Other

»Other« is a conceptual publication made up of fragments of random conversations in public spaces of former Yugoslavia, an extension of Maja Milić’s research in experimental autoethnography (and its intersection with found footage).



I always wondered who “they” were when we talked about social issues or politics, about “the system”. We still talk like this, all of us. “They”– the people in power? Or “they” – the people who are spatially distant? Or, “they” – the people who we don’t understand? Or, “they” – the people of another time? They – the Others. In all cases they don’t know something we know, we have something revealing to say about them. I can’t stop wondering - how far in any terms (spatial, temporal, material status) we must be to consider us here distant enough to say they are somewhere there, out of reach. We don’t know each other. Or, we draw a line between each other. We close our circle and everyone left out is the other one.

As I watch them unfold, I admit, I don’t know them. Are they we? It all depends on how I identify myself – as a nation, as all of people, as the people who live now – where is(n’t) my border? — Maja Milić