Naming of the Bridge: Rosa Plaveva and Nakie Bajram

Naming of the Bridge: Rosa Plaveva and Nakie Bajram

"Naming of the Bridge: Rosa Plaveva and Nakie Bajram" (2004-2006) was provoked by an information that was published in the daily newspaper Utrinski Vesnik in 2004, where I read the following information: “Every interested party, even individual citizens, may send proposals to the Commission for Naming Streets, Squares, Bridges and Other Infrastructural Objects, and with no time limit to the handing over of such proposals”. That same year, Suzana Milevska, the curator, mentioned a very interesting event from the beginning of the XX century. The event took place in Skopje in the home of the Socialist Rosa Plaveva. The reason for gathering was the unveiling of the Moslem woman. The Turk, Nakie Bajram, the school teacher, took part in the gathering as well.
I decided to submit a request to the abovementioned Commission for naming the newly built bridge in the centre of the city with the names of those two fellow-citizens, Rosa Plaveva and Nakie Bajrami. The idea for naming the bridge was also related to an obvious separation of the city especially in the last decade, into southern and northern, Christian and Moslem, Macedonian and Albanian. My idea was through naming of the bridge with those two courageous women from different backgrounds, to stimulate the communication between those two parts of the city. After I submitted my proposal I was informed that the Commission in question was indeed formed and functioned outside legal regulation. The bill about the jurisdiction and the function of this Commission had been prepared but it had not yet been reviewed by the parliament. I realized that my proposal would end up forgotten in the archive of the City Council. My next decision was to publish my proposal in a relevant printed medium so as people could find out about this event and get encouraged by my initiative. I also organized an informal meeting with one of the councilors a month before the official opening of the bridge, and I found out that my proposal is too provocative to be discussed or accepted by the City Council.
This entire process consisted of: formal and informal meetings, research, photo and written documentation, aroused many questions and conclusions regarding the role of the citizens and their civil rights perceived by the state and the political structures.

The project was presented, for the first time, as video installation, in the frame of the event "Art Under Construction: the Balkans in Context" in the Foundation for Women’s Art in London in June, 2006.