Place
Mijakovići is a village of about fifty houses in the hills above Vareš. Traditional Bosnian architecture, increasingly rare. Few permanent residents. Sheep, cows, chickens pass by the house. Wildflowers in summer, snow that stays for weeks in winter.
Nine hundred meters from here stands Bobovac, the capital of the medieval Bosnian kingdom, the last stronghold before falling to the Ottoman Empire in 1463. Five and a half centuries later, the ruins still stand on the hilltop, visible from the yard. With its fall, a distinct culture was severed, a trajectory we will never know. Bobovac is not nostalgia for what was. It is a marker of interruption, and a point from which to begin again.
The mountain above the village is called Perun, after the Slavic god of thunder. A hiking trail passing by the house leads to the summit. The sign reads: Zvjezdane Staze.
Thename
Zvjezdane Staze. Star paths. The name of a trail, a name we did not invent. It was here before us, nailed to a barn.
In the former Yugoslavia, Zvjezdane Staze was the translation of Star Trek. The coincidence carries meaning. Star Trek was a vision of a future free from scarcity, war, and nationalism. A vision in which difference is richness. A vision in which exploration of the unknown is an ethical imperative of encounter with the Other.
The name remains as a reminder: this is a space of exploration, a space in which we investigate whether it is possible to live differently.
Principles
Zvjezdane Staze operates on principles that were not invented for this space. They are inherited from a tradition that existed and that was, perhaps prematurely, abandoned.
Sliding scale
The price of a stay is not fixed. Each person pays according to their means, within a range. Those who pay more make it possible for others to come. Economic inequality is a fact. It need not be a law that dictates who has access and who does not.
Samodoprinos
Part of all funds goes to the village. An old Yugoslav concept: collective financing of collective needs. The village assembly decides how the money is used. Material solidarity with the place that receives us.
Zbor
The assembly. Direct democracy in its oldest form. The community gathers, deliberates, decides. A model that seems archaic, and may be more relevant than ever.
Finances are public. See Transparency.
We do not work with everyone. See the Code of Ethics.
Thepiano
There is a Petrof upright in the house. It has not been tuned in decades. It will not be.
My father bought it during the war, in Leipzig, with almost the last money we had. He died a few years later. I decided then: no tuning. Let it follow its own path.
It was in Tuzla for over twenty years before arriving in Mijakovići. Artists have recorded on it since. Roman Stolyar named his album Detuned by War. The phrase fits.
This piano is a metaphor. For post-Yugoslav existence. For everything that survives while carrying within it the traces of what happened. For the refusal to be "corrected" according to external standards of correctness. The piano has its path. So do we.
Witness
People come to Zvjezdane Staze for all kinds of reasons. Composers, sound artists, writers, researchers, visual artists. Each with their own motives, their own needs.
What they take with them, almost without exception, is surprise that such a place exists at all. And that it exists here, where it would be least expected. This surprise may be the most important thing the space produces: the knowledge that it is possible. That somewhere, in a small space, different rules apply. That the experiment is underway.
There are no requirements to produce. No expectation that a stay will result in something measurable. If artists wish to share their work, whether in Mijakovići or through collaborations elsewhere, we welcome it. If not, that is equally valid.
Practical
The residency runs year round. Stays range from five nights to a month, sometimes longer.
The house accommodates up to eight people. Private rooms, shared spaces, two kitchens, a studio. In the yard, old Bosnian fruit trees: cherry, plum, sour cherry, pear, walnut. Some have been here for decades.
Equipment
Recording studio with mixer, audio interface, monitors, field recorder. Yamaha digital piano. The Petrof. Video and lighting gear. Library in several languages. If you need something specific, ask in advance.
Accessibility
The house is not wheelchair accessible. Steep hillside, uneven ground, upper floor rooms. Contact us to discuss specific needs.
Languages
English, German, BCS (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian), Turkish. Most communication in English. We help with translation for local interactions.
Behindthis
Zvjezdane Staze is a programme of Fondacija Prostor.