Shared Visions

Tijana Cvetković, Milan Đorđević, Noa Treister, July 2025.

Shared Visions coop goes, this time, a bit further into the region (crossing what became a state border after Yugoslavia’s breakup) in the quest to find new partner organisations and artists/members… spreading the word.  To become sustainable, the cooperative needs to build a wide support network of collaborations and joint ventures. In this workshop, we have started building these connections in the region with BASOC and DKC Incel from Banja Luka, which follow the same principle and politics as Shared Visions.

The BASOC Case

Banja Luka Social Centre (BASOC) sits on the Vrbas river, in the city centre’s historically Muslim quarter beside a mosque – an area whose population shifted drastically during the war. Evenings we gather for dinner under a walnut tree in the garden of the squat‑style building, partly neglected, shared with two homeless comrades who safeguard the space. BASOC is both activist practice and infrastructure, focusing on social justice and social equality, workers’ issues and their self-empowerment, work with the BiH diaspora and minorities, as well as gender politics,  actively resists patriarchy, nationalism, and economic inequality that arose from the wars of the 1990s and the post-war transition… which is why they have been targeted multiple times by hooligans or groups that are traditionally triggered by challenges to dominant power. Founded 11 years ago as an alternative space in a post‑war city ruled by big capital – and in an entity conducting a witch‑hunt against civil society – BASOC has weathered fluctuating membership. Most who could leave for Europe have gone; youth raised in a society scarred by fratricidal war and nationalist restructuring in service of capitalist logic now see such spaces as marginal. BASOC now stands at a crossroads: its founders ready to step back, yet no new generation in sight to take ower. Banja Luka has become less a place to build futures than one people leave to survive.

Banja Luka is the second-largest city in BiH. A city in a valley through which the Vrbas River flows, meeting three other rivers: Suturlija, Crkvena, and Vrbanja. Super green city, with an impossible number of roundabouts on the roads. Positioned practically halfway between Belgrade and Zagreb. Once an industrial giant, with a factory zone of 20 km, where most enterprises have gone bankrupt. In this factory zone is Socio-cultural Centre INCEL, where Radionica #2 workshop meetings take place. DKC Incel is the association of independent creators and activists that has been operating since 1999 with a clear mission: the development of a culture that encourages active citizen participation in social processes, strengthening of the civil sector with a focus on youth, and realisation of human rights through art and activism... Currently, INCEL is in a situation where they are seeking support via crowdfunding campaign due to the lack of local support, caused by a negative law on NGOs...Structurally Radionica #2 is a repetition of Radionica #1 held in Belgrade, to test the methodology in other surroundings. Participants, about 25 of them, are mostly from Banja Luka and Sarajevo but also Zagreb, Ljubljana, and Belgrade. Randomly assembled groups of four are assigned to come up with socio-cultural projects that will be funded through crowdfunding, via Patreon, the only available platform in BiH. Patreon works more on ongoing regular small donations that can be recovered periodically rather than reaching a larger limit amount. Therefore, it is more about creating a community with which the beneficiaries have to constantly interact and include, which will create a different relation with the cooperative.

This time for Radionica #2, due to the logic of Patreon, it was decided to select only one out of the four proposed projects to be featured in the campaign:

Project #1 – A satirical fanzine. Through the lens of humour, it will address day-to-day socio-political events in the context of Banja Luka and the region.

Project #2 – Local community studio. Repurposing abandoned or neglected buildings for local community usage where all the users manage the space and the program equally. The building should be repurposed into a production studio for artists from the region and travellers, hosting different events. Initially, it will be funded from five-year membership fees, donations, participation of members in expenses, through crowdfunding or by selling merch created as a by-product of art workshops.

Project #3 – Printing studio. Accessible to everyone locally, but focused on the participation of younger generations. It would offer different printing methods including digital, riso and manual printing practices, such as silkscreen or gelatin print…

Project #4 – Problem Chain Platform. A kind of digital platform where problems are shared and regarded as value. There are three possible categories to classify problems and get validated accordingly: private problem = 0.5 points, communal/collective problem = 1 point and societal problem = 2 points. For example, “I didn’t go to work today,” and instead of being penalised by the system, you are rewarded by receiving something (0,5 points as it is a private problem). Points collected will be converted into something material (maybe even FIAT). In addition, there is a proposal for the SV Cooperative to be structured based on one problem, one vote: “We won’t create problems for you, but will deliver ours”.All four projects turned out to be mutually complementary; it was possible to compile and integrate all of them into one project organically.  Except for having the opportunity to structure another project together, this process contributed to keeping all participants engaged and motivated to continue working together, and no one was excluded. The abandoned space from Project #2 is now localised at BASOC, where a printing studio will be established accessible to all, and the satirical fanzine based on the problem chain structure will be printed as the initial product!

Radionica #2 contributed to lighting a spark that will set things in motion again for BASOC, spending hot summer days chilling next to Vrbas river in the sleepy valley of Banja Luka…

All artists have problems, but problems are not obstacles. They are what cannot be taken from us; they are our “in surplus”. Let go of something of your own, something selfless. Maybe a problem. Maybe support for the art cooperative Shared Visions. Pump up your problem and you will grow wings!

(Teaser for the crowdfunding campaign)

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