Operation:city is a ten-day event in Zagreb, Croatia, featuring a variety of cultural activities that took place in an abandoned industrial complex in the city.

Operation:city was an experiment through which organisers wanted to see how different subjects from the cultural scene can function in the same space; they wanted to explore how different programmes, different audiences and different needs for space can be combined.

Operation:City builds upon the project Invisible Zagreb, which Platforma 9,81 initiated in 2003. The goal was to identify the potential to experiment with new typologies of public spaces in places that have lost their primary function and are neglected by urban policies.

Invisible Zagreb has also indicated the transitional transformations that left their spatial mark on the city and therefore demand urban strategies that alter the habitual planning models and places them in a wider developmental perspective. The most radical transformations took place in the industrial zones and in the areas of rapid infrastructure development which, although located in a wider centre of the city, remain unused and left to decay.

The temporary appropriation of these spaces through various cultural programmes can close the void left in the transition process and catalyse the vision of development by considering the specific character of each location. Through the transformation of unused spaces into dynamic urban zones, culture becomes a catalyst of change.

If we leave aside the spatial aspects, and consider the development of the independent culture as a whole, which is best demonstrated by the independent scene in Zagreb, we can conclude that a significant change of context took place. After a period of growth and relevant national and international achievements, what becomes increasingly manifest is the basic need for structural transformations that should provide the stability for independent initiatives and their activities through new financing models and better conditions for production.

This agenda was publicly discussed in spring 2005, when the organisations in the project Zagreb – Cultural Kapital of Europe 3000, clubs Mochvara, Attack! and mama, and Croatian Youth Network initiated a process of public debate, in which the issues of independent culture and youth in Zagreb were discussed in the context of the city's development. Lack of space for activities was idenified as the fundamental problem for independent culture and youth initiatives.

The advocacy process resulted in a declaration signed by all the relevant political parties. One of the key demands was the adaptation for use of one of the existing spaces in central Zagreb and the establishment of a joint multifunctional centre for independent culture and a macro-regional centre for youth that could accommodate specific spatial demands for joint activities of independent cultural and youth organisations. In this sense, Operation:City contibutes to further public discussion of the issues and works on the promotion of partnership between the independent cultural sector and youth sector in the city of Zagreb.

The organisation of the temporary settlement was a collaboration by [BLOK] – Local Base for Refreshment of Culture and Platforma 9,81. The programme and activities were the product of a collaboration between all major initiatives and organisations active in Zagreb’s broader independent cultural scene that moved all their activities to those locations in September 2005.

Some 50 events, organised by 25 cultural organisations, artist organisations and initiatives, took place throughout the ten days of the Operation:City. The venue was opened for members of the public (both during the day and the evening) offering various activities and functioning as a new meeting place. Two festivals took place in the framework of the Operation:City – Touch Me and the Urban Festival.

Here you can find programme of the Operation:City: http://www.operacijagrad.org/en

Operation:City was planned as a ten-day, whole-day manifestation. The venue was open to the public from 11am to 11pm. Organisers created a programme that followed this framework. They organised four living rooms with workshops and reading areas. Some people were working there on a new issue of a magazine. Exhibitions were open during the day. The idea was that the whole Badel factory complex would function as a parallel city - a place where it would be possible to transfer the cultural life and entertainment of the city.

BLOK and Platforma 9,81 provided funds for promotion, technical aspects and equipment, as well as providing an organisational team and assistants, security, cleaning and adapting of space.

Donors included: Ministry of Culture of Republic of Croatia, City of Zagreb – City Office for Culture, INA – Oil Industry Inc., Čistoća d.o.o., Zagrebačke Veletržnice d.d., Hrvatska elektroprivreda d.d.

The project was supported by the Academy for Educational Development (AED) with funds from the US Agency for International Development.

The Operation:City was part of the project Zagreb – Cultural Kapital of Europe.

Zagreb – Cultural Kapital of Europe 3000 took place in the framework of Relations (http://www.projekt-relations.de) - a project initiated by the German Federal Cultural Foundation.

Kontakt. The Arts and Civil Society Program of Erste Bank Group in Central Europe (http://www.kontakt.erstebankgroup.net)

Sponsors: ARTO – Advertising Billboards, Hotel LAGUNA, EVISTAS, TOI TOI, Securitas ZOLOTA, Vodatel/e-tv, AGIT d.o.o., EUROKRAN, Natura Croatica.

Partners provided funds for their programmes (travel costs, acommodation and per diems for artists, additional equipment for projects etc.).

Approximate budget: 200,000 EUR.