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Off Guide: Savamala

Exhibition, Workshop

2012

From April 30 to May 3 in Savamala, in collaboration with Dis-patch collective from Belgrade, Goethe-Guerilla organized a workshop for making an alternative Off-guide dedicated to this part of the city. The guide was made in DIY (“Do It Yourselfˮ) technique with minimal use of technology, including manual paper processing and sewing the guides’ covers. In addition, it was produced in a fanzine format, meaning that the overall number of guides was small and each one unique. With this guide we wanted to show the reality of Savamala today by using different media and ways of expression. It was intended as a unique postcard of the Savamala quarter, showcasing the life of this city neighborhood along with all its complexity via different means such as photography, drawings, interviews with the residents and the like.   And what exactly is “offˮ in this guide and how does it differ from other tourist guides? It uses regular tourist guide format but presents facts they rarely cover, which are, however, quite present in reality. It abounds in information about Savamala: where you can buy souvenirs, where you can find a place to sleep, which monuments you should visit. However, these information are not given explicitly, as is the case with regular guides, but are rather represented in metaphors or with irony. Therefore you can find out more about the quarter from its inhabitants themselves, who are more reliable than any guide; you can sleep in abandoned wagons; souvenirs can be bought at street vendors or in “Toplicaˮ market, a shop selling everything: from chocolate to boxing partner made of rubber; monuments you should visit in Savamala are worn-out, formerly beautiful buildings or the cemetery of old ships by the Sava. Apart from making this guide, a video workshop was organized during which several Savamala-inspired films were shot. In this manner the Off-guide got its visual form. The results of these workshops were presented at Mikser festival held in 2012 in Savamala.

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