press to exit project space

This reader comprises various theoretical texts, art works and research projects, commissioned comprehensive cross-disciplinary research files, and a thesaurus of news and curiosities dealing with the complex historical, socio-political, cultural and visual implications of the renaming phenomenon. The concept “renaming machine” was coined to underscore the arbitrary and contingent nature of names and to ask questions about the clandestine ideological patterns of "desiring renaming machine" at work behind the dominant social machines that change toponyms and personal names.

This publication was imagined as a meta-disciplinary discursive outcome of the two-year project ‘The Renaming Machine’ curated by Suzana Milevska. The unraveling of the multiple folds produced by the social and desiring renaming machine in the Balkans and in other cultural and geo-political contexts was the main aim of the series of three exhibitions (Gallery Jakopič - Ljubljana, Gallery Miroslav Kraljević- Zagreb, Open Space -Vienna) and conferences, seminars, workshops, blogs, the video archive consisting of fourteen videos and art performances that were released with partner organizations in Ljubljana (Peace Institute), Skopje (press to exit project space and Kontrapunkt), Prishtina (Stacion-Centre for Contemporary Art), Zagreb (Gallery Miroslav Kraljević) and Vienna (Open Space) in 2008 and 2009. The project and the publication were supported by the Erste Foundation through the Patterns Project, the ECF Foundation and many other supporting institutions. The Renaming Machine-The Book, edited by Suzana Milevska, published by the P.A.R.A.S.I.T.E. Institute, Ljubljana, September 2010, pp. 420, 124 photographs. Graphic Design: Ajdin Bašić, coordinator of the publication: Biljana Tanurovska – Kjulavkovski.

Texts and art contributions by: Suzana Milevska, James E. Faulconer, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Jean-Paul Martinon, Lana Zdravković, Tadej Pogačar, Hristina Ivanoska, Agon Hamza, Despina Angelovska, Žarko Trajanoski, Žaneta Vangeli, Reinigungsgesellschaft, Aleksandar Stankoski, Liljana Gjuzelova, Kristine Stiles, Juliane Debeusscher, The Monument Group, Dan Perjovschi, Erden Kosova, Irwin, Albert Heta, Tanja Lažetić and Dejan Habicht, Tomislav Brajnović, Aldo Milohnić, Ana Peraica, Lia Perjovschi, Oliver Musovik, Igor Grubić, Magnus Bartas, Dejan Spasoviќ, Sašo Stanojkoviќ, New Media Centre, Tanja Ostojić and David Rych, Antonija Majača and Ivana Bago, Barbara Borčič, Zhivka Valiavicharska, Marko Kovačič, Alexander Vaindorf.