Atamer Boz, attendee of last year’s local workshop happened in Bilecik by EASATurkey, participated EASASerbia:Reality international organization to inhale true spirit of EASA. During these less affected by pandemic days, he wrote down his experiences for us who couldn’t have attended an international physical event for a long time.

Right before my EASA adventure I had doubts on whether or not to attend. I had questions such as “Is it worth it? Can I handle staying with 160 people in same sports hall?”. During the journey I have read workshop introductions related to theme and speculated about how they will be conducted/executed.

I found myself in the reality of Kragujevac town, under the heat of Serbia and approx. 2 hours away from Belgrade. The helper I met brought me to reality among people carrying food boxes, participants organizing presentation space and confused people like me. It is followed by fifteen days of shared tables, collective thinking, debates; parties after tiresome days and lots of fun. The workshop I chose was Giant Puppet workshop by Joe Ridealgh and Polly North. First days of workshop we discussed why police force is afraid of puppets and how this “not strictly designated/defined” way of protesting is being used by protestors in public space. Moreover, we discussed methodologies and exhibition space for the puppet we want to built.

The discussions were mainly focused on how contractors intervene creative process of architects and process results in promotional buildings and many more examples of how capital power manipulates architecture. Participants from Malta and Poland supported this argument with how contractors design box like, dark spaces and sell those ironically with slogan ‘live in luxury’. I have mentioned recent forest fires and unfortunate government declarations, as a result, we decided to design a contractor, hungry for money puppet, wrapping its arms around the city and captures people. In the following days, we created the face and hands of the puppet out of waste cardboards using the technique papier-mache.

Photography:EASASerbia

Meanwhile, we did conversations, seminars and debates every day and partied every night. When I think about EASA, what I loved the most is the culture of working and producing together which is, for me, hard to experience at my university. This situation may lead doubtful approaches towards our future steps but alternative education or non-education systems open new doors by discussing and creating together.

As days passing by my sense of belonging increased and my concerns from first days disappeared. We wrote, draw, sang all together and ate from same bowl. We swam in the same lake, discussed similiar issues around the world. While workshops are about to come to end, we started to wait the outcomes. Finally we managed to create a greedy giant puppet with sparkling eyes. We started to march towards town park with our giant puppet and banners saying “your real home awaits, soon u’ll live in luxury.” Locals joined us with whistles, claps and honks. While coming to end of these 15 days which passed rapidly and made us question the reality, everyone was pleased with the process. Memories and new friendships are what we brought back to home. I invite each architecture student to be part of EASA culture.