Jane’s Walk seminar #2: “Play the city game, It’s never the same!”

31. 10. 2019.

For Croatian version, please click here.
Za hrvatsku verziju, molimo vas, kliknite ovdje.

Jane’s Walk seminar #2: “Play the city game, it’s never the same!” was organized by Trešnjevka Cultural Centre (“Trešnjevka Mapping”) in Zagreb, from 18:th to 20:th of October 2019.

The seminar is funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia, the Tourist Board of the City of Zagreb, the City Office for Culture of the City of Zagreb, the Austrian Cultural Forum and the Hungarian Institute of Zagreb. The seminar was supported as well by the Print studio Klamerica-dizajn, Ozaljska 82, Zagreb-Trešnjevka.

The seminar was announced on Croatian Radio Television and covered in more details on Radio Yammat, Radio Sljeme and H-Alter web magazine.

About the seminar:

Jane’s Walk is a global project that was launched in Toronto (Canada) in 2006 with the aim of bringing the ideas of the urbanist Jane Jacobs (1916 -2006) to life. She promoted the idea of citizen-led walking tours where residents got together with the purpose of exploring the city together, conversing and enjoying the city attractions, while actively participating in the life and sustainable development of their cities. The project has been active since 2006 and it currently encompasses 372 cities in 58 countries on 6 continents.

Zagreb joined this network of cities in 2015 through the activities of the “Trešnjevka Mapping” project within the Trešnjevka Cultural Centre, a local organiser and coordinator of this project for the City of Zagreb.

With the aim of connecting and collaborating with colleagues that encounter similar issues in Zagreb, as well as in other Croatian and European cities, The First Jane’s Walk Seminar titled “Jane’s Walk: A City from a Walking perspective. Examples of Good Practice”, which welcomed 30 participants from 12 countries, along with lecturers from Austria, Slovenia and Croatia, was held in 2018.

The participants of ‘Playful City’ walk with Iva Silla beside Meštrović Pavillion [GP 2019.]

This year, lectures, workshops and guided walks held during The Second Jane’s Walk Seminar, discussed the experiences from previous events held within the Jane’s Walk project and similar actions. Special attention was dedicated to the ways in which fun, creativity and play (within the broadest sense of the word) can favourably impact the quality of life in cities, encourage citizens to lead an active life and bring them together.

Goals:

Jane Jacobs, Canadian urbanist and activist, was a firm believer in the importance of local residents having a say in how their cities and neighbourhoods developed, and she encouraged them to familiarise themselves with the places where they live and work. Through the process of familiarising themselves with their surroundings and realising their own needs, residents can express their wishes and needs in a more quality manner, thus becoming active participants in transforming and tailoring the city to their own needs.

The organizers of the Seminar with Vienna’s mascot of the urbanist and initiator Jane Jacobs [SĐ 2019.]

The elements of play are able to provide a strong impetus for engaging residents in their community, thus improving their quality of life by encouraging interests, gatherings, fun and exploration. Therefore, we wish to, through interaction and sharing of experiences, discover how we can engage them in play and include them in this process by using a broad spectrum of means which can be applied in a public space (surprise effect, laughter, curiosity, participation in art, landscaping and other interventions…).

Walks and other events within the Jane’s Walk project seek to help local residents and visitors to identify with the local community, help building social bonds between and with local residents, stimulate critical thinking and encourage an active approach to the city’s everyday life by identifying needs and problems, discussing the possibilities for their solution and participation in their solving, either directly, through contacts with local self-government units or indirectly, through local associations and interest groups. Therefore, this seminar is intended for representatives of local self-government units, leaders of similar initiatives, representatives of civil associations and residents in general. As it encourages an active and healthy lifestyle, it is also aimed at those institutions and associations that advocate such a lifestyle.

A constructive debate of the participants during a break at CEKATE premises [GP 2019.]

Participation in the seminar was free of charge and was open to all interested citizens. The seminar was held on the premises of the Trešnjevka Cultural Centre. The working language of the seminar was English.

Lecturers and guests:

The following lecturers shared their experiences during the seminar:

Andreas Lindinger, Vienna: independent urban management consultant and the organiser of the Jane’s Walk event in Vienna.

The presentation about Vienna, held by Andreas Lindinger [SMK 2019.]

János Klaniczay, Budapest: Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre, organiser of the Jane’s Walk event in Budapest.
Tímea Szőke, Budapest: Hungarian Contemporary Architecture Centre, project coordinator.

The presentation about Budapest, held by János Klaniczay i Tímea Szőke [SMK 2019.]

Višnja Kukoč, Split: architect, assistant professor at the Department of Urbanism at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy of the University of Split, organiser of the Jane’s Walk event in Split.

The presentation about Split, held by Višnja Kukoč [GP 2019.]

Lara Bolković, Pula: independent landscaping architect, organiser of the Jane’s Walk event in Pula.

The presentation about Pula, held by Lara Bolković [VR 2019.]

Klara Šimunović, Zagreb: independent cultural manager, copywriter by profession, who has gotten into self-initiated cultural projects and art practices in the last several years with the aim of connecting and networking artists from the independent cultural scene.

The presentation about the ‘graffiti-scene’ of Zagreb, held by Klara Šimunović [SMK 2019.]

Danijel Kovač, Zagreb: sculptor, employed with the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, head of the course “Art in Public Space” and participant in the project “City at a Second Glance”.

The presentation about Karlovac, held by Danijel Kovač [SMK 2019.]

Vanja Radovanović, Zagreb: co-author and co-manager of the project “Trešnjevka Mapping”, one of the coordinators and leaders of the Jane’s Walk event in Zagreb.

The opening lecture of the Seminar, held by Vanja Radovanović [SMK 2019.]

Beside the presentations the seminar offered two guided tours prepared specially for this occasion. The tours were guided by:

Iva Silla, Zagreb: manager of the “Kazivačica“ sole proprietorship who founded the “Secret Zagreb” project in 2011 and is dedicated to developing creative projects in cultural tourism and interpreting cultural heritage.

The participants during the walk with Iva Silla next to Meštrović Pavillion [GP 2019.]

Mario Miličić alias Mane Mei, Zagreb: first and foremost a human being, graffiti artist, poet. He has been into graffiti art for 21 years and, to him, the street represents the best medium for displaying his works..

The participants during the walk with Mario Miličić next to his graffiti on Zagrebačka avenija [GP 2019.]

Here’s the list of the seminar guests that participated in the discussions and other seminar activities:

Michela Crevatin, Trieste: independent architect, organiser of the Jane’s Walk event in Trieste (Italy).
Tanja Novotni Golubić, Daruvar: deputy county prefect of the Bjelovar-Bilogora County, initiator of the Jane’s Walk event in Daruvar.
Sanda Kočevar, Karlovac: museum advisor to the Historical Department of the Karlovac City Museum and senior lecturer at the Karlovac Polytechnic in the course “Tourist Evaluation of Cultural Heritage” which includes socially useful learning – recognising the needs of the community in tourist evaluation and organising walks for different groups of beneficiaries. The initiator of the Jane’s Walk event in Karlovac.

Participants:

Besides the lecturers and the guests from 4 countries (Austria, Italy, Hungary, Croatia) the seminar was participated by 47 participants. During the preparation of the seminar more than 800 invitations were sent to the local municipal bodies, cultural institutions, NGOs and citizens that showed interest for Jane’s Walk events, “Trešnjevka Mapping” activities and activities of the Trešnjevka Cultural Centre.

Discussed topics:

Organization of Jane’s Walk events: The topics of the walks (less known destinations and topics), number of the walks and when they are held (festival weekend only, only during May or year-round), how to inform citizens, media coverage, interactions with walk participants and passer-bys, the profile of walk participants …
Cooperation possibilities during organization of Jane’s Walk events: How to start cooperation with local inhabitants, finding interesting stories of not so known professions and personalities, cooperation with local governments, cooperation with museums, libraries, NGOs, citizen initiatives, cooperation between different cities and walk organizers
Leaders of Jane’s Walk events: Finding what is the walk leader’s motivation for their activities, what they are getting from the walks, what are the Do’s and Don’t’s during the walks, discussion about typical problems (too long walks, too many details about the certain subject, unattractive walk topics …)

The participants of the ‘Cosy Walk’ with its leader, Mario Miličić, in the yard of the alternative-art center ‘Medika’ [GP 2019.]

Participants of Jane’s Walk events: How to involve citizens in the walks, how to trigger discussions, importance of the walk leader’s openess for the contacts, typical profiles of the walk participants …
Playing in the public space: Examples of a good practice from Zagreb and other cities and countries, how to make public space more vivid and make it not only functional, but pleasant and fun, even challenging. Relation of the playing and art, how to involve artists in revival of the public and/or unused space.

The walk leader Vanja Radovanović explaining the rules of the open-air ‘Trešnjevka Game’ afore starting the street-game [SMK 2019.]

Seminar presentations:

Here you can see all the seminar materials that were shown during the seminar as well as the questions and answers that were part of the Trešnjevka game held during the last seminar day for all the participants.

The participants of the Seminar during the open-air ‘Trešnjevka Game’ [SMK 2019.]

On this link you can see a short 16-minutes’ movie with the seminar’s activities digest.

Related links:

Web page of Trešnjevka Cultural Centre (Facebook profile Trešnjevka Cultural Centre)
Web page of “Trešnjevka Mapping” project (Facebook profile “Trešnjevka Mapping” project and Facebook profile Jane’s Walk Zagreb)
Web page of agency Linea Bold (Facebook profile Linea Bold)
Facebook profile of the project “City at the second glance”
Web page of Jane’s Walk Vienna (Facebook profile Jane’s Walk Vienna)
Web page KÉK – Mađarskog centra za suvremenu arhitekturu (Facebook profile KÉK)
Web page Instituta Mediterran (which helped organization of Jane’s Walk activities in Pula) (Facebook profile Instituta Mediterran)
An article from web portal “Pogledaj to” about the exhibition about the 50 years of Split 3
Web page “Secret Zagreb” (Facebook profile “Secret Zagreb walks”)
Facebook profile Mane Mei

The organizers of the Seminar after the final word [DF 2019.]

More information about the first Jane’s Walk seminar and related walks in Zagreb you can find on the following links:

Short films from all Zagreb’s Jane’s Walk events in year 2019:

Jane’s Walk seminar #2: “Play the city game, It’s never the same!”

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