Copper Grounds: Melting Point of the City of Bor, Serbia

Abstract

Abstract: This paper will question the condition of transforming and deforming of the city, both in spatial terms and in relation to duration, arguing that such transformations are layered, synthetical and, above all, not linear but elastic (reversible). It addresses two relating issues: the space of a city and the space of a motion picture. The cityscape of Bor will be discussed through recent films - Tilva Roš (The Red Hill; 2010), Beli, beli svet (White, White World; 2010) and a documentary Beli, beli Bor (White, White Pine; 2011) - depicting a particular social and physical reality within different forms of urban life. The movies are taken as case studies for establishing theoretical ground for architectural position. They offer a defined visual and philosophical interpretation of the openness of the ground: the perception of protagonists with a shifted relation towards space and time anticipating the possibilities in the social, economic and physical constraints of declining industrial and urban landscape of the settlement of Bor. The paper will be structured through three parallel topics: Scenography of shrinking, Filters of the ground and Elasticity of urban life.