'The foundation of the Non-aligned Movement in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in September 1961 represented a new opening, not only for a joint political representation of the countries trying to challenge and transcend the bipolar division of the world and imperialism during the Cold War, but also for the establishment of the direct economic relations. Yugoslav construction enterprises used the Non-alignment, as a mechanism of circulation. Among them, Energoprojekt from Belgrade, stood out among its Yugoslav peers in 1970s both for the scale and volume of the projects they did abroad, mostly in non-aligned countries, and the central role architecture department had in the expansion abroad.
Unpacking how working in the global entanglement transformed Energoprojekt from a socialist self-managed enterprise into a postmodern corporation, I will search for material and symbolic manifestation of the interaction between Energoprojekt and Non-alignment, focusing on the conference centres the company built in Lusaka, Zambia and Harare, Zimbabwe. Following the interrelation of spatial elements, such as the roundtable - its appearance and its disappearance - I will trace withering away of the emancipatory potential of non-alignment, and open the line of critique of professionalisation in architecture as the way to normalise specific Westernised world views.'
Dubravka Sekulić
Dubravka Sekulić is a wayward thinker, educator, and architect. She is a Programme Lead of MA City Design at the Royal College of Art. In her work, she is interested in understanding the relation between space and individual and collective political emancipation, working towards the articulation of minor planning. Currently, she is also working on a book about life and memory in the aftermath of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She holds a PhD in history and theory of architecture from ETH Zurich, Switzerland. With Godofredo Pereira, she is co-editing "Take Back the Land," an edited volume that examines the role of architecture in land struggles. She co-edited, with Wilfried Kuehn, Curatorial Design (lenz, 2025) and with Ben Garlick Geography with John Berger (Bloomsbury, 2025). She wrote Glotzt Nicht So Romantisch! On Extralegal Space in Belgrade (Jan van Eyck, 2012) and with filmmaker and artist Ana Hušman, she made a film, Don't Trace, Draw! (2021).
Location
IAS Common Ground
G11, ground floor, South Wing
UCL, Gower St, London
WC1E 6BT
United Kingdom
All welcome. No booking required.
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