Open (the) city is part of the international project ARCIPELAGO BALKANIcurated by Claudia Zanfi (director aMAZElab). The project aims to identify the city as an open space, a place of exchange and encounter, of freedom and equity, a crossroads of cultures in which the individual may become a 'citizen’. press to exit is part of this project together with SCCA from Sarajevo and TICA from Tirana.

press to exit presented the work of First Archi Brigade, an independent group of young architects and artists from Skopje, in a form of a publication titled “The Utmost Incomplete Archive”. The publication is part of the press to exit project space program “New project productions” (please contact us if you want a copy of the publication!)

The event also included a poster exhibition from the project ‘Open City’, curated by Claudia
Zanfi.  Participating artists:Marina Abramovic, Albanian Pavillion, Alterazioni Video, Balkan
Depot / Tomislav Tarek, Pavel Braila, Yane Calovski, Danica Dakic, Calin Dan, Biljana Djurdjevic, Group Elementi (Biljana Isijanin and Ljupco Isijanin), Thomas Hirschhorn, Hristina Ivanoska, Armin Linke, Rasa Todosijevic – Marinela Kozelj, Borjana Mrdja, Oliver Musovik, Vladimir Nikolic, Damir Niksic, Adrian Paci, Anton Petrov, Tadej Pogacar, Stefano Romano, Massimo Sciacca, Shoba, Igor Sovilj, Biljana Stefanovska, TooA / Cogni – De Mattia, Zaneta Vangeli and Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss.

Also the members of the independent cultural sector were invited to share their opinions in a open debate in which the city as a space of critical acting was accentuated.

The Utmost Incomplete Archive is a publication which functions as a reader of the work of the collective First Archi Brigade whose activities are guided by the need to voice a “proactive role in the designing of the urban reality of today”. As the future generation of architects in Macedonia, they have become one of the most precise critics of ‘Skopje 2014’ – the new urban plan of the government to redesign the main city square of Skopje with neo-classical architectural elements, in opposition to the illuminated Kenzo Tange’s plan from the ‘60s. The work presented in this publication points to the historical and present day context that enables First Archi Brigade’s public actions to be seen as critical activities without becoming destructed by either emotions or nostalgia.
The publication is edited by Yane Calovski. Assistant editor is Ivana Vaseva and designer is Slavica Chavdarovska with Neda Firfova as a design contributor.