"How Soon is Now?", an exercise to imagine our provisional futures, brought together 10 cultural practitioners from 10 organisations across the so called Western Balkans - or as group rather prefers Untitled region - for a speculative imagination of their context and practices ten years from now, in the year 2018.

With the assumption that all (individuals and organizations) invited have developed over the last decade specific skills and qualities that stretch the possibilities of their present situation, we went into a collective brainstorm where will we be when/if the transition in these societies is over.

Edi Muka at HSiN, LjubljanaParticipants HSiN, LjubljanaAt Julija, Ljubljana: Albert Heta, Yane Calovski, Nebojsa MilikicTomislav Medak and participants at HSiN, LjubljanaDiscussion at HSiN, Ljubljana: Tomislav Medak, Davor Miskovic, Peter Lang, Ana Vujanovic, Alenka Gregoric, Antonia Majaca

Some images from the workshop session in Skuc Gallery on 12 May 2008.

Lost Highway Expedition Photo Book description

Lost Highway Expedition Photo Book is a selection of captioned photographs contributed by participants in the Lost Highway Expedition, which took place in August 2006 through the Western Balkans including the countries of the former Yugoslavia and Albania. The photo book contains approximately 240 pages filled with full color images and captions and a brief introduction. The photo book has 27 sections, one for each day of the expedition; each day is represented with 8 pages.

Jelena, Bojan and DusanAlessandro and VahidaSkopje summitPeter, Claudia, Laia Under this months’ simmering heat, about 28 participants gathered in Skopje for the second-in-line of Building Lost Highway workshops. Aim of the meeting was to draft entries to the Lexicon of Provisional Future(s); entries that come from or are being inspired by the so called ‘Western Balkans’. Previous to the meeting, the participants’ five teams travelled for three or more days towards Skopje, experiencing different routes, stories and cities to support their lexicon entries.

The trips included a travel along the edges of Macedonia, a ferry rides from Italy to Montenegro and Croatia and further detouring to Macedonia, a north - south Serbia section, to all in the end converge at Skopje summit on 17 and 18 July 2007. The summit was co-organised by Press to Exit and held in the beautiful XVI century Kurshumli An (Leaded Caravanserai) where Centre for Contemporary Art of Skopje is housed. Deep shades of this heavy stone building saved us from overheat and sun blast with over 40C!

From 14-16 July five parallel mobile mini conferences will move from a starting point somewhere in the Western Balkans, to arrive to Skopje for a two days summit on 17-18 July. Investigating the locally emerging concepts and speculating their impact on a wider context, their input will be brought together at this summit. The 'moving conferences' are formed by teams of artists, architects and theoreticians who will be contributing to the Lexicon for the Future. The teams self-organise their trip and stay during their travel, which means they can decide to spiral around, make a de-tour, or stay in one city to make a dense set of meetings (>).

During the summer and autumn 2007 a number of activities and events, following the Lost Highway Expedition of last year, are taking place. Through working sessions in the Western Balkans region, the project’s ‘sourcebook’ is collaboratively created and will be printed in a format of a manuscript. The main part of it is a lexicon of terms and (re)definitions imagining the Western Balkans as a vital and important source for the possible futures of Europe. From 14 – 19 July the second session of making the project’s 'source book' brings together about 25 participants, for a travel and two days summit in Skopje and to cotribute their entries to this 'Lexicon of Provisional Future(s)' (>).

Alenka Gregoric, the artistic director of Škuc Gallery, and responsible for one of the Lost Highway Expedition key nodes is setting up Lost Highway Exhibition this August in Ljubljana. All the expedition participants, as well as wider interested circle of artists, architects, and other practitioners are INVITED TO SEND IN PROPOSALS TO THIS OPEN CALL! The deadline is June 8, 2007. Here under read further for more info and backround.

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EXHIBITION FRAMEWORK:

TANGENT Rotterdam, introTANGENT Rotterdam, cushionsTANGENT Rotterdam, audineceTANGENT Rotterdam, Yane Here a couple of images from Tangent_Brotherhood event at V2. It was pretty dense in terms of talks and people.

The Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) presents
The Lost Highway Expedition
And Self-Organized Archive

Join the initiators and travelers of the Lost Highway Expedition during two workshops that consider the role of an archive in relationship to an expedition.

MIT archive workshop: Meg, Azra, Anna Neimark, Ulises, Carla Herrera...MIT presentations: Azra Aksamija and Ute Meta BauerMIT archive workshop, brainstorm: Khadija, archive taxonomy brainstormMIT archive workshop, folders

Thursday Oct. 26, 2-5 PM, CAVS

Performance: in front of Sarajevo train station. Drawing an interactive map of the Lost Highway Expedition with the mobile fountain.
24th of August 2006

Join the chat during the roundtable discussion about the Lost Highway Expedition at LMCC conference: Cities, Art and Recovery. http://www.europelostandfound.net/chatbox?autolaunch=1

Friday, September 15, 2006; 2:00PM - 4:00PM

or welcome in person to
http://www.lmcc.net/art/recovery/2006/panels.html

Resurgent Cities: On the Lost Balkan Highway with: Dragan Protic (Serbia), Marko Sancanin (Croatia), Yane Calovski (Macedonia) and Zoran Pantelic (Serbia) in conversation with Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss (Serbia/USA)

Place: Theresa Lang Community and Student Center at the New School, 55 West 13th St., 2nd floor
Limited seating. RSVP recommended

reserve your seat here: http://www.formassembly.com/forms/23452

I will make a group reservation for the student dorm in the Kruh Sv.Ante(see below address, prices and options).
This is the list for the group reservation in Sarajevo, please check if correct:

1.Pilar Oritz / Paola Velasone / Susanne Kass /22-23-24-25 / 3 x breakfast
2.Dionis Escosa / Vahida Ramujkic / 23-24 / 2x breakfast
3.Anna Mueller / Goran Rakic / 22-23-24 / 2x breakfast
4.Andi Mayer / Jaume Nualart / 1 x breakfast (for Jaume only?)
5.Kasper Akhoj / Stefan Pedersen / 22-23-24 / breakfast
6.Laia Solė / Giulia Fiocca / 22-23-24 / 2 x breakfast
7.Grozdana Šišović /Anna Sala / 22-23-24
8.Barbara Galassi / Ivan Kucina / 22-23-24
9.Hugo Lammerink / Arnold Schullman / 22-23-24-25 / 2 x breakfast

The rooms in this dorm have 2 beds, so zou will need to share or pay for two. If you are not on this list, please add your data in the following order

Underpass at the highway of Brotherhood and Unity in Zagreb

3th of August 2006

LHE Mala Sola: Mala Sola demolished!On Monday evening, 31 July LHE was visiting Metelkova and had a presentation of the history of the initiative by Nicolai Jeffs. Today we heard that Mala Sola, the exact space where we were got DEMOLISHED today!

Metelkov needs letter of support!
Our letter of support will be used as a support statement for Metelkova City.

I need to get the letter of support, with individuals signing in, as well as School of Missing Studies, ELF and SKUC Gallery (they agree so you can put in the SKUC Gallery), by tomorrow Thursday.

Sorry for the rush & thanks.
Marjetica
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LETTER OF SUPPORT:

On Monday, July 31, two days before demolition of the Mala Sola, the participants of the LHE Lost Highway Expedition http://europelostandfound.net/ were exactly there, at the location of the Mala Sola, to listen to the presentation by NiKolai Jeffs, one of the initiators of the Metelkova City, about the Metelkova City's past, present and the future. This was the highlight of what we understand is one of the most crucial bottom-up initiative of the citizens of Ljubljana since the Slovenian independence.

Photo by Ana Dzokic

LHe reader signaturesLHE reader frontToday in Ljubljana Lost Highway Expedition reader got launched - with texts on all the cities expedition is passing through and more. Thanks to all contributors, but especially SKUC - Alenka, Ministry - Helena and the designer - Ajdin! The readers will travel with us and you can get your copy in the city where you join in.

Vladicin HanVladicin Han - highway viaduct plan: plan by Suzana Stankovic - AleksicOn the way from Belgrade to Skopje the highway is passing through town of Vladicin Han. This is not just a hometown of many famous Gypsy brass bands, like Boban Markovic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boban_Marković and http://bobanmarkovic.calabashmusic.com/).
Vladicin Han is also the only place, after Belgrade that is 'cut' by the highway passing through its core. For those interested to see recent urban master plan and hear more about the town, landscape architect and urban designer Suzana Stankovic - Aleksic (living between Amsterdam and Vladicin Han), will be ready to tell us more on 10 August from 16-17h! If you want to take part, please sign by posting a comment.

KozaraBelow is the write-up from Metropolis July issue 2006.
[http://www.metropolis.com/]
"Informal networks are all the rage in certain antiestablishment architectural circles; loosely affiliated groups and individuals are seen as antidotes to out-of-control commercialism and nationalism. Later this summer you can join one such network, Europe Lost and Found, and witness its evolving "Lost Highway Expedition" in the Western Balkans (imagine The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test in various Slavic languages and degrees of broken English). Whether or not these networks have real impact is an open question, but being guided through former Yugoslavia by expatriate Serbian architects and members of the local counterculture s

Zagreb invitation: Invitation for LHE in Zagreb on 2 and 3 August. Image, construction of the highway of Brotherhood and Unity. By Marko Sancanin.
ONIMA KOJI CE BITI U ZAGREBU 02. I 03.08 SMJESI SE NEZABORAVAN DOGAĐAJ_
krdo poludjelih arhitekata, kulturnih aktivista i umjetnika iz Europe, krece iz Ljubljane autoputem "Bratstva i jedinstva" da bi se 02 i 03 zadrzali u Zagrebu, razgovarali o zagrebackom urbanizmu, neovisnoj kulturi i prije svega o autoputevima. Ova fascinacija autoputevima samo je paravan da se dobro zabavlja, putuje i upoznaju ljudi i gradovi duz spomenutog autoputa.
Premda je ovogodisnja faza Projekta "Lost Highway Expedition" pod utjecajem ljeta pribjegla neformalnom druzenju, razgovorima i prezentacija, naredna faza uslijedit ce ubrzo potom i bavit ce se urbanim istrazivanjem i kulturalnim studijama te svim drugim aktivnosti koje ce proizaci iz upoznavanja ljudi i mjesta tijekom puta.