The Diary Manifesto
“The Diary Manifesto” is a sound work that was presented 2022 at Manifesta 14 in Pristina, Kosovo. It is a collaborative project between the Philipsz class and students from the Pristina School of Art – the Radio International Collective. The work was broadcast by radio signal from the main exhibition venue, the “Grand Hotel Pristina”. The receiver was the “K67” kiosk set up in the central square. The kiosk, famous in the Balkans, was designed by the Slovenian architect Saša J. Mächtig. It can still be found in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, but hardly ever on the streets of Pristina. The fact that it has become deeply inscribed in the city’s cultural memory is also due to the fact that it was promoted as a meeting place in the 1960s. Kosovar architect Ilir Dalipi had a K67 restored and hosted the Radio International Collective in it.
The work “The Diary Manifesto” poses questions about the self-determination of the “female body”. The feminine is traditionally ascribed the domestic sphere. Yet it is precisely this sphere that is existential for the public sphere. The work negotiates intimacy in the public sphere, thoughts that are only intended for the writer become audible. A powerful text that spins its reflections from illness to the right to abortion to vulnerability. These refer to a feminist discourse that reveals the links between capitalism and patriarchy. The basis for the work is the concept of “sonic intimacy”. Intimacy in this sense arises from relationships, i.e. it is relational. More than a connecting feeling, intimacy refers to an active process through shared engagement.
