When I speak of time, it is not yet
When I speak of a place, it has disappeared
When I speak of a man, he’s already dead
When I speak of time, it already is no more
(Jean Baudrillard, 2007)

“Why hasn’t everything already disappeared?” asks French philosopher Jean Baudrillard. Prishtina: a place which has only just, since the dissolution of Yugoslavia, appeared on the maps as the capital of a country; in a city such as this, disappearance and emergence, the absent, the old, the new and the young are strikingly present. 

While striving for new projects and developments create the pulse of the city, the have-beens and never-agains of the past form its pace. Everything that disappears leaves its trace, sometimes the traces are more powerful themselves.

In a three-days writing workshop we will be searching for people, places and things that are disappearing within the city and our surroundings. At the same time, we will work on writing as a practice of »appearing« in the sense of going public and becoming visible. Through writing exercises and field writing in different places of the city, we will create texts and fragments on the topic of appearing/disappearing and publish our own zine, which will be launched at Termokiss.

This project is part of the BECC fellowship program by the European Network of Cultural Centers (ENCC), supported by Creative Europe.

Maike Suhr lives and works as a freelance editor in Berlin. As a member of bi’bak her work focusses on global mobility and material culture, including research, writing and publishing. She is interested in writing as a tool of artistic, cultural or self-related research. Through the BECC fellowship program she works with Termokiss in July `19.

Termokiss is a community-run center in Prishtina with the mission of urban and civil exchange, reflection and changemaking. Having risen out of what was formerly an abandoned and forgotten building in south-western Prishtina, Termokiss is open to a range of activities as long as they are not-for-profit. The activities and organizing processes are managed by the community. The offered activities are determined by both the needs of the community and the skills which the volunteers have to offer. The space works to promote the ideas of mutual aid and cooperation. We aim to provide a welcoming space for everyone, especially those whose voices and contributions are not always heard or appreciated.

Maike Suhr studied social and business communications at the Universität der Künste Berlin. Her research focuses on transnationalism and material culture. From 2016-2019 she worked at bi'bak as an editor and writer.