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v.a.: BLOK70: Translations
The Belgrade market in Blok 70 stages a remarkable convergence of Chinese shopkeepers, war refugees and Roma deportees from Germany. Ultra-red invites five artists to compose original tracks using the sounds of Blok 70. Featuring Octex (Ljubljana), Vuneny (Mostar), Belgradeyard Soundsystem's PoS (Belgrade) and artists from Zagreb and Sarajevo.
The entire album is available for free download at the following link:
http://www.ultrared.org/publicrecord/archive/2-02/2-02-007/2-02-007.html
In the summer of 2004, Ultra-red co-founder Dont Rhine and England's Elliot Perkins traveled to Belgrade, Serbia accompanying Ultra-red member Manuela Bojadžijev from Kanak Attak and NextGENDERation researcher Rutvica Andrijašević. Conducting a militant sound investigation, Ultra-red came to the marketplace Blok 70 where 300 shops set the stage for a remarkable convergence of Chinese migrant shopkeepers, Serbian shoppers, and Roma workers.
At the center of the marketplace's culture, a group of young Serbian women work as curators of communication, translating for Chinese business-owners, Serbian customs officials, and customers. From their work as advocates for their migrant employers, the women revealed to Ultra-red a profound and complex analysis of everyday life precariousness in a society struggling with xenophobia and racism.
In tribute to the translators at Blok 70, Ultra-red asked five artists to compose tracks from sounds recorded at the marketplace. Varied stylistically, tracks range from deep ambient techno, paranoid glitch, to progressive rock jam. BLOK70:TRANSLATIONS also has an exclusive Ultra-red bonus track.
BLOK70:TRANSLATIONS is available for free download at Ultra-red's PUBLIC RECORD web archive. Selected with the help of Zagreb-based free digital publishing label EGOBOO.bits (www.egoboobits.net), artists translating Blok 70 include Octex (Ljubljana, Slovenia), Oticon (Zagreb, Croatia), Vuneny (Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Piece of Shhh (Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro), Unicomplex (Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina), and Blok 70 team member Elliot Perkins from England.
BLOK70:TRANSLATIONS is a part of TRANSIT MIGRATION. TRANSIT MIGRATION is part of "Projekt Migration", a project initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation (Kulturstiftung des Bundes) in cooperation with DOMiT e.V. (Documentation Centre and Museum on Migration from Turkey) and the Kölnischer Kunstverein.