• Six people sit around a rectangular table. There is a spotlight shining on the table; the space around it is in the dark.

    zpc01a-tom-janssen.jpeg

    Workshop documentation. Zone Collective (Kirila Cvetkovska and Megan Hoetger), Zoning Play Complex character workshop, 5 November 2022. Realized within the frame of The Hauntologists, an exhibition and public program curated by Julia Morandeira as part of the 2021–22 Fellowship in Situated Practice at BAK — basis
voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, Netherlands. Photo: Tom Janssen, courtesy of BAK.

  • Two people sit behind a long table, with several objects. The person on the right has their laptop open on the table. Two structures hang from the ceiling to the right of the table.

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    Kirila Cvetkovska (left) and Megan Hoetger (right). Workshop documentation. Zone Collective (Kirila Cvetkovska and Megan Hoetger), Zoning Play Complex character workshop, 5 November 2022. Realized within the frame of The Hauntologists, an exhibition and public program curated by Julia Morandeira as part of the 2021–22 Fellowship in Situated Practice at BAK — basis
voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, Netherlands. Photo: Tom Janssen, courtesy of BAK.

  • Five people sit around two rectangular tables, engaging in conversation. There is a spotlight shining on the table; the space around it is in the dark. Bowls, plates, mugs and cutlery are set on the table. A board with bread and dip is partially visible.

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    Julia Croft (left) and Yeukayishe Musariri (right). Workshop documentation. Zone Collective (Kirila Cvetkovska and Megan Hoetger), Zoning Play Complex character workshop, 5 November 2022. Realized within the frame of The Hauntologists, an exhibition and public program curated by Julia Morandeira as part of the 2021–22 Fellowship in Situated Practice at BAK — basis
voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, Netherlands. Photo: Tom Janssen, courtesy of BAK.

  • A person sits in tribute seating, wearing a headset and holding a plate. Another person walks behind them.

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    Antonella Fittipaldi. Workshop documentation. Zone Collective (Kirila Cvetkovska and Megan Hoetger), Zoning Play Complex character workshop, 5 November 2022. Realized within the frame of The Hauntologists, an exhibition and public program curated by Julia Morandeira as part of the 2021–22 Fellowship in Situated Practice at BAK — basis
voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, Netherlands. Photo: Tom Janssen, courtesy of BAK.

  • A person sits in tribute seating, with their left leg crossed. They are wearing headphones and holding a white cup. Around them, there are several installations hanging from above, mostly made from legos. Two of them have small cartoon eyes attached.

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    Elioa Steffen. Workshop documentation. Zone Collective (Kirila Cvetkovska and Megan Hoetger), Zoning Play Complex character workshop, 5 November 2022. Realized within the frame of The Hauntologists, an exhibition and public program curated by Julia Morandeira as part of the 2021–22 Fellowship in Situated Practice at BAK — basis
voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, Netherlands. Photo: Tom Janssen, courtesy of BAK.

  • Hanging installation, made from legos: at the bottom, a long red lego has been left horizontal. A brown and yellow lego with two eye cartoon stickers has been placed vertically slightly higher, in front. Behind it, other hanging structures are discernible, as well as a table with a few plates with food.

    zpc03d-tom-janssen.jpeg

    Workshop documentation. Zone Collective (Kirila Cvetkovska and Megan Hoetger), Zoning Play Complex character workshop, 5 November 2022. Realized within the frame of The Hauntologists, an exhibition and public program curated by Julia Morandeira as part of the 2021–22 Fellowship in Situated Practice at BAK — basis
voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, Netherlands. Photo: Tom Janssen, courtesy of BAK.

  • A small white porcelain bowl has several white paper strips with zig zag edges in it. Around it, there is a paper with

    zpc02b-tom-janssen.jpeg

    Workshop documentation. Zone Collective (Kirila Cvetkovska and Megan Hoetger), Zoning Play Complex character workshop, 5 November 2022. Realized within the frame of The Hauntologists, an exhibition and public program curated by Julia Morandeira as part of the 2021–22 Fellowship in Situated Practice at BAK — basis
voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, Netherlands. Photo: Tom Janssen, courtesy of BAK.

  • Table with three different printed materials, a pen, a white paper strip with zigzag edges and the edge of a plate. The printed materials are either white or black, and have text printed on.

    zpc02c-tom-janssen.jpeg

    Workshop documentation. Zone Collective (Kirila Cvetkovska and Megan Hoetger), Zoning Play Complex character workshop, 5 November 2022. Realized within the frame of The Hauntologists, an exhibition and public program curated by Julia Morandeira as part of the 2021–22 Fellowship in Situated Practice at BAK — basis
voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, Netherlands. Photo: Tom Janssen, courtesy of BAK.

  • Five people sit around a table. The person facing the camera gesticulates with their hands, while the others look in their direction. There is food on the table, as well as cutlery, crockery and other paper materials. Two people sit on the floor, also looking towards the person gesticulating.

    zpc04a-tom-janssen.jpeg

    Workshop documentation. Zone Collective (Kirila Cvetkovska and Megan Hoetger), Zoning Play Complex character workshop, 5 November 2022. Realized within the frame of The Hauntologists, an exhibition and public program curated by Julia Morandeira as part of the 2021–22 Fellowship in Situated Practice at BAK — basis
voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, Netherlands. Photo: Tom Janssen, courtesy of BAK.

  • A transparency sheet with handwritten notes is being projected on a tiled wall. The larger sentence, in red, reads:

    zpc04b-tom-janssen.jpeg

    Workshop documentation. Zone Collective (Kirila Cvetkovska and Megan Hoetger), Zoning Play Complex character workshop, 5 November 2022. Realized within the frame of The Hauntologists, an exhibition and public program curated by Julia Morandeira as part of the 2021–22 Fellowship in Situated Practice at BAK — basis
voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, Netherlands. Photo: Tom Janssen, courtesy of BAK.

A Neighborhood Zoning Play is an as yet unrealised radio play based upon histories of transnational cultural production circulating in and through (post-)socialist Europe. Working towards the eventual staging of this play, the Zoning Play Complex workshop emerged as a testing ground for a cast of characters-in-the-making, all emergent from a pantheon of ‘infrastructural specters’ that haunt technologies of organization and cultural policy. In the workshop, the characters met as cultural partners gathering at a dinner party to discuss their collective vision for a new center for heritage preservation.

With the theater space loosely annotated to suggest the presence of a dinner table, a parking lot and a bar, a map of potential character relations was set up for participants to engage. In the first part of the day, they identified the contours of the eight characters being activated – their material needs, psychic desires, social relations and personal behaviors. Then, in the second part of the day, the participants enacted a process of group decision-making. Choosing from different linguistic/conceptual/political registers of (non-)alignment made available to them on the workshop menu, they track the open contradictions that emerge within and between each of the characters. Through the dramaturgies of negotiation that ensue, both the participants and the characters enter and exit zones of solidarity, navigating the unevenness of structural conditions that touch us all.

Zone Collective is a collaborative research platform established in 2016 by independent cultural practitioner Kirila Cvetkovska and historian-curator Megan Hoetger as a space to intercede into historiographic conventions for understanding cultural production in geopolitical sites marked by their grey zone ‘border status(es).’

Zoning Play Complex was conceived and realized by Zone Collective with dramaturg/theatre director Biljana Radinoska and in conversation with designer Karoline Świeżyński. The workshop was the outcome of a yearlong research stream conducted during the 2021-2022 Fellowship in Situated Practice⁠(opens in a new tab) at BAK - basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, and was presented in the frame of The Hauntologists⁠(opens in a new tab), an exhibition and public program curated by Julia Morandeira. Special thanks to Irene Calabuch Mirón and Thomas Orbon for their vital production support, as well as to the workshop participants: Cristina Cochior, Julia Croft, Antonella Fittipaldi, Elioa Steffen, and Yeukayishe Musariri.