From December 5 to 7, the art project “City as Stage: Floating University” will take place in Skopje, featuring a lecture, workshop, and performative theatre tour across various locations in the city. This interdisciplinary initiative, exploring the connection between nature, culture, and urban space, is organized in collaboration with the German Embassy and supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
The event kicks off on Thursday, December 5, with a public lecture at the amphitheater of the Faculty of Architecture, delivered by Christine Laz and David Neil Morsi from Berlin’s Floating University. The lecture, focusing on spatial experiments and the relationship between nature and culture in rainwater retention basins, will run from 18:00 to 19:30.
On Friday, December 6, a workshop will be held for students of the Faculty of Architecture at the University “St. Cyril and Methodius” from 16:00 to 20:00. The workshop, led by Laz and Morsi, will explore the theme “The Future of Cinema in the Railway Building.”
The main event of the project is “The City is Public #1”, a walking tour on Saturday, December 7, from 12:00 to 18:00. This performative tour, led by architect and artist Filip Jovanovski, is structured as a theatrical experience in four acts. It begins at the “Goce Delchev” student dormitory and includes a public performative lunch with the Floating University at the Railway Building and Faculty of Architecture, followed by an exploration of modernism, concluding at the Albanian National Theater. The tour is open to the public with prior reservation.
The project is part of the “City as Stage: Performing Public Space” platform, an educational initiative aimed at exploring public spaces through interdisciplinary art. The research and performance interventions produced through the FRU organization (Faculty of Things Not Learned) have previously engaged with iconic Skopje locations such as the Railway Building, Universal Hall, and Macedonia Square.
This project also connects various art forms, including visual art, architecture, theater, video, film, and spatial installations, aiming to create new perspectives on public space and its connection to performance art. It builds on previous work by Filip Jovanovski, focusing on how space, architecture, and theater intersect to form unique performative experiences in public spaces.
The project is organized as part of the initiative “We don’t want to be stars (but parts of constellations)”, a collaboration with the Estonian Contemporary Art Museum and supported by the European Union, with additional partnerships from academic institutions and art organizations across Europe.
