be that as it may, many people in recent times seem to be very inclined to interpret Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (General Assembly of the United Nations, December 10, 1948) literally, which says: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and consciousness and should treat each other in the spirit of brotherhood (and unity - op.a.)”. Which makes us happy, of course.

Well, it seems to be even Rajo Mandic these days, he is ready to relativize - rather than withdraw - a lot of what he said in his youth/craziness, in the heat of the radical struggle for an (obviously failed) cause - and all in an attempt to unconditionally transform into a gentleman.

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So, the theme of the seventh conference in a row within the cycle "Womxn in Design and Architecture" - which, as I said, will be held at Princeton University on March 2 and 3 of the current year - next Thursday and Friday - will be, fanfare please: Svetlana Kana Radević: Aggregate Assemblies.

"What," he says, "is the role of an architect in an age of social and political transformation? How architecture can bring local systems of power, collective memory and vernacular tradition back to the center (decision-making, events of interest - op.a.)? Breaking the periphery/center dichotomy, standing out as one of the most avant-garde voices of Yugoslav architecture, Radević's legacy raises issues that are just as burdensome today as they were at the time of her work".

OK, let's go in order...

As for the Aggregate Assemblies - let's say it refers to the fact that many questions related to the character and work of Kana Radević - are still an enigma - to a greater or lesser extent - which certainly includes questions related to the circumstances under which acted - and that, according to that fact, we are in an opportunity to build these wholes - Assemblies - assemblages - that is, some kind of continuum - from a lot of small parts - Aggregates - from aggregates - which inevitably includes, at this moment - a lot of fortune-telling.

"The purposeful oeuvre of architect Radević (purposeful oeuvre - at the same time a useful oeuvre and an oeuvre with a clear intention behind it, i.e. a goal) requires careful study (eh... - op.a.), if it is our intention", he writes Ana Kac (Anna Kats, Svetlana Kana Radević (1937-2000), AR - architectural-review.com), "to shed some light on some things related to the ideas we have about the first female architect in Montenegro".

Mrs. Katz is primarily a writer and researcher from New York, and she is also an assistant curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (Museum of Modern Art - MoMA). She collaborated on the project "Toward a Concrete Utopia/ Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948 - 1980", which resulted in a large exhibition at MoMA (July 15, 2018 - January 13, 2019), where some of Kana Radević's works were presented - and hence, I guess, the interest of the assistant curator at the department of architecture at MoMA for architecture on the soil of the former Yugoslavia - from the period of socialism. Kac also curated the project entitled "Skirting The Center: Svetlana Kana Radević on the Periphery of Postwar Architecture", which resulted in an exhibition at the XVII International Exhibition of Architecture - Venice Biennale 2021 - outside the official program.

Referring to the mentioned text that was published in AR in 2020 - we can safely claim that it was Kac who set (all) the premises, complete with key phrases and words concerning the aforementioned exhibition at the XVII Architecture Biennale in Venice - as well as the framework upcoming conferences.

Be that as it may, I doubt that the story at Princeton will turn exactly in the direction of Kana Radević - exactly in the direction of her character and work - strictly in the context of the key features of the time and space in which she operated - from the mid-sixties to the end of the eighties. It is more likely that the image and work of Kana Radević will only serve as an occasion to talk about others (timely) topics.

Another question, incomparably more important, would concern our overall relationship with Svetlana Kana Radević and other prominent creators of Montenegro - who worked and are working in the field of architecture and urbanism - and especially with their most valuable achievements.

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More information about the conference Svetlana Kana Radević: Aggregate Assemblies - at humanities.princeton.edu (Events).

More words about the conference if they release some (video) material on the Net - complete with some conclusions of the conference.