The cleaning of the KCB Hall, which was unplanned on Friday, has begun. This morning's "liberation" of the SKC was deliberate and demonstrative: to let the people see what awaits them
Today, July 22nd, The Student Cultural Center was unblocked, and four days ago Hall of the Cultural Center of Belgrade. They were blocked in reverse order, first by SKC on February 12, then six days later by DKC.
In the meantime SKC had daily programs, and DKC did not have them at all, if we do not count plenums and cinema shows at the beginning of the occupation.
So, what do you say: who benefited from the SKC blockade? Students, because they got a space to show what they do and how creative they are.
And only the homeless benefited from the blockade of DKCB, because this cinema hall, whose program was declared the best in Europe, became a haven for Belgraders without an address.
From Monday, cleaning began to prepare the KCB Hall for use. When they will open it to the public, they cannot predict.
Cultural Center Hall
The hall was unblocked unplanned: the cinema equipment had to be serviced and one of the attendees prevented Ninela Gojković, acting director of the KCB, from entering, pinning her hand against the door. That's why Gojković called the police.
"The police officers were given permission to enter and identify the persons. A total of two people were inside at that moment and after that the employees entered the space and since then we have been controlling the cinema. ...," she said.
DKCB blocked the initiative of cultural workers "Culture in Blockade".
They were anonymous all the time and advertised only through plenum announcements. The only one they gave an interview to "Vreme"".
"We want to enable the inclusion in dialogue of various actors who now have a need for it, to think about the changes that we all have needed for a long time, and at the same time try to embody those changes in the space itself. To think about and live the changes is something that must exist even before entering the legalistic framework," they said at the time.
Already in April, they were replaced by a group around Ratibor Trivunec, who says he is an anarchist and activist. He named the KCB hall "Liberated DKC" and let homeless people into it.
During all this time, the Cultural Center of Belgrade did not ask for the help of the police in order to return all the space. Probably wouldn't even now, if the incident hadn't happened.
When they reported to social assistance that the homeless had left their area, they were told that they had no place to take them.
Student cultural center
The police entered the Student Cultural Center this morning on their own initiative, the students did not call them, but it is possible that the administration and the Minister of Education Dejan Vuk Stanković did, who brought the cameras of the pro-regime media to perpetuate the action.
The minister immediately declared that "in agreement with President Aleksandar Vučić and the President of the Assembly Ana Brnabić" he decided to open the SKC "to create a conceptual exhibition Face and Back of Blockade Serbia" so that people could see "what happened here in the past few months, what and in what way the environment was created here, how and in what way a handful of people treated the property, to the symbolic, cultural topos of this city, to everything that was created for decades and that was cultivated as part of the cultural identity of urban Belgrade".
He also said that SKC was exposed to cultural and political barbarism, and "Večernje Novosti" kept that news at the center of the portal for half a day, until they replaced it with another, with a list, as they said, of what the "lost blockaders" stole. The list is long. The first item is "about 50 computers", the last item "over 200 art objects were stolen: paintings and sculptures, musical lines and much more" and in between are cameras, televisions, destroyed pianos and the like.
As stated in the release of the Liberated SKC, this morning's police action was accompanied by wholehearted cheering and jubilation by Acting Director Slavoljub Veselinović.
Who is the winner of these unlocks?
It is ruthless to talk about a winner because in this situation no one can celebrate. Its space was returned to the Cultural Center of Belgrade, which is of course good, but the poor and wretched impression remains that it should not have been blocked and freed considering that it was free even before that. SNS and its members, who kicked out the "blockaders" from the Student Cultural Center, rejoice because of this, but even they are clear that they are very, very wrong.
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