HEKLER is an artist-run platform and transnational community of artists, cultural workers and activists that foster critical and experimental examination of hospitality and conflict. We merge artistic, pedagogical, publishing and organizing strategies centering liberatory potential of collaborative and collective work. We celebrate collective rehearsal which weaves together transnational positionalities and radical imagination towards life-affirming future.

a: heklati (verb, Serbo-Croatian) - to crochet; 

b: heklati (verb, Serbo-Croatian, slang) - to shoot from a Heckler & Koch assault rifle; to speak rapid fire;

c: a heckler (noun, Eng.) - a person who interrupts a performer or public speaker with derisive or aggressive comments or abuse; a disruption.

Hospitality and conflict are tightly intertwined. Their knots, when untied, reveal complex societal and governing dysfunctionalities, as well as vital ways to overcome them. When a person is unwelcome, turned away, or attacked because of their values and identities, it can be said that the host place, country, or person is inhospitable. It is exactly those indifferent or antagonistic conditions that lead to forced migration, psychosis, violence, and death, potentially for both the host and guest. Hospitality is an antidote to these conflicts. The existential act of hosting requires recognition and trust. It requires openness to feel comfortable, to feel vulnerable, and to welcome disagreement in order to co-create a space of extended intimacy where concepts of belonging and ownership converge.

HEKLER is an artist-run platform that fosters the embodiment and critical examination of hospitality and conflict through collaborative programming, pedagogy, residencies, and archiving. The word “hekler” derives from the Serbo-Croatian verb, heklati. Its formal meaning, to crochet, is appropriated in slang speech to reference the act of shooting bullets from a Heckler & Koch assault rifle, as well as to speak quickly, or rapid fire. An additional level of meaning is given by the homophone in English, heckler, describing a person who interrupts a performer or public speaker; signifying a disruption. Cross-culturally, crocheting and knitting are done in groups mostly, if not exclusively, by women. These self-organized performative actions of coding became communal spaces for sharing, healing, and conspiring against oppressive regimes. In this lineage, HEKLER’s intent is to examine the symbiotic relationship between hospitality and conflict by providing intimate and public collaborative educational environments. 

Who is HEKLER ?

  • HEKLER is an artist-run platform and transnational community of artists, cultural workers and activists that foster critical and experimental examination of hospitality and conflict. We merge artistic, pedagogical, publishing and organizing strategies centering liberatory potential of collaborative and collective work. We celebrate collective rehearsal which weaves together transnational positionalities and radical imagination towards life-affirming future. It is initiated by artists Nataša Prljević, Joshua Nierodzinski, and Jelena Prljević.

Collaborators

  • An individual, a self-defined organization or collective body that is actively involved in the development of programming and/or events towards practicing different methodologies of collective work. Collaboration and cooperation can include, but not limited to, mediating and facilitation, administration, promotion, installation, archiving, providing space and fundraising.

  • HEKLER is not affiliated with any religious or political groups or organizations. It is an entity that encompasses and weaves together a range of perspectives.

Goals

  • Build a rhizomatic, self-organizing network of individuals and collectives across disciplines, ethnicities, and geographies in order to generate alternative educational environments where presentation, discussion, and cross-pollination of ideas relevant to contributing political contexts can take place.

  • Create an open source platform (currently HEKLER website), as an archive of readings, podcasts, interviews, documentation, and reviews of events that inform a better understanding of historic and current systems of power and oppression. The goal is to make the symbiotic relationships between these mechanisms palpable and visible. HEKLER always welcomes suggestions and contributions that will inform this archive.

  • Fortify and expand the following values: collaboration - solidarity - cooperation - creative accountability - visibility of labor - collective resistance/resilience - intersectionality - rhizomatic distribution of resources.

Programs

HEKLER MEDIUM is a collaborative program that facilitates round-table discussions, gatherings and exhibitions, which examine the origins, mutations, and consequences of contemporary conflicts through interdisciplinary lens.

HEKLER HOST brings together 2+ proponents to create a 3 hour menu of programming that can feature food, music, exhibition, performance, and spoken word, with a focus on community building and archiving through hospitality.

HEKLER ASSEMBLY is a transnational space for cultural workers to share, discuss and collectively imagine equitable ways instituting based on the principles of self-organizing, community care, critical thinking, political education, and healing as commons. Initiated during global pandemic in 2020.

As a part of HEKLER HOST programing artists, curators, and writers are invited to participate in Summer School and residency program in Serbia.

Publications  

Important part of our practice are publications in form of zines, artist books and catalogues. Their shape and content vary depending of participants and collective focus. All publications are made available online in PDF format here.


Funding

The work we do is dependent on our daily jobs and collective effort.
All your contributions are tax-deductible through our fiscal host Open Collective where you can place your one-time, monthly, or yearly donation.