Why are hospitality and opening the house to the needs of the community important to us?

Since 2018, through collective work within HEKLER, nurturing a critical and experimental examination of hospitality and conflict, between Serbia and the USA we have organized spaces for meetings, collective studies, exhibitions and events, screenings, publications, residencies and actions. During this period, we built an interdisciplinary network of collaborators, collectives and organizations from nearly 50 countries around the world. In New York, we opened our rented house, where we were living at the time, for gatherings reflecting on our multiple positions, including immigrant ones. Cross-cultural exchanges have enabled the preservation of tradition in a feminist spirit, in which hospitality and celebration are not shaped by patriarchy, gender roles, binaries, and divisions of labor.

In the context of growing polarization, alienation and disposability of life under capitalism, this practice of hospitality shows to be radical, necessary for reflecting on the paradoxes and overcoming the contradictions in which we find ourselves as humanity.

Thinking about more sustainable spaces outside the centers, the necessity of independent and inclusive spaces of exchange are the drivers behind the idea of returning to Ljubanje and creating the Four Waters Meeting Point through the adaptation of existing properties.

We look forward to holding space for future summer schools and gatherings aimed towards collective study, care and well-being, sustainability, social, economic and environmental responsibility while strengthening regional and international solidarity.

If you wish to work together, feel free to contact us.