on the ruins of mačjak

[ slovenščina ]

1312 is gone. it has been more than a month since the first machinery arrived. walls, rooftops and furniture are by now all grinded to dust and scattered around the lot.

we did not know the exact date when they would demolish our part. nonetheless, we organised an eviction fest, one last collective gathering with the aim to give away everything we had not been able to move to the other spaces and celebrate all that had happened in the times before. our squat was still standing the day after the eviction fest. and the next. a fence was mounted around us, but our building remained intact. meanwhile, in athens, two squats were evicted – Anna Kato and Zizania. in solidarity, we raised a banner against gentrification, evictions and for the creation of new squats in our deserted space.

the construction site expanded. the walls began to fall. with each passing day we could see more and more of the destroyed leftovers of things that had previously been part of our space. we threw bottles and ceramic plates at the excavators and the target of the ljubljana mayor zoran jankovic. it was symbolic, like a protest or a physical defence of a space could be, but which never happened. we left without resistance, we weren’t there. one of the reasons is that we see the very act of squatting as resistance. we decided to reduce the chances of repression and to open up new spaces rather than defend the ones we knew from the start would not last forever. yet we missed the moment of catharsis that comes from direct physical confrontation with the authorities. maybe that moment is still there for us?

in short, mačjak is no longer.

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na ruševinah mačjaka

P1312 ni več. strehe, stene in pohištvo ležijo na parceli zmleti v prah. od prve prispele mašinerije je minilo že več kot en mesec.

nismo vedele natančenga datuma, ko bodo porušili naš del. vseeno smo pripravile evikcijski festival, še zadnje skupinsko druženje katerega namen je bil meddrugim podariti vse česar nam ni uspelo spraviti v druge prostore. prostor je nato stal še naslednji dan. in še naslednji. okoli nas so postavili ograjo, vendar je stavba v kateri smo bile, ostala nedotaknjena. medtem so v Atenah eviktirali dva skvota – Ano Kato in Zizanio. solidarno smo v našem izpraznjenem prostoru dvignile transparent proti gentrifikaciji, za obstoj že vzpostavljenih skvotov in za nastanek novih.

stene so začele padati. gradbišče se je razširilo. kot počasi napredujočo bolezen, smo z vsakim dnem lahko opazovale vse več uničenih reči, ki so bile prej del našega prostora. steklenice in krožnike smo zmetale v bagre in tarčo zorana jankoviča. simbolno, kot bi bil simbolen protest ali fizična obramba prostora, ki se nista nikoli zgodila. ob evikciji smo odšle brez upora, sploh nas ni bilo tam. eden od razlogov je ta, da vidimo samo dejanje skvotiranja kot upor. odločile smo se, da zmanjšamo možnosti represije in da raje odpiramo nove prostore, kot branimo tiste, za katere smo že od začetka vedele, da ne bodo trajali za vedno. kljub temu nam je zmanjkal trenutnek katarze, ki ga prinese direktna fizična konfrontacija z oblastmi. morda pa ta trenutek za nas še pride?

skratka, mačjaka ni več.