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Vesna Madžoski

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About me

Beside my theoretical work (PhD in Critical Theory) I was always active in practical activities as well, being part of different collectives and initiatives in Serbia and the Netherlands. At the moment, I am one of the founding members of SKVER - Zaječar, initiated in 2018 as a reaction to current political and social conditions in the city which used to number more than 50.000 inhabitants only a decade ago, with more than 15 factories, and a developed public space – an image that is hardly recognizable anymore. There are no more than 20.000 inhabitants today, most factories were “privatized”, i.e. closed down, and new employment options are found abroad, in Slovakia or Alaska. Public spaces have been destroyed, from the green market to City Radio and TV station (whose estate was privatized and sound & video archive lost and destroyed). The name SKVER comes from the informal name for the main square in town, hence the idea was to create a new public space in which citizens would be able to meet and communicate again.
The main form in which this was formalized so far was a website and social media presence since February 2019 at www.skvermagazin.com. SKVER initiated the ambitious project of digitizing and preserving cultural heritage of Timok Valley Region. By relying on enthusiasm and volunteer work, 12 years of newspaper Timok, once the main newspaper of the Timok Valley Region, were digitized and more than 4700 digitized pages are now available online. In 2020, SKVER digitized more than 10.000 images from found photo negatives of two former factory-giants: Crystal Factory, and Leather and Textile Industrial Complex “Zaječar” which are all now available online. On invitation by Zaječar Initiative and Foundation Step Forward, SKVER created content for the website Discover Zaječar. The research focused on history of Zaječar important buildings, monuments, locations and the website is to be accessed via a QR code attached on the featured buildings, informing tourists and local citizens on the urban history of Zaječar.