(Photo: European Alternatives) After the launch event on the city and the transnational commons held in London on the 27th of October during the This Is Not a Gateway festival, the Polis 21 project continued last week-end in Athens (Nov 7) and takes place this week in Belgrade (Nov 9) and Zagred (Nov 11). Polis 21 focuses on Public Space and the boundaries of the new city. It investigates the question of public space in the city, democratic space, borders and exclusion in the new city. Looking at artistic and politic intervention dealing with borders in four European cities the project aims at understanding the making of borders and propose actions to overcome them. In London, participants looked both at the ways exclusion is perpetuated in and by the urban form and at the ways these forms of exclusion can be overcome through artistic interventions. Maria Theodorou and Jilly Traganou presented projects and artistic interventions that participate in the life of the commons and have activated the transnational commons. For instance, they showed how demonstrations and some occupations of public space as forms of temporary architecture that challenge existing urban form and the presentation of temporary installations that create new paths, new ways of living in public space that subvert the ‘thought for’ built environment. The implication of migrants and workers who are among the final users of a place (and literally its builders) in the making and design of it – i.e. in the architectural process – has also been pointed out as a good example of integrative architectural practice. The London event also looked at various way transnational commons can be expressed in a city, may it be by demonstrations in various cities of shared concerns such as in the aftermath of the students demonstrations in Athens in December 2008, when some concern has been expressed in the public space by people in the streets of London and Paris or by engaging with the residents, regardless of their nationalities ( local residents can vote in local elections, even without being country-nationals and in European elections). In Athens, last Saturday, participants focused on the issue of xenophobia vs filoxenia. It involved an artistic research project in the neighbourhood of Psirri-kerameikos-metaxourgio, once the setting of an ongoing gentrification process that became a no-go area after migrants settled there. The project included a symposium and the display of panels in Monostriaki square to call for filoxenia. In Belgrade, the event took place in the famous Centre for Cultural Decontamination on the questions of borders in the city, with the participation of Borka Pavicevic, Stephen Wright, Manja Ristik, Petar Milat. The event included a series of movie screenings curated by Emmanuele Guidi. The discussion focussed on transformations Belgrade has been experiencing since the end of ex-Yugoslavia and of the war. It has led to interrogations regarding ownership and privatisation of public space. The event underlined that former Yugoslavia can be thought of a unique attempt to think about property differently: No property (as opposed to what happened later in Russia) was individual. It was not either state property but social property, ‘held in common’. In some cases, the transition to the capitalist system has led to abusive appropriation of space and symbols, facilitated by corruption. Privatisation of property (buildings or common areas - like community spaces – within a building) and of public spaces (squares, streets) has led to new forms of exclusion. A link appears between the ‘destruction’ of empty space, of common space and marketization (incl. of human relations). Those who become the richest in the transition period are also those who parade with their mistresses in big cars, go to exclusive expensive restaurants etc... At the same time the appropriation of the city and the rise of new conservatism went hand in hand with the rise of religious symbols. Quite literally, in Belgrade, the building of a church (hram saint sava) has made the ground of the national library sink. This new conservatism goes also hand in hand with the banishment of some people from public space, as has shown the recent cancelation of the gay parade. In the second part of the event, Stephen Wright investigated the question of public time, ‘available time’ for public affairs, the mere possibility of it can be perceived as a necessary condition for a well functioning democracy. The participants underlined that the role of the artist may then be than of dis-locating. They insisted on the fact that artists and intellectuals should aim at travelling as much as possible to remain in a position to challenge existing locally or nationally defined processes. Participants to the event travelled from Belgrade to Zagreb on the train, where the next event will further investigate and make proposals on how culture and artistic intervention help create a common space, a res-publica. More details of the Polis 21 project are at www.polis-21.com